5 1/2 years post ablation

[adriatico]

It is so nice to come back to this group and find some familiar names still helping other people.

My ablation was successful but with difficult 2 months recovery.

A few times I had short episodes of general weakness with shortness of breaths.

Every time it happened was after having coffee.

Now things are getting bad.

I get so weak that I can't walk -shortness of breath, chest pain, weakness... and it lasts.

Kardia shows Tachycardia (110-120) every time but no AFIB.

I thought I was having heart attack so I checked into ER and was admitted to the hospital a few days ago.

CT scan showed 70-90% blockage of the main artery and cardiologist said that stent is necessary

after angiography.

While laying down in the lab during angiography Dr said "It's all over" after just a few minutes and what was supposed to be 30 min. stent procedure.

My blood froze after hearing his words.

Then he said Good news, your heart and blood vessels are perfect.

Are you kidding me, give me that bloody stent I said. I can't live like this any longer.

He said that CT scans are not very precise because of the constant heart and artery movement.

He said that I should go back to my "electrician for heart" who did the ablation.

I am tired and sleepy most of the time waiting for the appointment that's over 1 month away.

What do I do in the meantime?

[Singwell]

Goodness me - aren't some medics crass? That must'vebeen frightening. So sorry to hear you're having problems after 5 years of stability. Others here report that ablation for SVT is very straightforward so let's hope that's you.

[Ppiman]

I get mild tachycardia which comes and goes for reasons that I just don't know. I enjoyed reading the report of your less than ideal experience and, well, despite that moment of confusion thanks to an unthinking doctor, it was much better to hear that the problem was electrical rather than plumbing, I'd say.

Steve

[IncrediblyBlessed]

What you are experiencing sound exactly like what I experienced with SVT, specifically AVNRT. Very abruptly I started feeling heart palpitations, shortness of breath, extreme fatigue, chest pain, numbness, dizziness and intense brain fog. The symptoms got worse at a dramatic rate and I had all of these symptoms before I started having really high heart rates, the worst one I caught on my Kardia was 223bpm. I rapidly became non-functional. The first ER doc blew me off as a healthy young woman (I'm 34), the second time I was in the ER I brought print outs from my Kardia with a run of SVT I caught over 200bmp. They took that a bit more serious.

In terms of what you can do, you may consider exploring if there is a cardiologist or EP you can get into sooner. You may not want to do that if you already have a relationship, but it is worth thinking about. The first cardiologist I was referred to was booked two months out (and their office was rude), so I called a different hospital system and they were able to get me in right away and I had a far better experience. I ended up having a successful ablation before I would have even had my first appointment with the other cardiologist.

You could also request a holter monitor before you have your appointment. That way you could get good continuous readings for your EP to work with. You could probably get a referral from your primary doc or the ER. If you are worried about insurance coverage, ask about self-pay costs. My 4 day holter monitor only cost $325, which to me would be well worth it to push my care along faster.

Keep taking lots of readings on your Kardia in the meantime. My Cardiologist diagnosed me just off of the readings from my Kardia. I was wearing a holter monitor when I met with her, which she said was good because it would confirm the diagnosis, but she said she would have been confident just diagnosing me off of the Kardia readings.

I had a successful ablation on June 1 and it completely took care of the SVT. I hope this helps and you get things figured out soon, those symptoms are terrible to live with.

[adriatico in reply to IncrediblyBlessed]

This is so nice, detailed and helpful reply/advice. Thank you so much.