Hello e1,
My story is this.
Years ago I complained about pains in the abdomen that started with what I recall as eating some spoiled food in a restaurant. Long fight with the doctors led me to discard it as IBS as they insisted that this is the case. Since then I am with constant pain under the left rib (pancreas area).
At the same time, with the pains from the spoiled food I felt weaker and as if my heart is working extra hard to work. A Holter test showed small segments of SVT and a lot of PACs. Since by the time the results came in I was focused on the digestive problem and the heart no longer bothered me, I simply lived with it.
7 years passed, and maybe 3-4 episodes of SVT that went out by themselves within 10 minutes. 3-4 months ago I started to have a pain at the heart area with pains in the arms. Along with the digestive problems and acid reflux that were left untreated.
Went to the doctors, long story short - they found the arrhythmia again, disregarding my initial complaints about the pain. 2 months of focusing on that (including test for ischemia which showed nothing) and insisting the pain comes from the premature beats (totally inconsistent with what I feel), my cardio shoved Cardiloc 2.5mg a day down my throat. 2 weeks later, I find myself with my first 11 hours long flutter at 160bpm and a forced trip to the hospital.
They gave me choices and I decided to be ablated. that was a month ago and since then:
- The pains haven't stopped.
- I've had another serious episode for about 2 hours which ended up with my heart stopping entirely to "reset" for a few seconds and made me lose consciousness. (another trip to the hospital which bore nothing since my heart went sinus before the medics arrived).
- I am feeling my heart working, even at sinus. If I don't lie down it beats hard in my chest and sometimes I even feel it shaking my entire chest and abdomen.
- I've had 3 small episodes of few seconds of SVT (all happened during sleep and woke me up). Now I am scared of these since the "cardiac arrest" I thought I had when my heart "reset".
- I've had a sensation where different parts of the heart contract in different beats (very unpleasant and scary).
- I am having many many skipped beats followed by a strong one which I rarely had before the ablation.
- I am fatigued, sleeping 11-12 hours a day, have some discomfort in the armpits, have pressure in the front of the head with slight lightheadness.
I am without medications. even though my cardio gave Cardiloc 2.5mg again I decided not to take it since I don't trust her anymore.
I am up for a loop recorder (which will monitor my heart for a month but still disregards the initial complaint of my pain!)
So my questions to you good people:
A. I saw some posts that digestive problems can effect the vagus nerve and thus cause tachycardia of my type (flutter, atrial tachy and PACs). Is that a thing I should insist on with my doctors to consider?
B. Are my sensations a month after the ablation means I am screwed or will they go away eventually as the heart heals by the experience of most of you? I saw posts of people saying it takes 3 months after ablation to really evaluate its success.
C. Anyone is experienced with the pains I am describing and/or with relations of such pains to heart rate issues?
D. Not a question, this is just to blow off steam. I am healthy (even rarely having the flu), 35 years old, never smoked, no caffeine (My wife won't let me anyway), rarely drink alcohol, tests shows a strong, healthy perfectly normal heart, no cholesterol, no sugar problem, good potassium, good magnesium, I'm thin, tests shows fitness above average, no history in the family of cardiac issues, no blood pressure issues and I've been controlling my stress levels for 15 years now with meditations and self observance
so.... why? why is this even a thing in my life?
Feels kinda unfair...
E. I lost confidence in the doctors ability to treat me right. and THAT is what scares me the most...
Thank you all for being partners in crime