Holter/Portable EKG monitors

[lilmissdisney216]

Hey there fellow Disers.


This Friday DBF Ben has a Drs. appointment so that they can place him on a Holter/Portable EKG monitor to see the activity in his heart in the event that he has a panic attack (he's been having a lot of them lately and they have been so bad that they make his heart speed up extremely fast). I wanted to know if anyone has ever worn one of these or had any experience with these types of devices. Is there anything we should know about the placing of the monitor, things to know while he's hooked up to the monitor (he'll be on it from Friday til about Monday evening), and just any other general info. You all have been pretty helpful to me here at the DIS so I thought I would ask you guys about what you might know in regards to this. Any info that you might have would be much helpful. Thanks bunches!!!!


Meredith

 

[nollidttam]

Hi, my son has worn holters often with no problems. The one issue we always have with him is the little pads falling off. Now, he is only 5 and started when he was 2, sooo maybe he is pulling them off! BUT...we just use medical tape and tape them on a little better and have no problems.
I think it should be a piece of cake, just not able to get it wet.
They really aren't bad, the little monitor part is small nowadays and will go on around his waist like a belt and he probably won't even know it's there.
He can expect to be really really red where the pads were by the time he takes them off, but that's it!
Good luck, I hope it is nothing to be concerned about.

 

[LauraVV]

Holter monitors are usually worn for 24 hours. If you're keeping it for more than 24 hours you might want to see if you hae to call in and download the info daily. Usually you need a land line to download info.

I recently had a Holter monitor and then a 30 day event recorder. The event recorder does not always record. You have to push a button to get it to record.

I'm allergic to the electrodes. It's better with the child ones but I've not worn it for more than a week and am still recovering from the sores.

 

[nollidttam]

yes, my son is allergic to the metal part of the electrodes and gets sores from 24 hour monitors.
But I think most people don't have much of a problem from them.

 

[Disneylover 2]

I'm 13. I just had a holter Monitor put on on Wednesday-until the next day. The really obvious thing is that you cannot bathe in it.(bummer) umm, be sure not to play around with the electrodes.(I told the nurse to pjut more tape on mine becasue I kew I was going pull them off at night.
Just do what you normally do...that's all!

 

[lilmissdisney216]

Thanks guys for all the input.

An update on the appointment, we DID NOT go in today. The office called yesterday afternoon to remind him of the appointment he was supposed to have today at 9am but then they determined that it deems pointless to put him on the monitor today cause we're going to be playing in the band tonight and he has the tendancy to jump up and down during the show so his heart rate is going to be elevated. He then told them that he could not jump around and be "mellow" if you will, during the show but then they brought up the point that it didn't really matter and that regardless his heart will still be in an excited state. So we had the appointment rescheduled for 2 weeks from now on Wednesday for 24 hours instead of the 48 he originally would have had.

Any opinions on this, do you think it should have been done this way or do you think they should have place him on the monitor today and just gone with it? Cause generally he is supposed to do what he usually does and he's usually running and jumping as it is. Even though he's 20 it feels like he's a rambunctious 5 year old at times.

 

[Disneylover 2]

THey should have put it on today. You are right. He is supposed to do what he normally does, that's the point of the monitoring, plus he's not going to be doing it ALL 48 hours, right? And why did they change it from 48 to 24 hours? Talk to the office. Good luck!

 

[arminnie]

I wore one about 15 years ago when I had some arrhythmia during a stress test. They told me to be sure to exercise and be very active. I remember walking up steps at the mall instead of taking the escalator. They could not reproduce the arrhythmia during the test though.

 

[lilmissdisney216]

Very true. I'll ask some of those questions when he goes in for his appointment. I do concurr, if they were not wanting him to jump around and what not and not have an elevated heart rate they might as well restrain him for 48 hours.

 

[lilmissdisney216]

Update Update:

DBF had the monitor hooked up on Wednesday around 5pm. He did pretty well for the most part, it was just a difficult time for him to sleep on Wednesday night and sometime during Thursday when he tried to nap. Other than that he did just fine. They removed it on Thursday at about 5:10 and they said they would process the memory card into the computer on Friday and then we would know the results of the test early next week. Hope all goes well.


Meredith