Hi, I'm Sharon and am new to this forum. A great forum at that and hopefully
will help myself and others. Here's my story. My anxiety disorder started 11
years ago due to the tragic death of my grandad. 6 years ago I had an AF which
fortunately went back to normal without intervention. The cause was never found,
but the doctors put it down to stress, due to the fact I had just lost my mum to
cancer. Over the past 2 years I had been suffering with missed/skipped/erratic
heart beats.(does not help with the anxiety one bit). I had been in and out of
hospital like a yoyo and each time, as soon as I mentioned I had an anxiety
disorder, the doctor's weren't interested. It got to the point where I even
bought an Omron Heart Monitor, end of last year. It picked up several irregular
heartbeats, which I then took down to my local doctor who then referred me to a
Cardiologist. My appointment was just before Christmas. Again, as soon as I
mentioned Anxiety disorder, he didn't even bother to look at the results on the
monitor and told me to go home, don't panic and flog the monitor on Ebay. I was
rather disgusted and thought,ok, maybe it was all in my head and will have to
live with it. Missed/skipped/erratic beats carried on occurring and I tried to
ignore them. Until the week before Easter, where I was sitting calmly, and very
relaxed, watching tv in the evening and suddenly my heart went into overdrive
(very rapid, regular beats). I tried to stay calm but after 10 minutes got the
hubby to phone the ambulance. Within 5 minutes a Paramedic arrived and put me
straight onto the heart monitor. Evidence showed a rapid, regular heartbeat of
300 bmp. Halleluhah, it was confirmed that there was a problem after all and
not in my head. I was directed straight to a Cardiologist in Liverpool(albeit,
not the previous Cardiologist I had seen) where I was advised to have an EP
study and possible Catheter Ablation. Risks, extra were explained to me. I felt
that medication was not an alternative and agreed to go ahead with the
operation. The op took place last Wednesday whereby, the rapid heartbeat was
found within 5 minutes of the procedure (it didn't take much to start it off),
ablation was then taken place and diagnosis was confirmed as AVNRT in the left
Atrium. Quite unusual I was told. Operation went extremely well and nothing to
worry about at all(even though I didn't sleep at all the night before - Anxiety
kicking in again). I was fully sedated but well aware of what was happening.
Quite an experience and very interesting at that.
I was told that the operation was 95% successful. However, the first few days
after the operation everything was fine and I was on cloud nine but the third
day I had several missed/skipped beats which produced symptoms of dizzyness (and
panic). I rushed off to the local hospital where my blood pressure had shot upto
159/98 but pulse rate was 80 bpm. I was told to go home and relax and wait and
see if anymore beats occurred or if my blood pressure went any higher to go back
to the hospital. I am now here sitting at home on the computer, writing to you
all, asking for any advice on post-op info. I have booked myself in for some
Reflexology (to calm my nerves). However, is it safe to go ahead with
Reflexology or any alternative treatment? Also, if anyone would like to talk
please do, I gladly welcome all chats. All in all, besides asking for a bit of
advise, I recommend that, if your body is telling you that something is not
right, keep going back to your Doctor, whether you are being classed as a
Hyperchondriac/manic depressive or whatever. Only you know what is right and
what is wrong. Well, I shall finish now before I bore you all. Thank you for
listening and I look forward to hearing from any members