Anyone Not Feel It?

[cardiactec]

Just curious, does anyone NOT feel their heart racing when they are upright??

it just amazes me that my heart can be going 140's and i cant feel it. generally if its up in the 180-200 range i can start feeling it (but thankfully the beta has cut my rates FAR from 180BPM).

just interesting,.....very busy today at work, didnt feel my heart racing at all, just felt tired, and i stuck my finger in the pulse ox just to see where i was at and i was at 140. never felt it, didnt really feel anything actually, except for fatigued..

[Foxyblue]

Hey,

Never noticed this. I usually feel it when it's racing. But then again, when I'm upright and I don't feel it, I have not bothered to take my pulse. Hmmm. That might be interesting to try.

B

[Lukkychrm42]

Hi there,

I suspect that I'd been having the tachycardia for years before it was picked up on the Holter monitor. I don't know about others, but I often feel the hard beats when it's slower, but often when it speeds up, the beats are so light that I don't feel the pounding. I think that when I don't feel it, there's something to do with the pulse pressure and/or my BP is either way high or way low.. I can usually feel it if I try, but sometimes the doctors and nurses can't even find it without a machine.

Good luck with your genetics appointment!

[cardiactec]

yeah i think i, too, have had this potsy stuff for awhile, before they even diagnosed it 6 years ago -- perhaps that is why i dont feel it, because it's been racing for so long that i've become accustomed to it just working that hard, without even realizing it....

thanks luckychrm, for wishing me luck with my genetic appt monday. i'll let you know how it goes. thinking of you, too, with your CT results and the mass they found. i hope the biopsies reveal nothing significant. keep us posted. hang in there.

[flop]

Hi,

I don't usually notice my pulse racing either. I first noticed that something was wrong when I was a student and in boredom one day checked my pulse whilst standing in class - it was 135! At the time I was really athletic with a resting heartrate of only 45/min.

When I had my tilt test several years later, I knew something was up within a couple of minutes because my consultant and the technician had both jumped out of their chairs and I was aware of them standing just behind the table. Afterwards my cardiologist told me that my heart rate had hit 170/min and I had been totally unaware of it.

I know when I am feeling dizzy and usually then my heart is racing without me knowing. It is different when I get palpitations which I am most definitly aware of - pounding / racing heart beat with chest pains!

Do other people get palpitations seperate from the tachy due to their POTS?

Flop

[masumeh]

I don't notice it when I'm busy, until I slow down and all of a sudden realize that I'm not quite right. Then it's a bunch of symtoms together, so I only started paying special attention to the racing heart feeling after my cardiologist kept asking me, "When do you feel the palpitations? When do you feel the tachycardia?" Otherwise, I was always more in focus w/the visual disturbances because that was a better predictor of an imminant faint. Without the heart rate watch, I can't really tell if I feel out of it bc of tachy or bc of some other fatigueish potsiness.

[Guest tearose]

I think I have two separate kinds of faster patters and one kind of thumping...I think it is somewhat like luckky said for me too. I am most bothered and aware of the slow beating that goes thump, thump. The lighter and faster patter, patter is not as noticeable since I too am "conditioned" to focus on the visual signs of impending problems...my body feels the "dump" of norepinepherine, the flush, and then I'm thinking...okay, if I see white spots I need a place to sit or I open my seat cane and sit down. I am usually also aware of the shortness of breath since I may have been speaking to someone when this happens.

The times I do have awareness of the faster patters of tachy, is if/when I am arrhythmic at the same time. Unfortunately, I have to get a handle on this new development since I have been "triggering" PSVT's and I want to see what brings these on. It is weird, but I need to re-learn how to get in touch with what is happening. It is as though we "numb" our awareness so we can go on with living our lives. It may be our way of coping?

Are you aware of any arrhythmias cardiactec?

now you have me thinking...

tearose

[cardiactec]

tearrose, interesting for mentioning the difference btwn arrhythmic disturbance and it's classification of POTS (a sinus tach) or a more "sudden abrupt onset and offset" arrhythmic disturbance like your PSVT (for those who dont know PSVT, P standing for paroxysmal which means a sudden, abrupt onset of a tachy from a normal regular sinus rhythm, and SVT means supraventricular tachy, a rhythm disturbance coming from above the ventricles (basically a supraventricular tachy is a "better" type of tachycardia to have than a rhythm stemming from the ventricles)...

