janineerrn: Thanks for your definitions. Could

[LindaJoy]

Hi, janineerrn;

You mentioned, concerning my heart monitor results, that the "atrial tachycardia with block" means that I have an interruption in the electrical conduction that reg. my heart rate / beats. What can cause this?

Thanks for your response. You were very helpful in clarifying my results. Do any of the results seem serious to you?

Thanks.

Linda

[morgan617]

Well, I'm not janine, but maybe I can help a little. The arrythmias you are having, I think we all are. Sometimes this is an electrical problem in the heart itself, but sometimes it's from the autonomic system, which is why ablation is so controversial. Atrial tachycardia can be very hard to differentiate from inappropriate tachycardia. They are both in the atrium of the the heart where our heart beats originate.

Atrial arrythmias are very common and everyone has them, just not usually to the degree most of us have them. And not everyone is as sensitive to feeling them as we are. We are just so sensitive.... but it is not life threatening, just extremely annoying. And for some, a panic button.

There are certainly arrythmias that are very life threatening, but we don't seem to have those. Even when I have runs of VTach (which can be considered very life threatening if sustained and very very fast) it is a slow run, which means the rate is low and it never lasts very long. Single pvc's, or runs where every other beat is a pvc,(bigeminy) is not worrisome. Short runs of non sustained vtach is okay for most people..

So you have what we all have. Whether it is pots related or electical is the question. They thought mine was electrical and here I sit disabled from their attempts to "fix" it.

So your monitor is abnormal, but probably normal for a potsy person. I am not as articulate as Janine, but hope that helps a little. morgan

[LindaJoy]

Morgan, you're very articulate and very helpful. Thank you. I haven't worried about my heart in a long while because I've had so many tests on it that came out okay, that I just began chalking my tach and stuff up to POTS, but now, when these results came back and said something about block, I wondered what they were thinking up there at the Cleveland Clinic. And, the results were just sent to me with no explanation or interpretation. That's always nice.

You had an ablation? I had the electrophysiology study, but they could not ablate because they could not find where the tach was coming from. At the time and for years after (was done in 1998), I was depressed that they couldn't "fix me," but now, after reading all that I have about how the ablations make the POTS worse, I'm glad they didn't ablate. What problems have you had because of the ablation, if you don't mind my asking.

Again, thank you for responding, Morgan. I appreciate it because I feel better now!

Linda

[morgan617]

Linda, I am just leaving and read this post. I will tell you about it when I get back, so will post, probably after you've gone to sleep if you are on the east coast, but it will there for you in the am, hugs morgan, (thanks)

[morgan617]

Linda, they discovered after the ablation, it was the only way my body could compensate. I did have very high blood pressure for several years before, and was not a fainter. At the time of the ablation he said he found an abnormal area he would not call a node, but ablated it anyway. He felt I had other pathways, it was "variable" Right after the ablation I actually had worse tachycardia (2003) and a zillion more arrythmias. I felt so completely awful, I have never been able to work again. Then it slowed down, my pulse. In the last few months, my bp has become very labile with very wide swings, I am still having a lot more arrythmias, it's like my heart wants to be fast and when it can't, it has arrythmias instead. How fun. And now I am beginning to have a faster heart rate again. I mean for awhile I would shower and feel awful with the arrythmias, and now I get tachy and have the arrythmias too. I wish he had never touched me. He may have just speeded up what was inevitable for me, because I was going downhill fast, but he certainly didn't do me any favors. I do think he got a real nice car out of it though, it must have been pretty positive for him....morgan oh btw, I now am having episodes where I feel presyncopal, probably due to the wide swings in bp. But I had never even come close to this before in my life. I thought I was going to need a pacemaker for awhile, but as I said, it seems to have found another pathway to speed up. morgan who just can't seem to stop rambling