Arrhythmias Support Group
Cardiac arrhythmia is a group of conditions in which the muscle contraction of the heart is irregular or is faster or slower than normal. Some arrhythmias are life-threatening medical emergencies that can cause cardiac arrest and sudden death. Others cause aggravating symptoms, such as an awareness of a different heart beat, or palpitation, which can be annoying.
I am a 36-year-old, healthy looking female and have been active my entire life. I posted previously that I have suffered from severe fatigue for about 7 years. I saw many different specialists to try to figure out the problem and never came to a solid conclusion. I finally recently saw a cardiologist for the first time and did an in-office EKG and echocardiogram which were both normal. I got a telemetry monitor for a month which I have now been wearing for about a week and a half. During this time, the weather has been crappy so I haven't been active aside from 30 min on an elliptical a few times. I have a low resting heart rate (55-65) and very fast recovery time, but during even minimal exercise, my heart rate immediately goes up to 170. I have shortness of breath and extreme fatigue and weakness. I sometimes feel dizzy and feel like I could almost pass out. This past Friday was the first nice weather day since I got the monitor. I went for a hike, during which I was not exerting myself much, just walking slowly up/down hills. I had my first recorded event. The monitor company called me. They couldn't tell me what it was but that it met my cardiologist's criteria and that if it were severe, they'd tell me to go to the ER which they didn't. A few hours later in the same day, I was doing some minor yard work, just cleaning stuff up when I had my 2nd event. They again called but again said it was not severe enough to go to an ER. At that time, I assumed that this must be happening anytime I do any activity since this had been the first day of real activity since getting the monitor. However, 2 days later I spent the day cleaning out my garage and carrying a lot of stuff up 2 flights of stairs to my attic and did not get any calls from the monitor people. So maybe it's just random? However, I feel the same symptoms anytime I am active. Moving the stuff up to the attic gave me the same symptoms as the day I was hiking and cleaning the yard, in which I had two events. So my question is, can heart issues cause these symptoms even if the heart monitor isn't detecting any events at that time? Could my ongoing fatigue issues be heart-related, even on days when the monitor doesn't detect anything? Could it be possible that something is going on and the heart monitor doesn't always catch it? I just think it's strange that in a week and a half, the only day it caught anything was on a day when I was active and there have only been 2 days that I've been active since getting the monitor. It's never detected anything on days when I'm just sitting around doing nothing.
Additionally, the Holter Monitor is programmed to capture events meeting specific parameters. If the irregularity is outside those parameters it won't be captured.
For example, my device ignores ventricular tachycardia (fast beats) events below 170 bpm. Doesn't mean they don't happen all the time, just they are below the threshold the doctor set.
When heart events occur with exertion but not at rest, thats called a stable event. Its called a stable condition and quite common.
Hang tough you're getting there, but don't rush things so they catch everything thats going on.
So as one example, things like PVCs (premature ventricular contractions) that are benign are ignored.
Don't misunderstand, those things can be very uncomfortable and annoying but in the grand scheme they don't cause harm so they ignore that type of thing so more important data gets captured.
Any activity that you want to do make it come from a post of longing and wanting because that helps your heart to work more efficiently on a mediator named Dopamine which does not produce arrhythmias.
Your heart listens to your communication, please stay in a place of love.