Heart Palps...Not just for menopause anymore!

[malkin]

So sometimes my little heart goes pitter-pat. And then it goes back to normal after a few seconds. Lots of women have palps around menopause, I thought no big deal.

Last spring I had an event that lasted a couple hours, so I called my doc, but by the time she saw me I was all normal. She had me wear a monitor for a week (a very fashionable $3000 accessory) but my heart behaved all week, despite my attempts to trigger an event with too much coffee, wine and not enough sleep.

Yesterday we were working around the yard and I got dizzy with a whoosh and my heart was off to the races. For hours. I thought I was feeling a little better and we headed to the garden store, but I was short of breath still palpy so brewer took me to insta-care.

The good news is that they got a nice strip on the EKG to see what's going on, the not so good was that I got transported to the ER and spent the afternoon there. So my primary care doc's guess was right, I got a PSVT diagnosis and a referral to a cardiologist. They gave me a crazy push of meds to make my heart snap out of it, which worked, but was a completely bizarre experience.

Not really the weekend I had hoped for.

[OakLeaf]

Yikes. Hope you don't get any repeats!

Do investigate food allergies. That's a symptom I get that many doctors overlook (including both cardiologists and allergists). So far (i.e. for the past 40 years) they've been only very brief and mild, but I'd be a lot more strict about my diet if I had an episode that lasted as long as yours.

[Crankin]

I agree with Oak. I have some strange reactions to foods and other things; I've had occasional palps, which usually mean I'm under stress, getting sick, or taking Claritin for more than 2 days. It kind of goes along with all of the other unusual symptoms I've had for the past 30 years. I've had a couple of cardiac ultra sounds since the first time this happened. Nothing shows up, so I assume it's nothing, especially since I can always associate them with some kind of physical or emotional stress, although sometimes it's after the fact.

[redrhodie]

Oh no! Not a good way to spend the weekend, but good that they got some tests done while it was happening. I know that's tricky when symptoms come and go. Hope you're feeling okay now, and will have answers (and the easiest treatment option!) soon.

[shootingstar]

In the past 5 years, I've had the odd, short and rare incidents of racing heart while I'm just sitting around. It's happened about 3 times to me.

Half of the time, I know it's from stress.

Thank goodness for cycling: it helps me de-stress.

[missjean]

How scary! My sis-in-law had that many years back. She had a procedure done where they snaked a wire up through her artery to her heart and gave it a zap, and she has been fine since then. (That may be an extreme simplification of what was done, but it’s been a while!)

[Dogmama]

Can they do anything long term so it doesn't come back?