20 September, 2008
Further updates, updates!
17:42:19 | Daily Life | 
Mmmph.
Apparently, I do not only have sinus tachycardia, but atrial tachycardia (a specific form of supraventricular tachycardia) as well - based on the in-depth report I received in the mail today.
(When I saw the initial report at the clinic last week, my eyes caught the word ‘tachycardia’ and I automatically assumed it was the mildest form (sinus tachycardia). Must. Not. Make. Assumptions. Next. Time.)
The rate ….. is characteristically 100-160 beats/min …. difficult to distinguish from a sinus tachycardia. Diagnosis is important as it may lead to dilated cardiomyopathy if left untreated.
I don’t know what dilated cardiomyopathy is and I can’t be bothered to find out more about it because I am sick of medical terms, but it still sounds like major W-T-F to me.
But at least atrial tachycardia by itself is generally not life threatening.
Oh and yes, here’s the oh-so interesting 24-hour ECG graph summary obtained from last Friday’s hook-up to that silly monitor.
No guesses for how many hours I slept that night.
And those little ‘peaks’ in heart rate during the period where I was asleep indicated the times I woke up to toss and turn due to sheer discomfort.
As for my progress over the past one week - I would say that the past three days (today included) hasn’t been too good. The dizziness, fainting spells and heart palpitations are still out in full force and I am struggling to ignore it all as I go about my daily life.
Bah.
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Ugh. While I can tout the benefits of exercise (though not having tried it often enough myself), it has GOT to be difficult to even go for a walk when you’re feeling so badly. SUCKS. You don’t know yet have any way to improve your condition do you — medication, etc.?
Brenda’s reply: The cardiologist did mention that there are medications to artificially reduce my heart rate and increase my blood pressure, but he doesn’t want to attempt those at the moment because it is impossible to control how much increase/decrease to my bp/heart rate the medicine will cause. If the medicine works too well, it’ll mean bad news for me too. :(
So at the moment, I’ll just have to live and let live, and see how things go!
I’ve tried walking already, though! Going for regular ‘therapy walks’ with my mum at the nearby beach now. Hopefully things get better from here!