Posted 8/4/2014 2:58 PM (GMT 0)
I have steadily worsening paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. Lately I've been having right sided chest pain with bouts, both short and long, usually just after, and sometimes by itself.
Today while riding my bike not all that hard, but a little out of breath, I had one of my better attacks. The fact that I was already out of breath and have asthma aggravated it. It's usually hard to breathe or impossible to breathe fast enough during these attacks. After the attack the right side of my chest ached and the pain often spread down my upper arm, and my stomach felt queasy, for several hours. Also when I first got up to walk over to the ambulance, my legs seemed to be made out of lead. When I got out at the hospital my legs still weren't steady. None of this is normal for a bout of PSVT.
First, what should they actually have done about this in the ER? They spent two hours trying hard to pretend I made up the whole thing and also made up the fact that I have PSVT, which was diagnosed by a cardiologist whose identity they didn't even care to know.
I did finally manage to get them to take it seriously enough to admit me and a cardiologist is supposed to see me tomorrow. What workup should I expect now?
I have already had an echocardiogram, which was normal, and a stress test, which was carefully done in such a way that I was never allowed to even get out of breath - both normal.
I understand that the causes of PSVT are an electrical abnormality, and ischemia. I know that the procedure to look for an electrical abnormality is the same procedure that would fix it. What is/are the procedures to look for a blocked blood vessel, or, probably more ephemeral, a spastic blood vessel?
Thanks!
Dora