please help? doctors have no answers

Posted , 6 users are following.

i am 23 years old a married mother of two and have always been very healthy. 2 weeks ago i was cooking dinner when i became very light headed and blacked out . when i came too i had body tremors tight chest and fast beating heart. i was taken to hospital via ambulance. they didnt know what was wrong i was hypertensive , tachycardic , low blood pressure and abnormal heart beat. they did ecg, chest xrays, echo bloods you name it. and all came back normal. my doctor thinks it could be svt. but apparently its hard to capture an espisode. its been 2 weeks now i constantly have a tight chest and feel like i cant breath . but at random times it will become worse and i will get body tremors a warm sensation threw my body and i cant breath. i still have no answers and cant deal with this anymore i cant moved out of bed ive been to the hospital 4 times since and they say they cant do anymore test as they have all been done. what do i do? does this seem like svt? help i want my life back

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  • Posted

    Sorry to hear about this. I have had similar type stuff going on without answers as well. I would request a 48 hour holter monitor if it's happening frequently or an event (30) day monitor to wear. My palpitations are so random I haven't been able to catch mine either. Doctors kept trying to tell me it was panic/anxiety. It's not! Maybe request an echocardiogram.
    • Posted

      Thank you for your reply they have done an echocardiogram and it came back normal . I currently have a 24hr holter on at home and then have a 24hr bp monitor going on when I get this one taken off tomorrow . I just don't know wether I am freaking myself out so much that it is anxiety or if it is svt I just don't know
    • Posted

      Have you found any answers for yours ? How do you deal with these symptoms ? I am lost and feel like I am constantly having a heart attack
    • Posted

      I started with random palpitation at 5 months pregnant and then had them maybe once a month until my daughter was 5 months old and all the sudden I got lightheaded dizzy nauseous my heart started sputtering and finally caught rythum and was beating fast. I to this day get rushes of heat through my body and have starts going up in my head. I've had so many tests with no answers. I get chest pains daily since it happened. I got on an anxiety medicine to help a little, but mainly after 10 months I'm sorta used to all the scary feelings. I've had to just tell myself that if its my time then it is. I've gone to the dr an ER s I've tried. My cardiologist at one time said that if we don't catch anything we might just have to wait until it gets bad enough. I think about it 24/7. I'm only 29 with two kids. To young!
    • Posted

      I really feel for you . You are very strong to be dealing with this. My children aged 3 and 5 have had to go stay with family while I was in hospital and are only coming home tomorrow as I will have help witj my mother in law staying as I cannot drive them to school while I feel like this and can hardly get out of bed . It breaks my heart and I have been in tears for the last few days as it is so hard not being in normal routine and being with my babies
  • Posted

    I have had 2 echoes several ekgs 2 48 hour monitors, 1 event monitor. I even had my carotid arteries checked and chest ct with dye and all normal. I need an angiogram to rule out blockages in the heart or coronary arteries but they won't do it unless they have proof you need it.
    • Posted

      Maybe a conduction issue. Arrhythmia. My dr is now sending me to a neurologist... I don't see tha finding the answer, but at this point I guess it won't hurt. I hope you get answers. This last year has made it hard to enjoy life and my family.
    • Posted

      Thank you so much for responding to my discussion it's so hard to talk to friends and family as they all want answers as much as I do but it makes it very emotional . I'm just hoping it doesnt stop me living my life in the mean time . It's very frustrating to be in so much pain but being told their is no medical evidence to say their is something seriously wrong
    • Posted

      Yea I agree. Luckily mine isn't much pain. Just scary and weird. Did they check for an infection around your pericardium? ( sack around the heart) I would think the echo would show that... Yea all family wants answers and doesn't fully understand how hard it is for us emotionally. I'm just trying to enjoy being a stay at home mom with my 1 and 4 year old and hoping that if it happens again my heart doesn't stop.
    • Posted

      If your heart rates increases you can help lower it my coughing really hard or baring down like you are pushing out a baby.
    • Posted

      Enjoy your babies while their young little life scares makes you realise how short life can be . And yes that's the scary thing not knowing if one time it will be more seriouse but fingers crossed not and we will be fine
    • Posted

      I will definitely let you know if I get any answers. Good luck to you and as hard as it is try to keep your mind busy and really research SVT and anxiety/panic attacks so that you can distinguish which one is going on. You will get adrenaline surges and cold and clammy if it's anxiety.
  • Posted

    Hello Amy, sounds like you're having a bit of a rough time.

    I'm a 56 year old man who had SVT for about 20 years until it was (touch wood!) eliminated by an ablation 3 years ago. I had it for a good few years before it was properly diagnosed after finally being captured on a machine in hospital.

    Others here with SVT might have had some of the other symptoms you mentioned, but personally I never fainted and rarely had a tightness in the chest unless the SVT episode had lasted for an usually long time (e.g. over an hour). I have no medical expertise whatsoever, but I would guess that chest tightness for the length of time you mention is not mainly due to SVT.

    I hope you don't mind me asking, but was your everyday life calm or stressful before all this started?

    The reason I ask this is because I once had what in old money was called a 'nervous breakdown' and some of your symptoms and general anxiety remind me of that.

     

  • Posted

    Amy, sorry you are going thru this.  You might want to request a 30 day event monitor.  That's what I wore.  More opportunity to catch the episodes so they can find out if they are SVT's.  It's strange how sometimes my SVT's make me feel extrememely faint and other's don't.  The first couple times I had them that was my first symptom.  I felt almost like I was detached from my body.  Everything felt and sounded so strange. Kinda like when you are drugged for surgery or something.  I felt that way and I felt like I was "fading" out from the world or something.  It was terrifying for me.  Then the second time I felt this way I measured my pulse and it was 155 so I knew something was going on.  I called an ambulance twice to come get me because I seriously thought I was dying.  The ER doctor told me that when you heart beats really fast that can make you feel that way. I take a low dose beta blocker now and rarely have them.  I also learned how to stop them by "bareing down" like I'm having a bowel movement.  It really helps me to "break" the SVT.  I know it's really scary when you heart does strange things.  They sent me into a panic attack many times.  I hope you get a diagnosis soon.  If it is SVT then remember it is not a "death sentence".  Medication can help control it or ablation is a cure for many people.  Wish you the best.
  • Posted

    Amy,

    I also wanted to mention that this condition can cause anxiety. So it could be that you have anxiety because you are having heart issues. I don't think you said that you had anxiety, but I just wanted to mention that. You aren't crazy. Somtimes you might feel like you are, but you aren't. SVT can take a long time to diagnose, so hang in there.

    I also want to say to you and Colie that I thought I had SVT, but it actually turned out to be IST or Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia. Google it and see if your symptoms align. It is a form of SVT and concidered an arrythmia, but there is no abnormal heartbeat and therefore the monitors can't capture it. I also had chest pain randomly, fatigue after some episodes, light headness, dizzyness, and the feeling that I was going to pass out.

    IST has only been recognized for about 30 years and many medical professionals still don't have any knowledge about it. Basically it's when youre resting heart rate is over 100 and when you do anything, it shoots up. My resting heartrate is not over 100 though. It's around 80-90, but if I stand up or excersize or walk out to the car, I can get an "episode." But when it first started it didn't happen all the time, I just had episodes every 6 months and then one day I had an episode and it happened all the time. I hope this helps you both. Good luck!

    • Posted

      Totally not hijacking the thread, just though I would respond! My heart rate only shoots if my symptoms give me anxiety. Spiked heart rate isn't something I get. Since working out my resting rate is 45-52. My big thing is the palpitations etc but I will definitely look into IST. Thanks!

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