cardiactec

hmmm......interesting......well, I think if you know, or the docs know (or are assuming) that this look like an atrial tachyarrhythmia brought on by the vigorous hiking rocky inclines, I'm no cardiologist, but my hunch before actually going on for an invasive EP study would be to have you jump into a vigorous stress test - where a cardiologist can continuous monitor you to see if this is a exercised induced tachyarrhythmia (other than sinus tachy) .............seems like that would be the best place to start since you at least know potentially what could or might be inducing the rhythm (exercise induced) .... - you said this rhythm, while hiking rocky inclines, felt like your heart was flopping all over the place and that you immediately had to lie down .....when you laid down did it feel like the rhythm abruptly terminated or did it continue to feel tachy for a few minutes and then slowly taper off? the biggest way, before having to go in for invasive EP study, to differentiate between a sinus mechanism and atrial (or other ectopic foci) causing tachy is this -- generally with a sinus tachy, the rate slowly increases and slowly decreases with different maneuvers (most common valsalva or carotid massage) . Did your doctor explain to you why he thought it was an atrial tachycardia and not sinus? morphologically (the way the waveform appears on ECG) a rhythm coming from the sinus node "creates" a waveform (P wave) that would look different from that of an atrial foci/tachy .............I know with me, my cardio at first thought that I had atrial tachy because my P waves were outrageously funky looking, not typical presensation of "normal" sinus tachycardia P waves .....to try and distinguish between whether or not it was sinus tach vs atrial tach, he performed a valsalva maneuver on me with continuous ecg recording and found there to be a gradual slowing and then gradual pickup once again in rate with absolutely no change in P wave morphology, thus sinus tach in origin.......if the rhythm had been coming from an atrial source and not the sinus node (where all impulses originally start in the heart), than valsalva or carotid or medication would cause an abrupt termination in the rhythm (generally with a PAC or PVC) and then instantly convert to P waves that look different from the previous P waves seen .........if you're rhythm terminated when you went supine, and it terminated slowly (gradually decreased) i'd think more sinus tach due to POTS but if you went supine and the rhythm persisted, I'd think atrial source.... another thought, which I was told by a mayo clinic electrophysiologist, is that excessive catecholamine release, along with position change (standing position) can cause a change in P wave axis/morphology and mimic an ectopic rhythm, but once again, to truly differentiate this from sinus tachy, the onset and offset is the key to figuring out whether or not this is a sinus tach or atrial tach. You describe me to a T when you explain "huge palpitations" - was riding my bike the other day and pushed myself too hard and felt the same way -- BOOM BOOM BOOM like crazy in my chest, couldnt breathe. that more or less could just be because you're pushing yourself too hard and increase even more sympathetic drive to the conduction system of the heart. BUT, i am not one to say for sure. I wish I could see your rhythm strips!!! LOL. Was this an event monitor you had on or holter (continuous recording) ? if continuous recording, I think it would make it a lot easier on the doc to see both onset and offset of what he is classifying as a possible atrial tach. if you were on an event monitor and pressed the button before or after offset of the rhythm, than once again would be hard to see changes in morphology (the waveforms) and how the rhythm broke -- quickly or gradually .... I have never had an EP study myself though I have had a right heart cardiac cath (which essentially is somewhat similar, just not looking at/mapping/stimulating/pacing conduction system with right heart cath) ........I personally didnt have a problem with my cath, though I cant say if EP study would be worse or not..........I know during my clinical time in EP, we sedate our patients and they are looking PRETTY comfortable - some snore! lol. If you have to have an EP study to determine if there is a rhythm other than sinus tach going on, I wouldnt hesitate. being on anti-arrhythmics the rest of your life wouldnt be fun when there is about 98% chance of successfully eliminating the tachy via ablation. As flop said though, and as personally experienced by her, many times the rhythm cannot be reproduced in EP.....which is another con to consider. .... My recommendation, if you feel that this rhythm (whatever it is) was brought on by vigorous exercise, would be to go for a vigorous stress test -- with a steep incline on the t-mill .....if the rhythm can be reproduced there and morphology, onset/offset can be seen with vigorous exercise, then i'd go for the EP study ...... Has your doc ever done a valsalva or carotid massage on you while in a tachy fit? -Cardiactec.

