Heart Palpitations

[valliali]

Like most of you, I have been suffering with lots of palpitations, tachycardia, and a PSVT for awhile now. I have grown very, very accustomed to the flip-flopping in my chest, and it has come to not really bother me anymore. The tachycardia and PSVT sure do, but not the PVCs.

However, tonight, I felt something really, really different. I imagine it was a PVC because it was shortish in duration and felt like the drop in chest/flip-flop, but it was super intense. I feel like the PVC got "stuck" in the flopping part and I realized I couldn't breathe. Then I felt all this blood surging into my head - like very very strongly. It was the same feeling you'd feel if you did a handstand and squeezed all the blood to your head. Only it happened in a matter of seconds. The heart being stuck, not being able to breathe, and the head rush lasted about 20 or 30 seconds, which inherently isn't that long, but felt like eternity. I was finally able to grasp for breath, and then I got a really strong hot flash in my head and face.

My heart pounded hard for a few minutes, then resumed to normal. I developed a headache afterwards which lasted.

Has anyone had anything like this? It really really freaked me out. It was such an intense sensation. I really had time to think to myself, "oh my god, my heart is stopping. I am going to die." Could something like this be life-threatening?

[iheartcats]

Years before POTS, my heart got stuck...I was having a quiet day inside, not much (if any) caffeine, nothing out of the normal and was sitting folding laundry. I remember it vividly. I felt it go 'blonk' and then it was stuck. I tried to stay calm and lie down for a minute. Couldn't catch my breath. I called 911 for the first time in my life.

My heart was going about 260 BPM and wouldn't slow. The EMT guys looked surprised it was so fast. The ER Doctor had to give me an IV drug to 'reboot' the heart, I guess.

After that I saw an EP and did an ablation a few months later. I've never had it again (like that, just the POTS which has got to like 190, but due to exertion and dehydration).

I guess mine was SVT, not PSVT which is more dangerous from what I understand? Some kind of extra electrical pathway in there had to be ablated.

I did feel like I was going to die. It was so scary. I think this is something you should get checked out just to be on the safe side. I don't want to worry you - mine was out of nowhere and I was OK - it just felt awful! Not something you want to have all the time and that's why I went through with the ablation.

Now if it had been with POTS, I'd maybe not have done the ablation. But I didn't have POTS until 2 years after that.

[Tachy Phlegming]

I had something like that late today or tonight (I don't remember exactly when it was though) -- pretty intense, different from what I've ever had before ... but not quite as bad as you (well maybe it was for those 2-3 seconds because I think I wondered similar things for that amount of time) and mine had no lasting effects. I wouldn't have bothered posting about it but now that you have, I will wonder about whether it had to do with some hiccough in the weather because I feel weather effects from miles away and if you are where you usually are, you are also not so far away that the same weather phenomenon might not have traveled.

[valliali]

Thanks, guys. I have been okay since then. Still a little worried. It certainly felt "stuck" catlady, like you describe. But it didn't race afterwards, it thumped hard, but not too fast. I think it must have been a PVC that got stuck mid-flip.

Tachy, I am in northern CA, and we do have some rain moving in, but I don't feel it much out here. When I lived east and the rain came in, I was bed-ridden. But for some reason here, it doesn't get to me.