Thread: Living with Supra Ventricular Tachychardia SVT

PJT,
Good luck with the proceedure. Not that you need luck, these EP specialists are very good. I have VT which came on after an MI, though I suspect I have had episodes previously and had brushed them off as a bit of a turn. My solution was a little more involved so now I'm speed limited and have personal EFI system MK2. Much the same as Lisa Curry (-Kenny?) went through. I'm glad I had medical cover as it would be sell the house stuff if I had to pay full cost of the proceedures.

Pete

All the very best with your procedure.
I look forward to hearing about the complete successful recovery soon.

Regards
Woody1

Hi Pete

Well, I've been there and done all of that. I had Wolf Parkinson White Syndrome, which I first noticed at age ~16. When it comes on, it's quite debilitating. These attacks became more and more frequent. Usually brought on by a sudden movement (even just standing up). Sometimes I was able to stop it by leaning forward and pulling my diaphram up as hard as I could, and it would end with two almighty heartbeats. Other times I just had to let it run it's course, which could be up to 24 hours, but usually 1-2 hours.

By the time I was about 38 it had become too much too handle, and I went on to a medication that really only helped a little bit. Aged 40 I had the first radio ablation, but they went into the wrong side of the heart, so it did nothing. Back in again about 6 months later, and they got about 70% of it, 3 months later they got the lot. So, it took three goes over nine months, but was absolutely worth it. Night and Day difference.

These days (16 years later) I very occasionally get a slight flutter for maybe 2-3 seconds, but I suspect that these might be the normal flutters that everybody gets (I'm just super aware of my heart beats).

The procedure itself is a stroll in the park. Don't know if things have changed, but apparently I was never fully out, as they asked my questions during the procedure. There is an amnesia effect from the drug, which meant I just felt as if they hadn't even started yet.

So, nothing to be apprehensive about at all. Well, that may depend on the nurse that shaves you, actually. I was "lucky" enough to get a Male, who was very clearly gay, and he was having a wonderful time. He shaved navel to knee, and took no prisoners whatsoever (even on the "rather difficult" areas - think wrinkles ). This I thought was over the top, considering that they only have to put two ½" cuts in the groin, and it resulted in an appalling amount of in-grown hairs for a while. I discussed this with the surgeon the next time, and just did the shaving myself a couple of inches around where the cuts would be.

HTH (or not)
Brett

All the best PJT, you'll be nice and sedated and won't remember a thing.

The electrical current actually starts in the SA node (in the atrium) which fires and goes down a pathway to the AV node. The SA node fires first and contracts the atria then to the AV node to contract the ventricles. Sometimes, in your case (And FenceFurnitures WPW), there is an extra pathway and the electrical signal fires down that path. Because this pathway is not controlled, as such, the signal goes round and round and round quickly causing your ventricles to contract at a rapid rate. Because your ventricles don't have time to relax and fill with blood to pump to your body, only a small amount of blood gets pushed around. A small amount of blood to your brain makes you feel dizzy and in some instances, you faint. The aim of your procedure is to ablate (burn) the extra pathway so it doesn't cause you any more trouble.

Hope this explains it a little better

Once again, all the best!

I started having Atrial Fibulation and Ventricular Tachychardia about 19 years ago, it resulted in minor blackouts that lasted for a couple of seconds. Didn't worry to much about it until ,I was waiting at traffic lights , everything went black. Went to my GP, off to have tests and then to the cardiologist, more tests, diagnosed with AF and VT.
Was prescribed medication called Amiodorone, and Warfarin which worked for several months until memory , eyes, started to play up, the Warfarin thinned my blood too much. Changed cardiologist , more tests , now on Tamborcor and half a disprin daily. Since the change of medication , no problems with the ticker. John.

Cheers everyone for the kind thoughts and sharing of personal stories, like FF WPW was also mentioned when the doc was listening to the heart at the hospital, from memory S3 and S4, something to do with specific points on the trace, (printout from the ECG machine) there is a small triangle shape just before the main spike, doesn't seem to be too much drama to me at least.

