Classic Near Death Experience

• by BCase
• 2009-12-06 05:12:10
• Conditions, Meds & Tests
• 2146 views
• 3 comments

I've only had my PM for four days now. It has been very useful and informative to browse around this site.

My question is about the one, very classic, near death experience (NDE) -- about 15 seconds or so of asystoly (e.g. syncope, flatline) -- that I experienced at the point of cardiac conversion some six months or so before the PM installation. It came complete with the feeling of being in a long tunnel of fast moving stars leading toward a bright white light. My legs gave out from under me in a feeling like they had turned to jello. My lower body felt like it was having a mild seizure. I experienced a very strong feeling of euphoria. That brief period of asystoly was preceded by a strong aura of electrical activity that surged from the base of my brain outwards to every limb. This occurred exactly at the point that my heart converted from a long period of tachycardia to a normal rhythm. Later the cardiologist explained that my sinus node (SN) had "gone to sleep" while the ectopic cells had taken over and were driving the tachycardia, and when the ectopic cells finally gave up (after a few days), the "sleeping" SN took a long time "waking up" and beating for my heart once again. In the pause, my heart flatlined, and I experienced this NDE.

After that experience, I became very aware of the strong electrical auras that almost regularly coincided with my conversions from a long-standing tachycardia to a normal rhythm. Each time I feared that the aura might lead to another NDE. The auras got stronger and more frequent, but I never again saw the dark tunnel with the bright light at the end, or felt that intense wave of euphoria.

My cardiologist said that the strong electrical auras and one long period of asystoly (e.g. syncope, flatline), were caused by my own very personal and unique reactions to the medications I was taking to control the tachycardias and restore normal sinus rhythm (atenolol plus flecainide). The more of these medications I took to combat the problem and restore a normal heart rhythm, the more likely it was that finally, upon the point of conversion, my heart might flatline for a noticeable brief time before the conversion took place.

I remembered another event a few years earlier (when I was also on these medications) when my legs gave out from under me like jello one night on the way to the bathroom. I had no idea why it had occurred. At the time, I did not connect it to anything, including my heart condition…I just went back to bed and racked it up to a significant oddity. But that sensation of "jello legs" is very strange and unlike anything else, including legs going numb from a pinched blood supply, etc.

Now that my PM is installed, I am enormously relived. I will never have those aura sensations, or fear that my legs might go out from under me like jello, or be troubled by the fear that I might have a NDE caused by my heart flatlining for a short time.

Has anyone else had experiences like this before their PMs were installed?

I hold out little hope that the new PM will help very much with the SVT or the multifocal atrial tachycardias. But my new PM is a Medtronics EnRhythm with a lot of special antitachycardia features on board…so we'll see what the future brings. Does anyone out there have positive stories to tell about the EnRhythm PM (or any other antitachycardia PM) helping them moderate the frequency of their tachycardias?