Hello, everyone! This is my first time posting an SVT forum, and it's long overdue. The purpose of this thread is to share my rather unique experience with SVT. As you all may know, this condition is different for everyone. I hope by sharing my story, someone somewhere out there will be able to relate to what I've gone through.
I'll start with some basic facts about me and my health. I'm a very healthy 22 y/o female. 5'7" and 125lbs. I walk regularly and have no history of any other dangerous illnesses. My AVRT PSVT is abnormal, because it has been classified as "dangerous" and "non-benign". My heart rate during an attack regularly goes above 250, and in some rare cases has breached past 300 (the one monitor that caught my 300bpm, couldn't record past that amount so it may have been even higher). My attack frequency ranges anywhere from once a week to once every couple of months. The length can last a couple of seconds or a little more than an hour. I do not have WPW syndrome.
MY STORY:
My first memory of an SVT attack was when I was 6 (it was just recently confirmed during my EP study that my SVT has been around since birth). I didn't realize at that age that such a fast heart rate was abnormal. My SVT when I was kid always managed to resolve itself with some rest. Around the age of 12, my symptoms grew worse so I expressed discomfort to my parents. That began my journey trying to find a diagnosis. The first GP I saw was adamant that I was having panic attacks. I remember trying to tell him that I was calm during most of my episodes and that they occurred even when I was relaxing, watching TV. He didn't listen, and I continued to suffer with my condition while my parents blissfully believed this doctor. Fast forward to the age of 14. I started having more and more attacks to the point it was almost on a weekly basis. One of my school nurses took my pulse during an attack and told my parents that I should see a cardiologist. From ages 14-18, I was on/off event monitors, and somehow they never caught my attacks. Call it bad luck, but I always had an event monitor at the wrong time. I was growing both frustrated and hopeless as every cardiologist I saw told my I was okay. I learned to ignore my SVT and play it off as a small issue when it did occur. Then last year, at the age of 21, I had my first BIG attack. I can't describe the terror and fear I felt. The whole room felt like it was spinning, my chest was in agonizing pain, my heart was beating faster than I could've imagined, and to top it off it felt like I was going to puke my guts out. I had never called an ambulance for my SVT at that time, so I was hesitant. By the 15 minute mark, I was begging my friend to call 911 and she refused thinking I was just panicking and overreacting. The attack eventually subsided, but it took me several hours to fully recover from that godawful attack. My friend and boyfriend said I was extremely pale and that I felt clammy. That attack prompted me to return to my cardiologist and try a heart monitor again, this time for a full month. And somehow yet again, nothing was captured besides ONE PAC.
I finally got my first diagnosis this February (2017). I had another BIG attack. My usually trick of bearing down and laying down wasn't working and was actually making the rhythm and chest pain WORSE. The SVT subsided after 10 minutes and returned immediately prompting me to call 911. The adenosine they gave me worked at the highest dosage and I was sent home same day, with the urgent request to contact my cardiologist (it was at this point that I finally received my diagnosis of PSVT). When I met with my cardiologist several weeks later, I forgot to bring my ECG from the ambulance. The cardiologist prescribed me beta blockers and told me to try mediation saying that the stress was likely making the SVT worse. She told me not to worry and that SVT is a non-lifethreatening condition. She also requested that I fax her my ECG asap.
I faxed her my ECG when I got home and 10 minutes later received two phone calls directly from my cardiologist. When I picked up she told me that my condition is NOT benign and that I would NEED an ablation. I asked her if the procedure was optional, and she told me that it had to be done in my case because my condition was too dangerous. l reluctantly bit the bullet (it didn't seem I had a choice according to her), and set up an appointment with an EP.
[ablation story will posted below]