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thanks doctorguest for giving the presentation on pots to the docs .....AWARENESS AWARENESS AWARENESS! You are not only helping docs by giving such a presensation but potentially their future POTS patients. Thanks for doing your job in getting the word out and informing docs, both old and new, of this wacky debilitating illness. MUCH appreciated.

you said, "My heart will feel like it's beating out of the top of it, then immediately, it will feel like it's throwing a beat out of the bottom, too: BEAT beat, BEAT beat, TOP bottom, TOP bottom" sounds like ectopy to me -- some SINGLE premature beats, either occuring from the bottom chambers (ventricles) or top chambers (atria) ....generally PVC's (premature beats from the bottom chambers of the heart) are more prominent and can be felt more than PAC's (premature beats from the top chambers of the heart) .........what you describe sounds like either atrial bigeminy or ventricular bigeminy -- meaning that every other beat you feel is very prominent, or occuring early ..........of course, no one can know unless you catch it on a monitor -- MURPHY'S LAW, that stinks that you just brought in your monitor and you didnt catch it then ..............i'm going through that dilemma myself right now, i have one week left on this monitor (after having it for two week already) and have yet to catch the thing i'm feeling............ bigeminy, if that's what it is, generally isnt anything to be concernerd with -- though i know it can be extremely annoying ..... are you on beta blocker?

hi there, I had the botox injections via endoscopy in May............The procedure was like a standard endoscopic procedure only with the botox injections.........basically they give you some stuff to numb the back of your throat..........they give you "conscious sedation", no anesthesia - they gave me versad and phentanyl (sp?) .........throw the scope down into the stomach, inject botox, and boom, the procedure is a total of about 20 minutes ...... .....I personally did not have the best experience with the procedure, they gave me too much sedation and I was vomiting after............I also had some stomach pains for about a week after (which is wierd because i never had these problems with regular endoscopy, so i figure it was probably from the botox itself that they injected that caused these symptoms and also due to the fact that the GI doc said my stomach was "mis-shaped" or something).................there was no change in my ability to eat more, feel less nauseous after the procedure..............the GI doc told me that if you do see benefit, you should see it within 3 days out of the procedure..... ...dont let my experience stop you from going through with this - my GI doc said MANY people benefit from the procedure .............THOUGH the botox generally is only helpful, if IT DOES HELP that is, for about 6 months (this was what i was told) and then you have to go in and have the procedure again........... I am currently on baclofen to help with my gastroparesis.........though it seems to be helping some, i am finding that my body is building a tolerance to it, and thus, i've been having troubles again at night with nausea ............though i have been able to eat more with the baclofen, i am having a hard time gaining weight -- at 114 at 5'8' ................. good luck with the procedure and i hope it helps you. Angela.

katherine, I too have had to deal with this my entire 25 years and hopefully it wont continue the rest of my life! I am 114 at 5'8', I have a twin that doesnt have any of these problems (medical), she weighs 140 and 5'8' also -- and I always get compared to her, which also bugs me to the face of the earth! I have been very self conscious BECAUSE of all these comments over all these years..... ......if it's not enough to feel like you are defective to some because you have physical limitations in dealing with chronic illness, you have to dump on LOOKS to feel like you're not attractive enough, too skinny, and too, limited and/or defective in that way as well....I dont mean to have a "woe is me" sob session here, it just hurts to hear comments when i already have enough on my plate to deal with...........I havent been in a relationship with a guy for about four years now, mainly because I hold MYSELF back because i have believed the lies of people who say, BASICALLY, "you're no good" -- too physically limited, too confined, too skinny, too this, too that...............it's a saga that goes WAY BACK to day one and it just came out here on dinet with the "weight" factor and peoples comments/how they view me....... perhaps it's just a self esteem thing that I need to work on, and I just shouldnt let what people say get to me................. anyway all, thanks for listening/commenting. i know you gals understand. -Angela.