...there is a HUGE difference between a sinus tach that is triggered by position change in POTS (or other issues like metabolic disturbance, caffeine, etc) than a PSVT....i think a lot of people without understanding the difference may use the terms interchangeably when in fact POTS or sinus tach is NOT a PSVT, but JUST a simple SVT (because the rhythm begins above the ventricles but IS not paroxysmal in nature). sinus tachy has characteristic features of a slowly progressing and slowly terminating fast rhythm and generally is not associated with an "irritable" ectopic site in the conduction pathways themselves.

PSVT's start and stop apruptly and usually are caused from irritable ectopic sites with abnormal conductive properties within the heart and NOT stemming from the sinus node itself from enhanced sympathetic tone when talking about pots (sinus tach) ... (unless it is a very rare form tachy called SA nodal reentrant tachy, an abnormal electrical circuit basically.

it is correct to say sinus tach is a type of SVT BUT IT IS NOT correct to say it is a PSVT. two separate things. personally sometimes if people ask what is wrong with me, i tell them i have SVT because i have a very fast rhythm originating above the ventricles but i dont say PSVT because it is not paroxysmal in nature and it is NOT a cause of an irritable ectopic site within the heart itself (as far as we know anyway, aside from the sinus tach they've witnessed). people understand SVT (well at least in the med field) more than they understand POTS, this is why i just say SVT!! funny though cuz then everyone asks about the whole SVT and ablation process to eliminate the SVT - THEN you have to tell them all about how its a sinus originating tachy from autonomic disturbance, and not a paroxysmal tach from conduction problems.

ANYWAY, i dont kow WHERE i was going with that, lol, but i was going to say that generally sometimes there is a huge difference in how a PSVT FEELS as in comparison to a sinus tachy or a tachy that has a gradual onset or offset and not abrupt. i have always wondered if there was another underlying tachyarrhythmia going on, a PSVT, outside of just sinus tach (simple SVT), but never have been able to prove or disprove that. i thought about wearing an event monitor to see if the times where the rhythm feels "different" from just a simple sinus tachy......a holter has never appreciated anything other than just sinus tachy, gradual onset/offset tachy with restoration of normal sinus rhythm. .....but the problem with holters is they typically only have them on you, continuously recording, for a max of 48 hrs. with event they are left on for longer duration and YOU have control over recording something you feel/sense, which helps docs determine better if what you feel is something abnormal when they look at the rhythm strip or if it is nothing to be concerned with.....

tearose, so now i'll ask, how often do you have your PSVT episodes and have the docs mentioned ablation or do they not want to pursue that because of your underlying auto dys?

[deucykub]

Hi, Cardiatec:

You just described me! When I first started getting sick, all I noticed is that I was very, very fatigued. Docs thought it was a flare of my fibro until one noticed I was short of breath (and I quote, "Are you short of breath just from sitting up?!?" Um...I didn't even know I was short of breath). Then, they diagnosed me with asthma, based on spirometry (I was at about 25 - 30%). Finally, the asthma got under control, but I was still fatigued and short of breath. It wasn't until they did a pulmonary function test that they monitored my heart rate over a period of time. While I sat during the test it went from about 100 to 120. When they stood me up to walk around a bit, it jumped to (what I saw) 155. Apparently, it went to about 200, though, according to the interpreting doctor's email to my doctor. That's what tipped them off - I had no idea my heart rate was THAT fast.

The pulmonary tech asked me (in terror), "How do you feel? Is this how you usually feel?" I felt fine, really tired and short of breath, but not as terrible as I thought I should have felt with that heart rate.

Later, I started wearing a heart monitor to see what my heart rate was doing. With only the symptom of fatigue and shortness of breath, my heart rate hit 164 after grocery shopping and 169 after doing a few dishes!

You're not alone on this one! Weird, isn't it?

All my best,

Deucykub

[Tessa]

You described my symptoms very well, Deucykub, though my heart rate has gone down since I am taking the beta blocker.

Love,

Tessa

[cardiactec]

deucykub and tessa, we can now be referred to as the three stooges. lol. glad we all can relate on the same level.....

it is tough for sure. glad there are meds like beta blocker to keep things somewhat under control!! i think i'd be in trouble if we didnt have beta!

so wierd that i cant feel the rates.....i remember after they mentioned my rates fast 6 years ago, i laughed when they said it was in the 160's. i told them their equipment was broken! then i remember going home after some testing in disbelief cuz i never felt any of rapid rates! i remember checking my rates in the shower a few days after the first round of tests they did on me and i was at like 187 and couldnt feel it. unbelievable to me since we have patients come through the E.R. doors with rates at 120 who are scared out of their minds cuz they can "feel their heart beating out of their chest". guess it all depends on how sensitive you are to HR, or better yet, adrenaline, or whatever the underlying cause is OF the fast rhythm...

