What is the longest SVT episode you’ve ever had and how fast was your heart rate.
Posted , 9 users are following.
Just curious. Every time I have an episode I freak out. The last bad episode I had my heart rate was 245bpm and it lasted around 2 hours.
Also how do you revert back to Sinus Rhythm? Do you experience any other symptoms such as chest pain or diziness?
i've had SVT since I were 13. I'm now 23, I didn't have any episode after the age of 15 until a few months ago, so I had eight years free from it. Currently waiting for an ablation to get it fixed.
0 likes, 19 replies
d05969 tommy96
Posted
My longest episode was 7 hours before I went to the ER and was given adenosine. The average rate would be 190ish sitting but closer to 220 if I was walking around. I could never revert back when I would try, it would normally just stop as randomly as it started. Occasionally I had dizziness and some shortness of breath (like when I was walking up stairs or trying to finish a work-out). I just had a third ablation around 5 months ago that seems to have done the trick!
tommy96 d05969
Posted
I couldn't imagine being to cope for 7 hours. That just goes to show though that your heart is strong and healthy. It is amazing to think of how strong a muscle the heart is. Hope you don't mind me asking but do they know what type of SVT you have? Mine is a wide complex tachycardia (my electrophysiologist reckons its AVNRT due to what he's seen on my ECG, but said he won't know for sure until the EP study).
Also any advice on preparing mentally for the ablation? I'm aware its very minimal and low-risk procedure but the thought of having a procedure on my heart does keep me up some nights!
d05969 tommy96
Posted
Mine was also a wide complex tachycardia. A Mahaim Fiber... I honestly just found it to be really interesting, I was awake for one ablation and asleep for two. If you're asleep there's literally nothing to be worried about, you might wake up a tad sore but I honestly just felt like I'd taken a nap (beyond the hours of laying flat). If you're awake and able to see without glasses you should be able to see the screen that they're referencing in the lab. It's weird and a little uncomfortable but they know what they're doing so I was never worried.
elisa_76015 tommy96
Posted
ablation was worth it for me i was born with extra nodes mine would get stuck at 257 bpm it knocked my system down a little while but i would do it all over again if i had too
tommy96 elisa_76015
Posted
Yeah I get what you mean, everytime I have a bad episode I feel completely worn out for a couple of days afterwards (although I think a lot of that for me is emotional exhaustion). I get that SVT and most tachycardias are benign and not dangerous but I think when symptoms are affecting quality of life there needs to be intervention, whether that's drug therapy or ablation.
Lolasmom tommy96
Posted
My longest was 6 1/2 hours at around 165 bpm.
I have found that the modified valsalva maneuver works best for me. Sometimes it does not work so I try something else.
This all started Feb 2016 out of the blue. I had had a really bad cold and cough when this started so I think that is what kicked it off.
I was one of the lucky ones that got it caught on an ekg the second episode. Some goes years before they catch it.
My EP said it was AVNRT, but in one of my 3 attempted ablations, he found out it was AT,
In the beginning, I would get really anxious and I think that made it worse. Now, I get p****d off, and that makes it easier to revert. I just get to it until it stops. My episodes are weekly to monthly
tommy96 Lolasmom
Posted
Ah was the third ablation unsuccessful? I had my first episode when I was 13 (now 23). I had three episodes in my early teens that required adenosine to revert back to sinus rhythm, then I didn't have any episodes for like eight years. It started happening again a few months ago so now I'm gonna try an ablation.
Do you have any other symptoms besides the fast heart rate? When my SVT episodes start it feels like my heart is fluttering and skipping beats for five seconds before going into a fast rhythm.
Lolasmom tommy96
Posted
Hi Tommy
I had an episode last night. Just seconds before I have an episode, I get this weird fluttering feeling in my upper stomach. It feels like a gas thing and I immediately burp to try to clear it.
It seems your episodes are not very often. You must be thankful for that.
Mines are sometimes weekly, and sometimes monthly, though I have had times when they can be around 3 days apart.
I find if I revert my episode with in 10-15 minutes, they seem to be weekly. If the episode is longer like 60-90 minutes, they tend to come monthly.My longest episode was 6 1/2 hours.
It is a really long story about my 3 ablation attempts, with the last one being the most traumatic.
I would still tell anyone to go for an ablation. It helps so many people. I think the most successful ones are people that have AVNRT
tommy96 Lolasmom
Posted
I'm sorry to hear that you had another episode last night, hope you're feeling better now! Has the frequency of your episodes decreased since your third ablation or has it stayed the same? Also have you tried medication? I'm currently on Verapamil 120mg and that seems to be keeping my SVT under control.
In regards to the feeling you get before the SVT starts, I usually feel like my heart is fluttering and skipping beats five to ten seconds before the SVT begins - I dunno if they're a row of ectopics or something which are triggering the SVT - its a very weird feeling though. I also feel exhausted when I've had a bad episode, like one at 240bpm for over an hour, for days after.
I agree with what you said about the ablation. I refused to have the procedure when I was younger because I was freaked out by the thought of it but from all the research I've done it really is a low-risk procedure. I would also recommend medication as well, sometimes it takes time to find the right medication but I think if you find something which causes little or no side effects and keeps your symptoms under control then that's a good thing. I've found that so far Verapamil has reduced the frequency of my episodes and if I do have a breakthrough episode it is easily shut down.
Lolasmom tommy96
Posted
I have gone for 3 attempts. but never ablated.
When this first started in feb 2016, I went on bisoprolol. It was terrible !!!. My hands and feet were freezing. My bp was to low ( I also take bp meds). My heart rate was to low. I was so so tired all the time. I found it hard to even get off the sofa. Just no energy.
