Sudden Heart Spikes - Svts?

[Terrier]

Hi everyone, just looking for a bit of reassurance on this one. I imagine it's probably a POTS 'thing' but it's not one I generally get so a little bit disconcerting and there's still a bit of adrenaline flying around my system after it!

Woke up this morning feeling alright (by my standards) and went on the rowing machine as I do pretty much every other day. Was just coming up to my 'warming down' period having done about 40 minutes when I felt a little skip in my chest. I often have bouts of these (though I've not been in the midsts of one at the moment), they've been checked out and apparently there's nothing wrong with my heart so I try to carry on as normal when I get them, as I did here. As I continued rowing I noticed that my heart rate was climbing, very very quickly. Normally the max I can maintain on the rower is about 150 but within maybe 20 seconds of noticing the spike I was up at 180, which basically never happens for me. At this point I panicked a little, stopped, got on the sofa, put my feet up and thankfully it did drop back down. After a couple of minutes I got back on the machine and warmed down as usual, though a bit warily.

I can only really think that this has happened once before, where my heart rate climbed to a crazy level for me and it didn't seem to be anxiety-related (though anxiety did come into the mix once it had started!) That time I ended up in the ER and eventually it did drop back down, this was pre-POTS diagnosis though so I didn't go supine and stay that way - perhaps that would've fixed it quicker.

Anyone got any ideas what's going on there? As a total layman's guess I wondered if maybe the skip/PVC coming out of the blue might've caused the heart to think it had to compensate for something and go into overtime.

[Katybug]

Hi Terrier,

I would probably have reasoned out the same thing as you. That being said, my rule of thumb is that anything that changes or is not my normal pattern with my vitals warrants a call to my cardiologist. She is cautious enough t check out things that could be a concern, but she's not an alarmist, so she won't bring me in unnecessarily. That way, I don't blame something on POTS that may really be a concern that needs to be addressed.

[Terrier]

Thanks Katybug, yeah I think maybe just the fact I was rowing full tilt with my HR right up when the PVC came might have jolted more adrenaline in than otherwise would have happened, even though I didn't consciously think a lot of the skip as it occurred. As I say, usually when I'm having an extended bout of PVCs I do still row and it doesn't seem to cause problems, as hard as it can be to ignore.

Had a bit of a rough day afterwards with another spike or two but obviously after the first one knocks you anxiety tends to enter the mix and when I think back I do remember a couple of instances where my HR spiked in a disproportionate way to the anxiety I was feeling so perhaps it's not entirely new. Frustrating though, when I woke up feeling alright for me!

I will try to get in touch with my cardiologist on Monday but that's always easier said than done with specialists in the UK..

[Terrier]

Quick update, had a bit of a strange week after this. The day afterwards my heart was skipping all over, anxiety got (very) involved and, being in the house alone at the point it peaked I had to call 999. The guy came who was exactly the right person to turn up really, he'd had heart issues himself and did his degree on the heart so was pretty knowledgeable. He caught a couple of different types of PVCs on the monitor and eventually it did calm down, though I was still a bit of a mess!

He thought the spikes the previous day were SVTs and that they'd ideally like to catch one when they happen but I guess they'd have to become more regular before they strap a monitor on for any period. I felt kind of ill all week after this, as if I had a bad cold or something - totally wiped out and anxious, but without anymore noticeable skips or anything. By yesterday I was feeling a lot better, went to bed thinking 'I should be able get back to a more normal day tomorrow' then BANG, another (apparent) SVT. Didn't sleep all that well after being jolted back to alertness by that. Had another one this morning too. I had my TTT to confirm POTS a couple of weeks back (the first cardio I saw did a sort of poor man's version) so presumably I should be getting an appointment to see my cardio at some point, obviously I'll mention these to him.

What seems weird is that they've come right when I've been on a little bit of an upswing. And also as I've been looking into long-standing mental issues as a possible cause of my years of symptoms, though I know that's probably a controversial subject on here! I recently noticed that there's a pattern of new things cropping up whenever I start to poke at my subconscious or look too deeply into my past. As I realised this and started looking into it all again I was thinking 'OK, I wonder if it'll throw something new at me this time..' And it seems like I might've got my answer, unfortunately!

By the way, I did want to put SVTs in the thread title in case anyone had any insight/reassurance but it doesn't look like you can edit them on here, is that right?

[corina]

Thanks for the update Terrier, I'm sorry that you're struggling. Stress can def aggrevate your symptoms but I honestly think that goes for every illness!

As you found out you can't edit topic titles yourself but please let me know what you would like the title to be and I will change it for you.

[Terrier]

Thanks Corina, maybe just 'Sudden heart spikes - SVTs?'

Yes, no doubt you're right there - stress makes everything worse! But having spent years trying to figure out if my many and varied issues (most of which began at the same time 13 years ago) have a physical or mental root cause I've finally come to regard the latter as a good probability, having really been incredulous at the possiblity for most of that time given how physical the manifestations are. I guess this is probably a whole other topic though!

[corina]

I guess you are right Terrier! I have changed your topic title.

[gjensen]

I have had runs of SVTs (and PSVTs), and they feel (to me) much different than sinus tachycardia. I have not had any in some time. Knock on wood.

The only way to confirm SVT, as you know, is to catch them. It sounds like a 30 day monitor is in order.

It could be runs of sinus tachycardia to.

Stress of any type can make matters worse, so try not to. The ups and downs are problematic for us, but it is easy to say. This illness has it's own ups and downs, and causes it's own anxiety. Then because of the illness, we can be more sensitive to the anxiety. It is a circle and a cycle of sorts.

Hopefully you will not have any more episodes, and you will get some answers soon. Just listen to the doctors, and you know what to do if encounter anymore concerning episodes.

I would be interested in hearing what you find out, and how it goes from here.

[Terrier]

Thanks for the reply

Yes these have a different sort of sensation to my 'normal' standing tachycardia. So far I haven't been standing when I've had them either, but that could obviously be entirely coincidental at this point! It's sort of like a PVC followed by a jolt of adrenaline then the tachycardia which peaks quickly then comes down pretty quickly too. The PVC part isn't quite the same feeling as the ones I usually get, but it's about the closest comparison I've got. The guy who came didn't seem too concerned given that I'm reasonably young at 32 and when I first had the POTS diagnosis a year or so back I had an ultrasound done on my heart which was all good. I had a 48 hour monitor done back then too but wasn't gettting the PVCs or anything at the time. Those things are quite strange in themselves, I'll have a week where I'm having them all the time then a month or so off, then a week on again. That cycle's been going for a while now!

Got to say I do have my fingers crossed that the cardiologist appointment comes through soon-ish.