Hi, As recently posted, I had attached myself to a continuous ecg monitor while at work and not feeling that great and it showed normal postural tachy at about 170 and THEN after I laid down I went into AV block...... my cardiologist called this AV block but summed it up as being a "vagal event" ................I just spoke with my neurologist and filled him in on the findings and he thought it didnt sound characteristic of a "vagal event" because he said generally vagal events dont cause AV block, to any degree, whether mild (like what i had) or severe, and that generally a vagal response is seen while the patient is still standing upright, not after they go supine ..............he said he'd never seen anyone with vasovagal syncope go into AV block ......I personally could see how this COULD occur, to go into AV block from increased parasympathetic tone (the sa and av node are richly innervated with both sympathetic and parasympathetic fibers, so not sure why the neuro was so baffled over this?) ..... have any of you with vagal events been told that you had a simultaneous AV block with the vagal event?

hey flop, so sorry you're having a rough time. you said "How can my body let me push it into getting through the day at work but just give-up on me when it comes to things at home? It isn't like I've had a hard week at work, we've had lots of educational sessions and no overtime." -- My guess would be that probably you have to gear up your body to push through work because you know it is more a priority, something that NEEDS to be/get accomplished, something that 100% CANNOT be put off, and maybe even perhaps because you enjoy your job so much ........................when you finally get a break away from the reality that YOU MUST get through a work day/week and you finally have a break, your body probably just crumbles because you realize that perhaps all else in life, aside from your type of work, that some things might not seem as much a priority -- so maybe you feel you can let things slide more and really start listening to your body more than your schedule -- so you can give your body the break that is probably has been screaming for throughout work days/work week.... I know for me, when I have a day off, I crash. I love my job so much that I tend to push through the symptoms, acknowledging that they are there, but fight them off as much as possible, to try and do what I love the most. some days it's not as easy, but I know it is priority and A MUST for me to carry out my work, because I both love it, and because financially I'd crumble without it! lol. I know there are things that I should get done when I do have days off, but I always put them on back burner because I know ultimately it wont completely throw my world upside down if i dont get to it - so i tend to listen to my body more these days...........plus, the things I NEED to do on days off like laundry, cleaning, studying arent necessarily things I LOVE to do, so to kick my mind and body into gear to do these things when my body tells me to rest is more difficult .......... the work week, though not busy you said, still probably "caught up" with you and realizing that shopping and/or organizing papers wouldnt get you ''in trouble'' with your employer, or cause some chaotic event to occur as it might at work if you did not physically DO something, your body probably just felt some relief from tasks you do at work that are considered a must or mandatory, that cannot be put off, and thus just wanted to simply rest. ..... REST indeed, flop. listen to your body and take a break. the rest can wait. take care, Angela.

