Slow heartbeat / bradycardia

[CaerleonWalker]

I'm a 67 year old man. About seven years ago I fainted/collapsed, was taken to hospital and had echo cardiogram and the mobile monitoring of heartbeat. Diagnosis - no heart or heart valve problems, I was told it was low blood pressure. No further faints/ collapses until three days ago. My blood pressure reading and ECG indicated slow heartbeat. My GP thinks I will probably need a pacemaker and has referred me to a cardiologist.

Just over a month ago I had joined a gym and was making reasonable progress in running, swimming and light weights. My GP has now advised no strenuous exercise. I went for a short walk this morning (about 15 minutes), returned light headed and had to lie down.

If you have been in this position, what exercises did you do? How long did you have to wait before you saw a cardiologist?

[L8Again]

This link should give you some idea of NHS waiting times in your area:

myplannedcare.nhs.uk

My wife’s situation is not too dissimilar from what you are experiencing save for the fact that she periodically lost consciousness. The NHS works on the principle of Occam’s Razor in its attempts to determine a diagnosis: that is, it will change a BP drug to see if that was the cause etc. The result of this approach is that it can take years to come up with a conclusive diagnosis for random events.

We went private and paid for a 14 day holter monitor: this revealed some issues but nothing to warrant immediate treatment. The next step was an implanted loop recorder (ILR).

A month after the ILR was fitted, my wife had a TLoC episode and I took her to A&E. We waited 7 hours for the pacing team to come into work and after they looked at the ILR data she was admitted immediately for a pacemaker implant.

I am not suggesting that you need to do any of the above but it is worth giving it a thought if your NHS cardiology appointment doesn’t provide the answers that you are seeking. For random events which do not result in a loss of consciousness you may have a further wait if a pacemaker is needed as priority will be given to patients such as my wife whose heart was stopping for periods of between 20 to 40 secs. This had been going on for nearly 5 years before she got her pacemaker. The issue was simply the randomness of these events and the lack of definitive proof that a pacemaker was needed. FWiW, the pacing team told her that they were 100% certain she would be back for a pacemaker when they implanted the loop recorder.

[Fifille]

This is my personal opinion, I had falls and dizziness and brief loss of consciousness for 2 years which was diagnosed as vertigo. Got to the point whereby I was scared to go out of the house.My slow heartbeat was also picked up but nothing was suggested, ie ecg. I was getting very depressed and insisted on further tests etc.. My GP said go to A&E NOW! They kept me in and 3 days later had pacemaker fitted.

Please don't waste anymore time, go straight to A&E!

My GP told me I should have gone to A&E!!!!

[honeybubs]

Hi CaerleonWalker, it took years to diagnose me. They were far apart and random but always when I was out walking or active working I had syncopes where I collapsed in the street but as soon as I hit the floor the feeling in my legs came back and I was ok again except for the injuries of the fall. Eventually I felt so I’ll one evening my husband rang for the paramedics and they took me to A&E I was in for a week wired up to a machine where they recorded 34,000 extra ectopic beats. They put me on tablets but not much improvement so finally had a CRT-D fitted. (cardiac resynchronisation therapy Defib). I feel so much better now. I was diagnosed with Bradycardia, Low blood Pressure, Bigeminy Arrhythmia and Dilated Cardiomyopathy. I went on a 6 week Cardio course to build up my muscles again and I’m now going to the local Swimming pool/fitness place close to where I live and i do ‘Move it or lose it’ exercises and Aqua fit. I feel so much better for it. I can also use the gym for gentle exercises like the treadmill etc. I’m 66 in July but wasn’t diagnosed until the end of 2022 and had these symptoms for over 10 years. So keep on at them to do all the tests to get a proper diagnosis and treatment. Hope you go on ok. Joy