Also like FF it doesn't take much to set it off, stress can help to set mine off, working to a deadline, a slight surge in adrelinine and away it goes or it can just take off for no real reason, sometimes I crouch down and it will stop, other times lay flat on the floor feet up and when it stops there's those 2 normal big beats and ahhh, I equate them to the feeling of relief when you can take a full breath of air after doing strenous exercise, the ambos said that if it doesn't resolve after about 10 mins I should go to hospital, they seemed to not like to see it go too long, like Scott said I can feel that the blood flow is far less, I can walk for a bit but not much else, never fainted or ever worried about it too much.

Sedation has been mentioned but how sedated I will be I don't know, it will be an interesting experience!



Pete

Originally Posted by pjt

Sedation has been mentioned but how sedated I will be I don't know, it will be an interesting experience!

As far as you are concerned you will be completely under - the amnesia effect must be pretty immediate, or something. You'll wake up and wonder if they have started yet.

Hi all,
In a nutshell it all went very well, Thursday for a pre op clinic, then Friday for the procedure which went very smoothly, in and out of operating theatre in 20 mins, I was fully awake for the whole time, just some sedation, they don't want the patient to be out to it too much because it reduces their ability to induce the heart to go into rapid rate, they need to be able to do this to see where the problem lies and then to test for rapid heart rate after the ablation.
The procedure consists basically of a local anesthetic in the groin where the wire goes in which is then fed up to the heart, the doc 'sees' where the problem is via xray and the heart trace, if I hadn't been told that the clicking sound was when the zapping was happening I wouldn't have known I was being zapped which was a very mild sensation in the heart.

The actual SVT type I have (had) is AVNRT where the electrical pulse re-enters the upper chambers and starts a cycle of pulses back and forth between the SA and the AV node thus giving rise to the rapid beat of the upper chambers.

The problem occurs at the AV node where their is an abnormality, the abnormality takes the form of two paths the signal can take before continuing on to the lower chambers, they describe the two paths as being fast or slow, to stop the re-entering of the signal they ablate (burn) one of the paths, in my case they zapped the slow path, according to Wiki there are variations on the fast and slow paths.

In a normal AV node their is only one path (think of a roundabout where you can only go out on the opposite side) but in my case I had a roundabout where the signal can go out as per normal or do a 360 and go back out the way it came in thus describing it as a re-entering signal.

The doc was pretty sure I won't have an issue with it any more and if I do it will happen within a month in which case it will be back in for a bit more zapping like in FF's case.

The hospital staff were all excellent from the moment I walked in the door to when I walked out.



Pete

Pete

Great news
Now back into the woodshed to build another one of your beautiful pieces of furniture

Great to hear Pete. I have no doubt that the procedure would have changed somewhat since my day (1996/7) when I think it may have been fairly new. In each of the three cases the procedure went for several hours, and significantly deeper sedation.

It's highly likely that you won't miss it at all - by that I mean that one day in about six months you might think "Oh yeah, haven't had any of that stuff going on."

Good news Pete hope you continue to improve.

Good news Pete!! I'm really pleased it all went smoothly for you.

I have some idea of what it feels like when the ticker gets the wobbles. I Had
several episodes of atrial fibrilation some years back. Very unpleasant. Luckily
it stopped and sorted itself out of its own accord.

Ana had a hole in the heart that was closed and she now has problems with
ectopic and bi-gemini beats at times. Itis not as bad as the trouble she had
before the closure but it still has to be coped with.

Cheers everyone for the kind words, it's been a bit more than a week and no tachychardia , at different times I still get the hurry up beat, as best I can describe it, it just feels like a big beat which previously could be the start of an episode, but, so far all good.
It still amazes me when I think about what the technology allows the doc's to do with this type of minimally invasive procedure. To go in and be able to walk out on the same day with no ill effects and instructions just to take it easy for a few days and take aspirin for a month.


Pete