This is not what i meant at all ..........I am accepting of EVERYONE, from the thinnest to the biggest ....I have a big heart and love all people, not matter what their outward appearance. the point i was trying to make is that nobody ever runs up to someone who is a bit on the large size and says "wow, your big and should lose some weight" .......there are talk shows upon talk shows of people that get beat up with hurtful words because they are heavy, but do you ever see a talk show on people getting beat up with words because they are thin?? absolutely not - at least i havent..............my point that i was trying to make is that, many people, OUT OF RESPECT, would not walk up to someone and say "you're overweight lose some pounds" because supposedly the "standard" is to be supermodel size. i would completely disagree. who knows, for all I KNOW, those that are overweight, ALSO have a med problem that they struggle with that prevents them from losing weight ..........some people i work with, they wont go up to a person/patient and tell them straight up that they are too big, but will go running back to me or others and start gossiping about the person's size - and guess what, i leave the conversation because it makes me sick..................... i was NOT trying to be offensive, just pointing out the obvious - that most people, a NORMAL person, would tend to be more sensitive towards someone who is large and not open up their mouth with hurtful words than to someone who is thin. people dont tend to think that a comment thrown here and there to someone who is skinny is offensive, but many WOULD feel it to be offensive to make a comment to someone who is obese. what i'm getting at is IT SHOULD work both ways - whether you're skinny or overweight -- it is offensive to make comments about people's size - shape -- looks - anything superficial . that is not what counts in the first place....if you knew some of my friends, you'd see that they were very overweight, but who cares about that - it's their personality, their friendship that matters most to me .......... sorry if i came across the wrong way ... perhaps i should avoid posting certaiin topics on here that are on the sensitive side -- i think i've gotten stomped on a few times here for bringing up things that should not have been portrayed in a negative way at all ............if you knew me personally, you would know what i was trying to say with all this.

thank you all for your comments......it's not good to "harbor" things, i know....sometimes i just think of my response/reaction as just "letting it roll off my shoulder", but i know after many many comments from many many different people, after about 6 months of listening to it all, i find that NONE of it EVER had rolled off my shoulder and that it really hurt.... it is more difficult to address a random comment from someone that has never made ANY comments before about my size (like tonight with that doc) ....that doc has never mentioned anything about my size before, so to go up to him and say that he hurt my feelings and explain to him my stomach problems and etc, i think he'd take that as me just being too sensitive.....now if he had been saying comments to me repeatedly over the past couple months, i then would find it appropriate to approach him and address the problem...............i think the biggest problem is that these are random negative comments coming from random people that i work with -- here and there people so to speak ....the people that i work directly with, on a day to day basis NEVER comment about my weight and if they think i look skinny.........it is just the people i casually pass by in the halls (which BLOWS my mind that people who dont even know me well would speak out such hurtful things! usually it is the people that are closest to you, that perhaps would feel more "comfortable" putting you down or building you up, either way, to make comments whether indirectly or directly to you)..................i would never walk up to someone i barely knew and make comments about their size or their appearance......................so hurtful.......... thanks rachel, i'm glad you dont think i look sickly. funny, reflecting now back about four months ago when the doc down in boston ranted and raved about how "wonderful" i looked, lol, i probably shouldnt have gotten so upset over him saying such things, feeling like he was just discounting my symptoms .................actually thinking about it now makes me feel better, that he thinks i look good! i think i look okay! i dont think i look anything like someone who is anorexic! not even close...i am thin, but that's it.............i guess ultimately it is what I think that matters most, not what others thing..............I know, easy to say because words DO hurt and what people THINK, whether we say we dont care what they think, ultimately i think we do, to an extent. ....we want to be accepted, and want to be loved, want to look good, want to feel good........ ..........just never realized how tough this journey could be dealing with illness - not only physically, but emotionally/mentally as well -- with my own personal battles and then warding off the verbal battles of people who just dont understand................ i'm trying my hardest not to let it get to me ........it's very hard when you hear these comments SO MUCH. it would be one thing if i heard this stuff like a couple times a year, but when you hear it LITERALLY every week, sometimes every day,it is upsetting to hear................. thanks to you all for listening...........i appreciate it.

like for example, about 20 mins ago, i was getting some hot peppers to eat (along with some dinner) and a doc i work with was across the salad bar from me, and i said to him "geez, i should probably stop eating these hot peppers, i've been eating them since i was about four, i'm going to end up burning a hole in my stomach" .............his response was "well, there's not much there to burn in the first place" ....i know he was joking around probably, but when you hear comments like this every day, sometimes MANY TIMES A DAY, it really can start getting to you.............

