Racing Heart and what worked to get it down

[Jtucker33]

Hello, I’m a year and a half removed from a successful Bental procedure as well as a repair of an aneurism. I’m on Warfarin but no beta blockers. Fortunately I’ve been feeling fine.

Maybe this is common knowledge but I had never heard of it.

Last week my heart started racing while I was just watching TV. It got up to 180 bpm and wouldn’t come down. I was taken to an emergency room.

Anyway, after I refused to take something that would “stop my heart for just a second to reset it”, doctors had me strain or push while laying flat on the bed. As I did, they took my legs and raised them up and behind my head. Kind of a reverse scorpion. My heart rate immediately dropped.

Within seconds it was down to 96. Again, maybe this technique is common knowledge but I thought someone out there might need to know this.

 

[Protimenow]

That routing (the VasoVagal routing, if I remember correctly) is well known - but I'm not sure about the legs behind my head. I used to get those events and, in fact, had one slightly more than a month ago -- but this one wasn't stopping.

At the doctor's office, I was told to try to press down as if I was going to bethroom. I'd tried that before, but it never worked. The doctor's student tried carotid massage - but that didn't help, either. I was given the choice of a procedure in the office (probably a defibrillator) and I would have to pay $300 for this, or go to E.R. where they could try it as a last resort. Because my insurance covers E.R. visits if I'm admitted, and there's a co-pay of $95 if I'm not, I opted for the E.R.

I told them that I would drive to the hospital - they advised against it, I insisted, and the told me to call them when I got there.

I went to the hospital with a copy of my EKG and a note for them to call the doctor. Two doses of adenosine (probably what they were going to give you in the E.R.), and the fibrillation stopped. Before they did this, they wheeled in a crash cart and put large electrical patches on my ribs (in front of my heart), and my back (behind the heart). Thankfully, the adenosine did the job.

I know that many of us on this site have had similar arrhythmias, and probably all are aware of this procedure for stopping the arrhythmia.