[mkoven]

I'd been less aware of the racing heart till today-- I'm into serious pms which majorly flares everything. Everytime I stand, I feel tired and shakey-- and lo and behold I'm between 110 and 120, when I'd gotten my standing hr down to mid-eighties recently. When I sit, it goes down to 75-85. I feel tired, shakey, and if I focus on my ears, I feel the racing there.

[Guest tearose]

cardiactec,

I hope I answered your questions...I am very tired tonight so ask more if I don't...

As for my PSVT's...I think I've had them for a long time and it is only when they get "captured" the cardiologists get all bent out of shape over these. It was first suggested I have an ablation many years ago. I only see these crop up when I am really tired, or not in compression and active, sometimes with fever...only two weeks ago at Mayo this came up again cause it showed up in the middle of my TTT.

I convinced them that I would monitor my heart and report back and they have to trust that I will be okay.

I personally think an ablation would make me much sicker. I really suspect if anything, I have a minor sick sinus syndrome that only shows up when I am really exausted.

I already have multiple problems with my left arm so I hate to think of subjecting my little body to an ablation. I have a sunken chest, some thoractic outlet syndrome and left arm lymphedema secondary to a tick bite I got on my left hand...I am not a prime candidate for the ablation and I fear a pacemaker too!! I think I will let nature take its course with this body of mine. It is doing the best it can and I am managing. I may not make it to 125 but I think if I am careful and do tons of behavior mod, I could, by sheer stubborness and persistance, make it to 100!

thanks for caring,

best regards,

tearose

[the_dancer_grl]

i can feel my heart rate more often than not even if its not really racing...guess im just "sensitive," i hate that word lol

[deucykub]

i can feel my heart rate more often than not even if its not really racing...guess im just "sensitive," i hate that word lol

"Perceptive" works, too.

I'm just totally backward when it comes to perceiving what my body says. All I hear is - tired! tired! tired! please sleep! lol

Tearose, I've often thought the same as you - once you've had and known about having a chronic illness long enough, there is a numbness that develops to recognizing symptoms, but the effects are still the same. When it comes to knowing my body, I'm pretty much dumb as a post.

[runningshoe]

Hi all,

My heart rate has really come down with the florinef. Are any of you using it? Unfortunately it is making my bp go up (I already had high bp). Just checking....

[juliegee]

Yes, definately. I've randomly taken my BP via electronic cuff (which also gives HR) and I've been shocked by numbers like 120-140 when I feel fine- running around being busy and productive. When I'm aware of a really fast HR, I have symptoms like almost fainting or being unable to breathe easily. It's almost like a switch is flipped then. I actually hear a buzzing in my head. Very Weird. I would imagine that most of us are so used to fast HR's, we don't think much of them. They are the norm to us. Excellent post. I'm glad to know I'm not alone.

Julie

[MightyMouse]

I think my body adjusted to revving on high with the heart rate since childhood. I've never noticed a sensation of a fast rate, except for when it's way too high even for me--for example, I had a bad reaction to Allegrat a few years ago that sent my resting rate to the 160's. I easily hit the 130's w/o noticing anything unusual--I would guess most "normal" people would probably be freaking out, but honestly I don't notice it at all.

Nina

[Tessa]

I'd been less aware of the racing heart till today-- I'm into serious pms which majorly flares everything. Everytime I stand, I feel tired and shakey-- and lo and behold I'm between 110 and 120, when I'd gotten my standing hr down to mid-eighties recently. When I sit, it goes down to 75-85. I feel tired, shakey, and if I focus on my ears, I feel the racing there.

I never shared this because I thought I was going crazy to be able to feel my heart racing when I focused my ears.

Nice to know I am not the only one and I am not a "rare" one.

I also think as Nina, that I am used to a high hr, because I have it since childhood, though I feel pretty different when it goes up to much...

Love,

Tessa

[mom4cem]

Unfortunately I feel it even when it goes from the 70's to 80's resting. Not fun being so "connected" to what's going on is it. I've only come to know the increase of heartrate as being sinus tachy as what has been caught on an event monitor that was captured by me pressing the button. I get the slow increase and it keeps on increasing until it peaks, anywhere from 120-150 sitting, (I don't dare stand if I can avoid it!!) and wait for it it to slowly go back down.(about an hour).

Wish I could say I don't feel it. I'm trying to not focus on it and hopefully be able to not be so in-tune with it all.

[Ernie]

Hi,

Sometimes my HR is 45 and sometimes 180 and I don't feel the difference. I just know that I feel crappy but I don't know why.