Rapid Heart Rate Strikes Again!

Many of you have probably read my previous posts concerning rapid heart rate. Well, this afternoon while driving home, the rapid heart rate reared it's ugly head again. I was just calmly driving through our quiet neighborhood when my heart started pounding, I got short of breath, and I became very dizzy. I barely made into the house, and then I passed out. I was home alone, so I don't really know how long I was out...I just remember waking up on the floor.
I have a history of fainting because of Neurocardiogenic Syncope, but none of those episodes were ever triggered by or involoved a fast heart rate.
My doctor is working closely with me trying to figure out what is going on. This is the first time that I have fainted because of the fast heart rate, so I pretty shook up about the whole situation.
Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Amanda

2 Comments

Let us know if you find something out.

by bowlrbob - 2008-03-09 08:03:32

This is interesting to me. Cause i also have NCS. It is under control now but almost 1 year ago. I had an unexplained dizzy spell. When I was at my 6 mo. interrogation I mentioned it to my EP. He does my interrogations and he said did this happen around XXX date. I said that it did and he said There was a spike up in your heart rate at that time. It has not happened again so far but that worried me too. Cause my only problem till then was slow heart rate and rate drop. Never fast. So I would like heads up so i might no what to expect down the line. BOB

rapid heart rate & dizzy spells

by Vai - 2008-03-11 01:03:46

I experienced similar symptoms before my PM implant. I suffered from frequent runs of pounding ectopic heart beats, high resting pulse rate (>140 bpm), atria fluttering or fibrillating 200-300 bpm. These are runaway arrythmia and in my case, the diagnosis is frequent atria fibrillation. During such extremely uncomfortable episodes, feelings are short of breath, lethargic bordering on unable to move, dizziness, light headedness, near black-outs, sweat, bladder fullness, chest discomfort. This is explained by the doc - during such tachy arrythmia, the heart is beating too fast and irregular;y to do its job which is a co-ordinated and rythmic function of receiving & processing de-oxygenated blood from the body and then delivering oxygenated blood back to the body. The blood flow is just a mess during these times, and the shortness of breath, lethargy, dizziness is due to no oxygenated blood supply to the brain and the rest of the body.

Are you PM implanted? I had a PM implanted and is on medication. The PM (supports heart rate at minimum 60 bpm) and the meds (to suppress and manage the heart rate to prevent afib episodes) did wonders for me and gave me a new lease of life. I hardly feel the afib anymore and coping well with the side effects of the drugs.

Best of luck.

You know you're wired when...

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