Unsure of Next Move

[Lisell]

I have been having sinus tachycardia for years and I am sure it is Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia but docs seem reluctant to say it is. I am currently on sertraline because latest doc at hospital said it was anxiety tachycardia but it is not working. Made cakes yesterday and mixing the batter caused my heart to go to 180bpm, not as high as some on here but high enough considering on tablets to slow it down. Been on the tablets for nearly 3 months now and it is obviously not working.

I am unsure of where to go next.

[Hidden]

What’s you daily average heart rate? My experience is that they will only consider IST if your average hr is above 100, even though IST can be inappropriate increases in hr rather than just the average rate being high. My resting heart rate is around 55, but just talking bumps it 20-30bpm, and I hit 120+ walking to the kettle. The minute I stop, it drops back to 50s and 60s. I get to 180 exercising without trying (and I have an arrhythmia so take cardiac medication to lower my heart rate). But my overnight hr is between 30 and 50. End result, although I was anywhere between 32 and 178 on a 24 hour holter, my average hr was not over 100, so my GP refused to refer me.

[Lisell in reply to Hidden]

My daily average if doing nothing is around 80+ bpm and when I am working it is 95+bpm, night time is usually over 70bpm. I also have lows of around 35-40bpm which can stop my average being over 100. Any sort of exertion and it will jump to 130-140 such as hoovering or ironing.

[Hidden in reply to Lisell]

Which may well explain why they won’t diagnose IST. But tbh, having the IST diagnosis may not help much (beyond them stop harping on about anxiety) because there is very little they can do. The medications they use I’ve been taking for years to reduce my heart rate due to having SVT, yet I still hit 180. That’s my maximum safe heart rate by age. They don’t understand why it happens, and don’t really know what to do about it. I know that’s not much comfort, but that’s my understanding of things having been in the same situation as you for around a decade.

[Lisell in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for replying, I think after my course of tablets run out I'm going to stop taking them because they are doing nothing. And then think about what to do. If it was just beating fast then fine, but it is the breathlessness and sweating I can't deal with.

[Brian1974]

Hi Lisell

I can only tell you about my experience with setraline,and was put on them about 1year or so

before,i was rushed in to hospital with acute chronic heart failure with a pump inserted after 3 or 4 days because i had it for a while and was after being diagnosed by the doctor as having

a chest infection i think i have spoken to people who have had or heard about people

whom had this happenin to.

The problem i had was after taking coarse of antibiotic and not much difference the second time where i was give a steroid and another antibiotic.

The third time i was given the strongest antibiotic they could give me!.

I was prescribed setraline after witnessing an accident at work where fellow worker was

working on a cherry picker changing cran line nuts and bolts but decided to try and make things easier and use a battery gun instead the pressure bar we where working with .

The result ended up with a chisel that was left in between the nut and hit him and i watched his eye explode in front of me,now i have grown up in a rough area and seen a few things similar that have been worse and had no effect on me,but i am ,was health and safety for years as and strict ppe was one of those things that was programed into you so when he was up working i was on the ground moving barrier which wasn't that hard as the people that worked in this area had all left .

Anyway the doctor said i had ptsd and bad anxiety that is why i was prescribed setraline which did help the problem i had was sleeping because i also seen a lot of thing that day which i reported tw the so called superviser that day and thought someone would at least call and ask as the job was stopped,but waiter for months with this in my head !

Sorry fo going on just wantind to let you know what had happend.well back to the fourth visit to the doctors it was a diffrent travelling GP or something that i saw alate on a friday night who after couple of minutes had me rushed into hostpital wi my bpm at 150 where is stayed as i think i mentioned for abou 5 days so they inserted a pump to aid my heart after an accute event where my kungs could not expend enough fir me to breathe so can remember more or less havind tube stuck down my throat to try to get oxygen into my body.

The day after the hospital told me that they had done all the could and moved me to the transplant main heart ward in the Golden jubilee and after a few different trials of drugs my heart rate started to go down ,the other thing is they changed my setraline to some other medication which they thought would be better for me or better for the medication,but when i gradually got better i was discharged with my heat eff at 17% i think healthy person is around 60% i dont think it is ever around 100% or 98%.

After Afew month started developing slight speech problems which i said to my gp was down to setraline being chabged ,so changed back,dont get me wrong still have problems getting some words out but i still yhink they are better for me anyway!hope this helps and i have lately noticed that i also have problems typing as when i started this yesterday (ha-ha)and then read it and think where is the rest of it !

Warm regards

Brian.

[Lisell in reply to Brian1974]

Hi Brian,

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I hope you continue to feel better after all you have been through. Fortunately unlike you my heart rate does drop once I stop doing whatever I am doing so I have never had it be as high as yours for days on end.......except for when we go on holiday it is then over 100 for most of the day.

I was a bit bemused by my diagnosis of anxiety tachycardia being made because the doc only spoke to me for about 10 mins and did not really ask anything about my life except what my job was so how such a diagnosis could be made was really baffling.

But I think I will finish this month and then the next month which will mean I have been on them for 5 weeks and then have a chat with GP to see what she says.

I just want to be able to go for a walk without feeling out of breath after 5 minutes.

Warm regards

Amber