UGH, it frustrates me that, LITERALLY, almost every day I hear someone say something about my size, how skinny i look, asking me if i eat, asking me if people call me "olive" from popeye??, etc,etc,etc, ..............ya know, i dont think people realize that comments such as these are JUST as offensive and hurtful as if they were making comments on someone being overweight. seriously, you never hear comments (at least i dont) about people that are over weight, and i work with plenty of them -- and they never get picked on and harrassed about their size. it annoys me because i cant do anything about how skinny i am because my stomach is messed up. i have been trying so hard just to keep my weight where it's at, and even THAT is a challenge in itself, so when people make these comments, it really hurts................. makes me feel like i look gross or something....i dont think i look anorexic, i have always been on the thin side to begin with, i just dont know why people have to open their mouths and make comments about my size.........

gave the strip to my cardio -- he said it looked like pots (extreme tachy) followed by mobitz I and extreme brady which basically he summed up as a vasovagal and good thing i laid down cuz i would have hit the floor. he said he doesnt know why i'm having so many vagal events as this never was an issue for me (and i sure as heck dont have an answer for him as to why! lol) .........he said there are two types of autonomic dys - pots and vagal and then there's overlap........he thinks something has changed but not sure what and said he cant wait to see what blair grubb has to say (i see grubb in december) .......... so that is the latest.............still havent caught that flutter event yet! arggh!!

Hi Flop, yeah that is what I was thinking too -- tachy probably just "fatigued" the AV node, making its refractory longer.....I have read that increased vagal tone can lead to mobitz I, and this would make sense in regard to refractory time. probably no biggie, but i think you're right that i should give it to my cardio anyway......the woozy sensation definitely was with the postural tachy, but continued on and symptoms of SOB and light-headedness came on after I had laid down. the tachy was pretty quick to end i must say and then the sudden two full cardiac cycles with prolonged PR's and then the third cycle followed the P with it's missing QRS, our fine and dandy mobitz I ............interestingly enough, the P wave morphology DID change, during mobitz and then after mobitz in comparison to the sinus tachy that I was having while standing..........different foci points, looked like wandering atrial pacemaker to me, three different P wave morphologies in the same lead and varying R TO R's ........my cardio told me four years ago that my P wave morphology had not change from stand to supine (tachy back down) -- but this strip is telling a different story -- there's no tachy following the standing tachy, just the mobitz and then varying R to R intervals and several morphologic P wave presentations per each R wave. interesting. At first i thought maybe it was just a sinus arrhythmia, but i believe that sinus arrhythmia would present with the same P wave morphology, just varying R TO R's with respiration ....so it must be just wandering atrial pacemaker rhythm following mobitz.............. kind of weird to see all this on my OWN rhythm strip! I'm always analyzing this stuff on everyone else's rhythm strips!

I didnt have my event monitor on tonight like a good little girl that I SHOULD be to try and catch this flutter sensaton ....I didnt get a flutter sensation, but I started to feel woozy, so I went in the back room, hooked myself up to a continuous ECG monitor and saw the well known and beloved sinus tachy around 170 standing (I'm still on beta too)...I felt really light headed and felt like hitting the floor, so I laid down and continued to let the monitor record and I went into Second degree Type I....I know this isnt very dangerous in most situations, in that type II is more concerning, but I wonder when you have symptoms as I did, what to do? I think maybe I should give the rhythm strip to the doc? flop, you out there? I know you mentioned you went into mobitz I ...did you have symptoms with it? hmmmm...... glad I caught it, but dont think there's much they'll do about it. I WANT to catch this OTHER thing, the flutter thing....ironically enough, the woozy sensation I got tonight is the same sensation I get before the flutter happens, but it didnt happen tonight....?? strange.... -cardiactec....

