Arrhythmia... who needs it?
Arrhythmia... who needs it?
Hi Mara,
Well, I certainly didn't need it and you don't either! You might need to go back on the drug whether you like to or not but it does not necessarily have to be a betablocker. There are other antiarrhytmicas available. You might have run into a problem of scar tissue interfering with the normal conduction. I got myself into a world of trouble with arrhythmia, neither I or my doctors treated it with the appropriate concern at first. I argue that arrhythmia should be treated quite aggressively and I say so because it can give you more grief than you think. I'll tell my fairly whiny (does someone have some cheese to go with this?
) story which in all likelihood will tell you that I was the exception that defies the rule of the simplicity of arrhythmia management
. But I am also trying to say that do not settle for less. Tachycardia needs to be taken seriously and it needs to be managed.
I had huge problems with arrhythmia even before I had valve replacement. It was because the conductive system was damaged by scar tissue and damage to the myocardium due to myocarditis. I had SVT which was mostly paroxysmal in nature but I also had a-fib and what looked like a rare form of VT. At first they told me it was benign, then that it wasn't and that I would require drugs to bring it under control. Before then I cut caffeine, I cut alcohol, I cut stress (well, as much as I could anyway) and I cut spicy food. Saw some improvement yes but not nearly enough. Started with one drug, didn't work well, on with another drug. By the time they found a cocktail which worked I had changed medication and/or dosaging over ten times and coumadin had been added. For every normal beat there were two which wasn't. And on top of everything, I was young and stupid (not yet 20 at that point), and I did actually drink myself into v-fib which was pretty stupid
but then I was not yet 20 which will be my excuse to the end of time...
Eventually, after trying a gozillion drugs the doctor saw an onset of left ventricular hypertrophy and the electrophysiologist suggested an EP-study and if induction were possible they would attempt an ablation. By that time my jugular veines were so sore from the "hard" heart beats, I was constantly tired and blushing so I jumped at the chance.
Had ablation and yes, they did map the area and they did ablate. The tachycardia ceased and I was in heaven! But ablation does come with its own set of circumstances they had perhaps not foreseen beforehand. The a-fib did not go away - it's tricky business to ablate a-fib. When they ablate they usually go for the tach and leave the a-fib to be managed by medication. A while after my ablation it was discovered that the ablation had induced heart block. The bradycardia, which wasn't nearly as bad (I think) to deal with as the tachycardia, it still entailed its fair share of challenges and to make a long story short, eventually the rhythm had to be restored by a pacemaker which I got in 1995. Ablation works for many people, but not for all. At the time I wanted the tachycardia fixed so bad they could have told me I would have to live the rest of my life on the planet of Pluto and still I would have agreed because I was sick to death of it.
If not adequately controlled, tachycardia can cause LVH and other problems. Some tachycardias might be deemed somewhat harmless, like if you have very short bursts of non-sustainable tachycardia. My psvt attacks were supposedly harmless at first but I did have episodes which made it apparent to everyone that they were nothing to be messed around with. Based on my experiences I am very careful about everything nowadays. After open heart surgery there needs to be a check for conductive malfunction, preferably by a electrophysiologist. But this much I will say on electrophysiologists that although I have gotten along with most of those that has come my way I still prefer an interventional cardiologist to prescribe drugs and whatever else my heart needs to work. I am lucky enough to be fairly spared arrhythmia with my new heart but denervement did land me a pacemaker in October.
I'm so sorry to hear of your husband! I hope the problem will resolve with time and that he will be back to health in no time. How's he tolerating the hormonal substitution given?
All my best,
/jessica
