Okay, so I'm hooked up to the heart monitor. Have been for 6 hours. Have I had one single little flutter? One trace of a palpitation? One itty, bitty blip? No.
They've plagued me for the better part of two months, tormenting me endlessly, and now when I WANT them to come, they won't.
Doesn't that just figure? Doesn't that just flucking figure??
Because the thing is, I wear this for two weeks OR until I record 14 "episodes". Yes, it's a relatively small device (ipod size vs. the extra-large Walkman size one I wore 17 years ago), but one of the two sticky disks (I'm sure there's an actual name for them) that keeps the electrode next to my skin is ever-so-unflatteringly placed just below my collarbone to the immediate right of the middle of my neck. In plain view unless I'm wearing a turtle neck or a nun's habit.
And I have neither.
And this is annoying.
I scoffed when the nurse, a woman in her 50's wearing braces that seemed about 10 times too big for her mouth, told me the two week or 14 episode rule. I told her I'd likely be back in a few days given the frequency of the flutters.
She didn't seem impressed by this, by the way.
I know I should be happy, not to mention relieved, that the flutters seem to have magically calmed down. And I am. But I'd be much happier if I wasn't connected to a heart monitor by two sticky disks, one very visible and increasingly itchy, for what may now be two full weeks.
The fun never stops.
8 comments:
I missed your post about your palpitations! This is scary stuff.
A couple of years ago, my husband had the same experience, and we ended up in the ER one night. Turned out that he had PVCs, which are preventicular contractions and very common and not dangerous.
He had to cut out caffeine and he seems better these days.
I am praying that your palpitations are nothing to really worry over!
I feel weird wishing you more palpitations, but I do think it would be only honest of them to show their true self and stop acting all cute and cuddly for the recording device.
Mostly I wish that the ultimate conclusion is not scary or worrisome. Now or in two weeks.
I get palpitations, too. Not so much these days, which I think is due to my relative lack of stress (life is less stressful in general and I meditate each morning) and due to the fact that I cut out caffeine several months ago. I went through testing about 10 years ago and it was concluded that they were stress-related. Most of the time it feels like my heart stops for a split-second, then beats really fast. In the middle of an episode I can get it to stop (this is a little embarassing, but this is what the doctor taught me) by bearing down. However, there have been a few occasions (especially in the days after losing William) when my heart beat so fast that we almost went to the hospital.
I sure hope that this all gets resolved quickly for you--that the two weeks go by fast.
Hoping that everything is okay...
~Carole
http://accordingtocarole.blogspot.com
Hope you're doing alright!
Here from the Lost and Found and wanted to say the same thing has happened to me several times over the course of ten years. They started when I was 23 and I had to wear the monitor for a week and of course no such episodes were recorded. I've had several ekgs and a stress test and nothing can be found to be amiss except asthma (which didn't start until long after the palpitations). Having them when no one's looking can make you crazy. And tests showing everything is fine are hard to believe when they make you feel like you just might die. Hope they calm down and give you some peace.
Oh my, I haven't commented in awhile, but I do want to say that 2 weeks on a holter monitor is odd, sweetie. Really.
The longest I've done is 96 hours, or 4 days. And every other one is only 72 hours. Mostly because you may have a number of silent flutters and you won't notice them. So your 14 could happen and you won't know.
I have an SVT, supra ventricular tachycardia. Which is easy to fix surgically if it ever really bothered me, but usually is no big deal.
Ask for a referral to a cardiologist to go over the results. Your GP will get the report, but they won't really know what the hell they are looking at, unfortunately.
I hope they figure it out.
BTW did you know heart "flutters" could be brought on by stress?
thinking of you...
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