Just wondering to those of you who have EDS III, is exercising difficult for you? I took my bike out for some flat surfaced biking three days ago and I have been having intense pain in my legs ever since.......It wasnt that much of a work out, just a very slow and easy bike ride for about 20 minutes.....also, WHILE i was bike riding, my left knee kept "slipping" - usually i tend to wear a knee brace on that knee because I have always had problems with it - and now, having been diagnosed with EDS III a few months back, I wonder if this pain with exercise and my knee slipping with exercise is more an EDS thing.........usually I dont get a whole lot of pain WITHOUT exercising, just sometimes intermittently in my neck, sometimes it feels like i have a hard time holding my neck up cuz it hurts so bad, but that is only like 4 times a week............. any of you EDSers have a hard time with exercis? I know the pots patient in general has a rough time with exercising, which i definitely did -- but i probably didnt help out the situation much by only having been tapering off beta for 3 days before biking and such.....

A HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also wanted to add what flop said about side effects of yaz, or any birth control for that matter....not sure how long you've been on yaz and if your symptoms worsened or started before or when you started taking it, but i pulled this off the net in regard to yaz side effects : What are the possible side effects of Yaz? sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body; sudden headache, confusion, pain behind the eyes, problems with vision, speech, or balance; chest pain or heavy feeling, pain spreading to the arm or shoulder, nausea, sweating, general ill feeling; a change in the pattern or severity of migraine headaches; nausea, stomach pain, low fever, loss of appetite, dark urine, clay-colored stools, jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes); a breast lump; or symptoms of depression (sleep problems, weakness, mood changes). Sounds like you have headache, nausea, and some signs of depression.....who knows, it may not be related, but still good to look into it as a possibility.... hope you start feeling better....

So I decided after having been on beta blocker for about 4 years, off and on, that I'm going to try to just go without. If anything, my major symptoms have been more confined to GI related problems, which I'm now trying to control with another med, so I think I'll be ok without beta......the only concern is the wear and tear on the heart, ie: before being diagnosed with POTS and before knowing that my heart was even going crazed, they found that my heart function was down...no one ever told me why, but they thought because i had been tachycardic for so long. my heart function is back up now, so i think i'll be okay. ... Just tired of taking beta blocker, so I'm going to stop for a bit....down to 40mg's of beta a day, weening off and doing ok. though my HR's are pretty high, I have been managing ok and the cardiologist doesnt seem to have a problem with me being off beta, so I'm going to see how it goes! WISH ME LUCK!

there are some types of autonomic dysfunction that are more severe than others -- such as multiple system atrophy (MSA) that tend to have a poor prognosis after about 10 years of first onset symptoms, but MOST autonomic dysfunction conditions, though life altering and annoying, are NOT at all life threatening. life ALTERING but NOT life threatening. I would not be concerned with using your walker more than your power chair. actually, in most cases of autonomic dysfunction, it is worse for you to just let a wheelchair do all the work for you instead of trying to walk around a bit, get some exercise. a deconditioned state does not help out autonomic dysfunction any, and can actually make you worse..... I know you are scared, but I really dont think using your walker more than your powerchair will cause a heart attack. I have heart rates of 200 BPM every day, off and on, because of autonomic dysfunction and I have not keeled over....I actually try to be as active as possible even though I can get pretty symptomatic in doing so..... the symptoms can be scary, and heart rates can soar, but as long as you arent in heart failure or have a serious cardiac condition, I think it is worse for your heart the less mobile you are. Hang in there and good luck with seeing the autonomic dysfunction doc. cardiactec.