I was told to stop the biso 5 days prior to the first ablation attempt. When he could not trigger me, he thought it was because at that tie I was taking a benzo.
The withdrawals from just stopping the biso were horrendous. He asked me if I wanted to go back on the biso but I told him so. I told him I would rather have episodes than feel the way I did on the biso. So it was only about 3 months I was on it. I am still not taking anything.
My second attempt, I had to be off the benzo for him to try again.I took about 9 months to withdrawal from the benzo and also Trazodone. That was a complete night mare.I started these 2 nasty drugs because after stopping the biso, I had terrible anxiety. I did not know it was withdrawls from the biso, and thought it was health anxiety. If I knew then what I know now.....
So I went for the second try. Free from all drugs. He was able to trigger me, but through the study found out I did not have AVNRT. The study showed that I had AT. In order to do that procedure for AT, he needed to have a 3D machine set up, and it wasn't.
So I went for a third time. The procedure was somewhat different because of the AT.
I had to have a foley catheter that took 5 attempts. I also needed to have arterial line put in my wrist. That is to monitor internal blood pressure That took 7 attempts. The pain of this was incredible. Both my hands from my fingers up to my elbows were black and blue for 2 weeks
By time I got into the cath lab, I was a mess.
He got through both of the study, and my blood pressure went to 250/110 They gave me something to lower it but nothing happened. Then they gave me nitro. That dropped my bp to 80/40 Then they gave me something to raise it. It did not go up but he was anxious to carry on.
I have never felt so awful in my life. As he was walking back to the computer room, I called out to him and told him....the party is over !!!!!
I have never felt so devastated in my life
So now, I just carry on without meds.I saw him a couple of weeks ago and he gave me a script for a channel blocker, I after the fact realized that I had taken it several years ago for high blood pressure and did not do well on it.
Has been quite an experience
elisa_76015 tommy96
Posted
I was born with it and i actually did not realize i had a real problem until my 20's i thought me feeling that way was sort of normal in which no one else said they felt like me but it got worse and i thought i was having heart attacks oh my god all the doctors and test and hospital stays it was crazy . Through out my life in my teens and early 20s where it started feeling like a heart attack I thought it was stress due to my mom being really sick and i just could not cope but . Never understood it and was miss diagnosed for 30 years anything from panick attacks to anxiety attacks yeah they had me on different meds. until my heart finally got stuck in 2017 i was 48 and would not revert it was beating at 257 beats per minute. they had to stop the heart to revert it . it took a special heart doctor that deals with electrophysiology to figure it out. it got stuck a second time again at 248 beats per minute a couple of weeks before the ablation. the abaltion is so worth it.
oliver49362 tommy96
Posted
23? I'm four times your age, really ! with a multitude of heart and age related conditions. I have had svt about four or five years and the usual was 145 but several times more. I'm on 120 mg of diltiazem but sometimes forget to take it and get an episode of tachcardia. A 30 mg diltiazem pill orally stops it as soon as my system realizes I've taken it. Longest time was about nine hours without the pill. Shortest was about a minute I guess. I don't worry much now, although the tremors and mental anguish are not very pleasant and serious.
I would never submit to ablation because it SCARS permanently the single most vital part of your body. Whatever the cause of svt,It is a reaction of your body, and ablation is not reversible regardless of well meaning medical interventionists reassuring you. Ablation is perhaps number one on my list of fallacious remedys for doctors who are unable to correct the cause. We still fail to comprehend the complexity of our SA and VA nodes and ancillary components.
Lolasmom oliver49362
Posted
Hello Oliver.
I am 64 yrs old I had my first episode when I was 61.
I was interested in whether you do any maneuvers to stop the tachy
Do you know what kind of tachy you have?
oliver49362 Lolasmom
Posted
No words of wisdom from this over the hill refugee from reality. To consider anything that might end an episode, I know a member of an ambulance crew who tells me they tell those on the way to the emergency room they should take, and hold a breath for ten seconds while simulating ejecting stools. I’ve never tried it, but supposedly it has something to do with the vagus nerve? They transport many who have unexpected, and frightening tachycardia.
You probably have searched diligently for information, as have I. With a pretty firm background in electronics, I looked for simplistic solutions, and although the medium is colloid instead of hardware, the principles are basically the same with the added roadblock of the medical community using incoherent language filled with abbreviations and words of greek etymology. To complete the puzzle, there are too many inputs, either legitimate, or corrupted. My simplification is to consider all tachycardia as originating in the atria as an input, or failure of the sa-node creating havoc in the av-node and beyond.
I no longer have access to an oscilloscope to say nothing of an ekg, but I’m fortunate in having access to a down to earth cardiologist, and diltiazem. It works for me with limitations, and side effects.
I can’t pin causes down, So I don’t have solutions, nor offer unrequested or unqualified advice, but think digestion and diet are important. Electrolites are important so diet, or supplements of potassium, magnesium, and calcium shouldn’t be neglected. In my case, diltiazem is a channel blocker, but will not prevent absorbtion by the body.
You probably have a pulse oximeter that is available in drug stores, and will accurately keep you informed of heart rate and oxygen level.
Lolasmom oliver49362
Posted
Thank you for that.
I have many maneuvers that I do to stop an episode. Sometimes one works and the next time it doesn't. You just have to go through them until one works.
My most successful is the modified valsalva maneuver. That is usually my go to.
I have atrial tachycardia. I have gone for 3 attempts at ablation but have never been ablated. To long of a story...........