51 year old female,have had sporadic moments of short Afib, Atrial tachycardia, sinus tachycardia blue lighted to hospital 3 times, heart rate at rest galloping to 175 for 30 mins and feel faint, sick and dizzy, every time get to hospital and hooked to 12l ecg everything has went back to normal, had a holter monitor 72 hrs which showed up evtopic beats and atrial tachycardia put in bisoporol. Low dosage it’s knocking me for six so tired.
Brushing my teeth the other day heart rate 120
Had an echo and it’s ok and due to be given AliveCor Kardia on Tuesday to try and catch the episodes as happening. Apple Watch is throwing all sorts at me when I feel tightness of chest, heart thumping, waking up with funny heart beat, granted I’m anxious as I’ve endured breast cancer twice 2014 and 2019 two primaries and had chemo and radio for both but the following uploads I was calm in bed or on sofa.
Can the Apple Watch be trusted? does anyone know what these pictures I’m uploading represent.
Thanks in advance for any input, take care all.
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AGCG2
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Hello AGCG2, regarding interpreting ECG printouts, this is not easy, even GP’s can struggle and we are not medically trained! There are a small number of retired medics who may be able to comment but obviously it depends on whether or not they see your post. I don’t have an Apple Watch but I do have an oldish Kardia single lead monitor which has been really helpful to me. Many EP’s/Cardiologist’s are happy to accept Kardia reports and there is a facility for having reports interpreted for a small charge. I’m not sure if the same applies to the Apple Watch……
Many thanks for your response, my local hospital are giving me a Kardia on Tuesday for a month, I’ll hopefully get some answers while using this. I’ll also purchase one if required as I’d rather have an approved device.
I think Apple Watch can be trusted as when I was hospitalised earlier this year before I was diagnosed with AFib, the doctor asked me if he could look at the graph on my Apple Watch to see what had been going on over the last few hours. Also it seemed to keep the same heart rate and pattern as the hospital monitor I was hooked up to
Hi Foxey2, thank you for taking the time to respond,I’ve found that one consultant at the hospital rolled their eyes when I said I was tracking on Apple Watch, I use a pulse oximeter and the heart rates are always the same. Hopefully the Kardia can see exactly what’s going on and the consultant cardiologist takes this into account. I do feel when symptoms are there the Apple Watch does in fact pick something up.
It's possible that what you are feeling is a result of fear and anxiety, I suppose. I'm no stranger to either. Anxiety is easily sparked off by the harmless "thump" of an especially delayed but completely harmless ectopic beat. This can then cause the brain to send out a panic signal to the heart, which obediently then goes into hyperdrive, creating a vicious circle of events, all physically harmless but mentally draining.
Since your heart is, essentially, back to normal after its mad half hour, the bisoprolol might be causing it to slow too far, leading to the tiredness you feel?
Thank you for your response, I agree the anxiety is with me due to the last 7 years of “hell”.
I was advised due to the tachy moments to take bisoporol 2.5 and I definitely feel they are causing the tiredness and my heart rate dropped too low so they reduced the dosage to 1.25 and I still feel exhausted, but my heart sits at a steady 70 - 75, doctor advised that the exhaustion is also coming from my body after I have the tachy moments as takes a lot out you.
I have propranolol which doesn’t make me so tired but they only last short term and then I go tachy again quite quickly. Finding a balance and quality of life is important.
Resting heart rate is always up at late 90’s and it’s as if my hearts speeding up to then go into full blown galloping, I know anxiety doesn’t help but I’ve never experienced this type of feeling even in full blown panic attacks my hearts never went like this. Hopefully the Kardia and the consultant can see and get in the best medication for whatever is going on.
I suppose it's possible that some of your past treatments might have caused the heart to act up; but it's unlikely as the echocardiogram would have shown something - valves or left atrium size, for example; but it didn't. Electrically, your heart seems pretty sound, too, although "catching" conduction events isn't always easy.
I had a successful ablation procedure two years ago for atrial flutter, but some symptoms persisted and these worsened last November with sudden tachycardia and overpowering sense of tiredness starting from the slightest of reasons. A 14-day monitor showed some bradycardia, some tachycardia, and some short bursts of "fibrillation-like activity". My cardiologist sent me home with, essentially, a clean bill of heart health. Overall, you know, I am now convinced that, hidden away as it might be, anxiety has had a lot to do with my sufferings. I can't untangle the web of physical and mental, but I can see that there is a web and that it involves a great deal of fear and anxiety.
I hope you find some kind of resolution and peace of mind soon. Getting older isn't what I thought it was when, as a youngster, I used to envy older folk for their seeming serenity. How wrong I was.
