Afib or "Just Palpations" Get Used to it?

Ok folks... I have been feeling rather poorly recently. I have been suffering with "weird" heart rhythms. It got so bad that I just drove myself to the cardio docs office on Monday. The mad beat, beat beat... was more than I could handle. It feels like my heartbeats are in my throat. Ugh. So the nurse checked me out by hooking me up to the computer and checked my HR. Yep, she says "you are in "Afib" printed the tape and hurried out of the room. She returned in about 5 min. Says to me... well it could be just palpations and you might just have to get used to them. Great! I thought very unhappily. She them says the Dr. suggested that I wear a halter monitor for 24 hours and it would show what is going on. She said that my wireless monitor has not sent any messages to the office that i was having any problems. I told her that i don't think it works. She explained that my heart might be beating too fast for a bit and then it "pauses" to catch up. That explanation makes no sense to me at all. Blood "pausing" in my heart can't be a good thing.

It wasn't the best of visits for sure. Anyway the halter monitor goes back tomorrow and we will see what it says. My goodness I hope that they can figure it out. I really am not feeling so good.

About the Merlin wireless. When i was on vacation I didn't even hook it up for about 10 days. Why didn't someone notice that I wasn't "uploading" at my scheduled time? By my way of thinking, I could have been dead and "they" would not have even known. So I haven't much confidence in the new pacemaker checkup system. This HR is making my a little cranky tonight, so If I sound that way.... I'm sorry.

3 Comments

Irregular

by mike thurston - 2010-12-08 02:12:55

If you are in a-fib then the computer should catch that no problem. A-fib is a ireegularly irregular beat - i.e. no pattern. Feels very weird and causes you to be anxious and possibly irritable. The "pauses part" would indicate PVCs. Your heart has thrown in an extra signal to beat so it waits until the next beat to continue on as normal. This is perceived as a skipped beat by the person involved. Again it can be disconcerting and make one anxious. Does not seem like the Nurse, tech or whomever it was did a very good job of explaining things.
Both types of beats are mostly just annoying unless they continue on for long periods of time. If you have consistent a-fib they would put you on a blood thinner and maybe some other drugs. If it is just short and occasional they will probably do nothing unless it happens more often. Hopefully the monitor will give some insight as it can be nerve wracking trying to put up with it. Just knowing for sure what is going on is a big relief.
Mike

I'm frustrated for you!

by tcrabtree85 - 2010-12-08 12:12:44

Well this just makes me mad. You don't deserve to be going through this and for such a long amount of time. I don't understand Merlin completely either but I do know that the nurse that reviews mine picks when they want to look at it.
So yes, I do believe we can be going through a lot and nobody would ever notice.
I know you aren't feeling well but please try to relax and get some rest. You are in my thoughts a lot right now.

Love ya,
Tammy

Stories you are being told

by ElectricFrank - 2010-12-08 12:12:58

I don't have a lot of confidence in the medical types you are seeing. They sound like they are just trying on whatever stories they think will stick.

The monitoring experience isn't at all uncommon. A friend of mine was in ICU at one of the major hospitals in Los Angeles after angioplasty. When he couldn't get a response to the call button he pulled the ECG monitoring leads off his chest thinking that would get their attention. 15 minutes later a nurse came in to check his IV and didn't even know that he had been flat lined for 15 minutes on their monitors. Suppose he had experienced a "real" arrest.

frank

You know you're wired when...

You need to be re-booted each morning.

Member Quotes

I just want to share about the quality of life after my pacemaker, and hopefully increase awareness that lifestyles do not have to be drastically modified just because we are pacemaker recipients.