Anyone experiences with superventricular tachycardia?

[luvwinnie]

Spent a scary day in the ER yesterday. My heart rate was 200. I have a mitral valve prolapse and had episodes of this in my early 20s, but nothing for many years. They had to give me adenosine to sop it. Scary drug. Cardio is sending me to an electrophysiologist.

 

[Maleficient]

Yes, my daughter was born with it and had constant episodes of SVT until she had an ablation just before she turned 11. I was an ER nurse throughout it all, and SVT is a fairly common arrhythmia that we would see. Treatment is adenosine for adults or, as we would do, an ice water dunking of the face would cardiovert someone nicely! The goal is to essentially stop the heart for a split second to stop the "short circuit" that is happening so that the normal circuit can resume. It is usually a secondary pathway or re-entrant pathway in the conduction system of the heart - really like a short circuit. Sometimes its mild enough to do nothing and just treat it when the SVT happens, sometimes you take a drug to slow the heart down so that the short circuit is less likely to happen, and sometimes it happens so much, as with my daughter, that you need to go in with catheters to find the short circuit and heat them up to get rid of them. this is called an ablation. It sounds serious and crazy, but really it is very common and fairly easy to treat. I cardioverted my infant through 10 year old daughter at home - or wherever we happened to be - by dunking her face in ice water, by grabbing her by the ankles and lifting her upside down really fast, by making her jump in a cold pool - you name it. Eventually this got to be harder and more difficult to cardiovert her - and it happened ALL THE TIME, so she had the surgery. And she was on meds the whole time and they didn't help - turned out she had a different problem that caused the SVT, so she really needed to have the surgery to get rid of the pathway that she had. I hope this doesn't scare you because it is really OK and I also have Mitral Valve Prolapse with the occasional run of SVT, so I know what it feels like. I hope everything goes OK and let us know!

 

[autumnpalm]

Yep, I do!

My episodes are pretty rare now, used to happen more often when I was little. It's scary, though! A very unsettling feeling, especially if you have underlying cardiac issues. Good luck with your follow up visit! I've been to a few cardiologists but never had any formal treatment other than ER visits on the rare occasions that it happens (every couple years or so).

Thinking of you!

 

[luvwinnie]

Thank you both. Oh, must so scary for a little kid! My first one was at 18 and that was terrifying. This one was scary because I was so short of breath too and when they rush you in to the ER and 4 people are around you sticking in an IV and putting on the EKG things and oxygen in about 30 seconds it makes you even more worried. Luckily, we have a GREAT heart hospital 5 minutes from us.

 

[tzolkin]

My brother was rushed to the hospital a few times last year, had two unsuccessful ablations, and ultimately wound up with a pacemaker/defibrillator. He's only 26 and has a new baby, so the whole thing has been very stressful for his wife and our whole family.

I'm glad you are following up with another doctor and I hope everything goes well.