Hey all, Well, over the past two years I have had such an awesome PCP -- he has not only helped me with my physical well-being but emotional as well while going through the difficulties of POTS ........He is leaving (he's a resident and is done with family medicine residency) and I never realized how much he has helped me and how grateful I am/was to have him around................ I guess it kind of feels awkward in a way, and sad that many days I feel like I am so fatigued and physically ill that my social life consists more of talking to DOCTORS than it does with talking to friends and family -- seriously, because it seems like I see doctors (and particular this PCP) more than going out and socializing with friends (because by the time I am done with work, I have little energy to go out like most 25 year olds and hang out with friends)...................I guess this really all just hit me, as I laid in bed and LITERALLY CRIED over the fact that my PCP was going to be leaving in a few days.....and thought how awkward it felt that I was crying over my doctor leaving! and how abnormal to me that felt.......I think I had more social contact with him than friends, he was so nice to just let me come in every two-three weeks and vent about pots and anything else and to just simply talk, and NOT just throw me out the door and say "sorry dont know what else to do, good luck" .......... I guess to me it just feels so strange to be so effected by my PCP leaving because any normal 25 year old wouldnt care so much --- because normal 25 year olds HAVE A LIFE outside a doctors office and generally dont struggle with chronic illness that they probably go about two - three years maybe longer before they have to see a doctor! ....It is just sad (disgraceful feeling in a way) that POTS has put such a huge physical handicap on me that many days it becomes a social handicap as well -- because I'm just too tired to go out after work to have a social life -- so my "norm" has become a social life with my PCP because I see him all the time for follow-up........ anyway, just sad that my PCP's leaving, losing such a good thing is hard to let go of -- I will be surprised if I find a doc as good as the one I'm losing.... cardiactec.

Hi all, thanks for your replies. Things are going alright with the baclofen -- still hoping to get rid of a little bit more dizziness and tiredness as they are side effects of the med....but it's getting better as time goes on.... doctorguest, yes, I am surprised myself that this particular med is working -- considering if this med IS helping to relax the stomach muscle, than I'm not sure why the endoscopic botox injections didnt help as botox has similar effect (or is supposed to) on muscular tone (relaxing the sphincters to help food pass)..............I am currently on 20 mg's a day of the baclofen. my neuro said that at any point if it stops working, then i could titrate up to ...i think he said 80 mgs.

YES flop -- I thought this to be the case too -- though, it seems that the brady (high 40's) tends to be triggered when I go from extreme tachy from the pots (go from standing position with high tachy to supine position and then brady out). ....If i'm not having a bad day with the pots and dont have a very high tachy while standing and am just having a "regular" kind of day, at night I can be lying down with rates in the 50's and never tend to have this strange rhythm that comes on. It seems to always be when there's a bad flareup of tachy from the POTS, then I go to lay down and have this immediate drop in HR to high 40's and then BOOM, from that go into this rhythm. It definitely happens when I am more brady, but the brady is precipitated by high high tachy while standing......... LOL, this sounds bad I know, but I am trying to TRIGGER this thing to come on so I can catch it on the monitor -- I have been standing still to crank my rate up and then immediately go supine to see if the rhythm will "kick in". this is what happened a few nights ago before I had the monitor put on. I was standing, HR was 178, I immediately laid down on my bed and the HR dropped out to probably 45 or so and then it started -- very slow regular rhythm and then 7-9 beats that were very fast that would just drop off and the very slow regular rhythm followed again by 7-9 beats that were very fast........went on for three or four minutes and then stopped. I thought maybe respiratory variation but it seemed a little too "extreme" a rhythm to be that -- but just to test it out, I held my breath to see if the rhythm would continue on the way it had -- with varying slow regular rhythm to immediate fast 7-9 beat runs........and it did continue on this way when holding my breath -- slow slow and regular to fast fast and boom, slow again...

Do you, or DID you guys notice a pattern to when the SVT would come on? I see some pattern to mine -- it seems to come on after a bad pots spell --- when I'm standing up and my rates are cranking out at 180's -- and then I go and lay down to drop out my HR and help me feel better and my rates plummit out in my chest to the 40's and then I start going into a normal slow regular rhythm and then BOOM -- instantaneously I get these 7-10 beat runs that are very fast and then it comes out of it - it's not gradual onset and offset -- it is abrupt. so it seems to be aggravated or triggered by a bad POTS day.