Hi AGCG2. I purchased the alivecor after I had my first ablation as I was still getting little episodes well after the ablation. My EP in the UK wanted to get a ECG on paper to see what was going on but every time I landed at A+E I reverted to sinus rhythm as usual.😡 he told me if I lived in a different part of the country I would have been able to be supplied with one for a while but unfortunately our health authority doesn’t do that at this moment .!!! So I told him I would purchase one myself and which one do I need.? He said the alivecor is very good indeed and that’s what the other authorities use. Within a week of receiving it I caught it straight away and was able to print my ECGs off for my next visit and the EP studied it and said I needed a touch up ablation which I had a few months later. I’m sure you will catch yours too to show them then you’ll know what next treatment you’re looking at.👍
Thank you for taking the time to respond, I think if we have heart issues like this,be good to invest in buying one especially to show healthcare team. Take care
No problem at all AGCG2. we all in the same club aren’t we so we got to stick together.👍 they are a good investment though. these ECG monitors makes life a little easier too.
Hello AGCG2,I highly recommend an app called ‘rate my ecg’ you take a 30 second strip on your Apple Watch and it will pull through automatically - you then submit your review and get a response within 24 hours. You can also leave notes around your concerns/symptoms. I have attached one of mine below.
With each diagnosis it then provides you with a breakdown as to what this is, why this is happening, when to seek help and advice etc.
That was very interesting. I can certainly relate to much of it. You’ve certainly thought long and hard about your condition.
My cardiologist told me that “vagal afib” is likely real - but rare. True vagal ”irritation” (usually compression from something), causes bradycardia, he told me. The post-prandial troubles you suffered sound something similar to what I’ve had over the years starting when I was in my twenties. Back then, it led not to afib but to ectopic beats (strangely accompanied by easily audible chest “clicking” sounds that thrilled my doctor but not me!).
Investigation revealed not vagal irritation but direct physical irritation caused by my stomach being pushed up against my diaphragm and then that against the base of my heart. This, I was told is not all that uncommon and can easily cause ectopic beats to occur. Only very much later did these lead to afib, which I gather they do in prone individuals.
My cardiologist did wonder whether what had been put down as anxiety and panic attacks during my life weren’t in fact brief attacks of fibrillation or flutter. I’ll never know, but I never did understand why I should suffer from panic.
Firstly you may be one of many who can’t tolerate Bisopropol. I couldn’t do was put on Nebivolol which is fine. Secondly I think it’s really helpful to self- monitor and most people use Apple Watch, a Kardia device or an iPhone Ap such as AFib which all show you in real time what is going on and can save readouts. My symptoms were up and down but being able see what my bpm is allows me to adjust the beta blocker dose or miss a dose if I am in bradycardia. I am in AFib permanently and awaiting cardioversion but it’s much easier to live with now and I’m not experiencing such ‘extreme’ symptoms.
Hello Loafinabout, I was just wondering how you knew you couldn’t tolerate the bisoprolol, I know it sounds silly but I have it for my pvc’s and bigeminy and it doesn’t seem to be touching me!
I just felt really really awful and utterly fatigued, weak with no energy, no appetite and I felt as if I was running on empty. I spoke to my chemist about Bisopropol who said others had not tolerated it and to speak to my doctor. I did and she changed it to Neviprolol. I was much much better on this and feeling more myself. But I was still experiencing some low energy episodes so I decided I needed to monitor what was going on when I felt a change. I came across AFib who offer a subscription Ap which I downloaded on my iPhone Ap. It was then that I was able to see when I was going into bradycardia and that taking a beta blocker would only bring my heart rate down more. When prescribing my doctor had said one 2.5mg twice a day but this turned out to be inappropriate for me personally. Now I monitor my heart rate and only take the beta blocker to bring my heart rate down when it is higher than normal. I’ve got all the reports stored on the Ap to show my doc/cardiologist. If I did feel particularly worried about any readout it has a function whereby I could request one of the AFib doctors review the readout and advise (a small fee for this)
Hi AGCG2, I notice that this ECG recording has been flagged up as a 'poor recording' and therefore it couldn't check for AF. Best to discard this one and try again. You'll probably have better success when you have your Kardia.The Apple app can be trusted to some extent but it is never accepted for real diagnostic purposes. Chances are, when it does flag up AF, you will have had an episode of AF but it's really not reliable enough. And it only looks for AF. Anything else will be flagged as sinus rhythm or 'inconclusive'.
Thank you Callendersgal, I only added this as I was symptomatic at the time. Appreciate you responding, I just want to make sure I’m on the correct meds and get the correct care. Get the Kardia tomorrow.Take care
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