Had another episode Tuesday morning. It sucks. I was in VT for three hours before they cardioverted me. This is my third major event since my cardiomyopathy diagnosis in 2001. At least this time my ICD didn't fire. First time is was 53 ICD shocks and a conscious cardioversion. Second time was 10 shocks. Home now and grateful to be with my family. Now it is time to fight the anxiety and resume a normal life.

Treasure your time with the people you love. When you are on the gurney, it's the thing you want the most.

Glad you are ok. I’ve seen V Tach several times. Once for at least three hours, by my estimation. Has to be scary as hell.

Best of luck to you, I hope they can control it. I cardioverted a good handful of fellas back in my paramedic days... I know it’s not “pleasant”.

When I was in Biloxi after Katrina a patient came to the ED with multiple shocks like that. He was dehydrated and electrolytes out of whack. Potassium, magnesium and amiodarone loading got him stabilized so I could have him sent off to Mobile. That was the only true cardiac emergency I had to deal with in my time there.

Let us know what your electrophysiologist does for you.

I have atrial tachycardia and was cardioverted yesterday (for the fifth time). The pacemaker was installed last September. I have a mechanical mitral valve so an ablation around it is risky so in the next week or so I am having an AV node ablation and then will be dependent on the pacemaker but the tachycardia should be controlled.

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement. Had the ICD implaned in 2007 and then the first VT storm (53 shocks) in 2008. They did an ablation then. All was calm until 2014 when I had another (only 10 shocks). Upgraded the ICD to a pacemaker then. Since then calm until this week. Been on amiodorone (among many others) since 2008. They mexalitone to the mix and bumped up the coreg. I am truly fortunate in that my EP is the Director of cardiac EP lab at Mass General.

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Ventricular tachycardia

Here is an article from a search at the Life Extension Foundation for nutritional supplements to help your problem:

www.lifeextension.com/Magazine...report_heart/Page-01

Looks like they just went off line for maintenance.

I take most of the supplements they list for maintenance and long life. Good luck.

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I am truly fortunate in that my EP is the Director of cardiac EP lab at Mass General.

Is that Moussa Mansour? He would have to be exceptionally well qualified to hold that position, I humbly bow to his superior knowledge and experience. Glad you have him for an EP!

It is good to see it turned out in your favor.
This puts things in their proper place as I was
really dreading my oral surgery this morning.

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Originally posted by sjtill:

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I am truly fortunate in that my EP is the Director of cardiac EP lab at Mass General.

Is that Moussa Mansour? He would have to be exceptionally well qualified to hold that position, I humbly bow to his superior knowledge and experience. Glad you have him for an EP!

It is Dr. Mansour. I have been with him since 2007. Great doc and a great guy. My whole cardiology team at MGH has been phenomenal.

Our EP at Balboa Naval Hospital trained at MGH, and he’s very good. Anthony Choi.

Wow, wasn’t familiar with any of those terms. Had to look them up. Hope you are and feel better soon!

I too hope you'll get better. I also wish to thank you for starting this thread because I have been experiencing some attacks of tachycardia. Fortunately the have been completely benign up to this point but it's scary as hell to be woken up at midnight with a heart rate over 160 bpm and no cause.

BTW, I exercise daily and may be overdoing it a bit, a tpical morning workout spans 100 minutes and I'll spend 80% of that time doing Aerobic exercise with a heart rate of 110-118 bpm and the other 20% Anaerobic with a heart rate of 130-160 bpm depending on the day. I also monitor my heart rate during exercise using an Old School Chest monitor and had one running during one Aerobic session when I had a Tachycardia episode. Heart rate went from 110 to 170 in less than a minute and stayed in that range for nearly 5 minutes when I converted and it went back to normal. Naturally during that spell I sat down and waited for it to end and then resumed exercising. Other than the HR issues during these events I have had no other typical issues such as being dizzy or feeling at all fatigued.

As for cause, until that link 41 posted I thought my problem was low potassium because I gave up bananas about 3 week before the first episode because I wanted to cut down on carbs. BTW, the daily requirement for potassium is 4700 milligrams and you should just try to put together a 2000 calorie diet with that much potassium in it, hint, it aint possible unless you take a supplement that isn't really available over the counter because too much can be worse than too little. However that link that 41 provided also has me thinking I may need a Magnesium supplement and good news on that front is that if you take too much you get immediate feedback on that.

Anyhow right now my doctor isn't too concerned due to the lack of any other symptoms during one of these episodes. His suggestion was to minimize caffeine intake, so I've gone to decaf Tea instead of my normal black tea. He also suggesting drinking Gatorade G2 which I always have in the house as a post workout drink so I am substituting G2 for tea somewhat. I've also begun trying to gain an additional 1200-1400 mg of potassium by either having 2 bananas a day or doing a banana and yogurt each day. However if I have just one more attack I think I am going to have to talk to the doctor about a blood test and possibly a Stress Test.

Final note and a bit of an FYI. I normally wear a Garmin 235 which is equipped with an optical monitor 24/7. During these episodes I have found that the Optical Heart Heart rate monitors WILL NOT track the HR during an episode of Tachycardia. So, if anyone reading this is thinking about getting a wrist type HR monitor to record their heart rate during an episode don't waste your money. What I have found that works is an electrically based monitor and nothing else.

Saw my team at MGH yesterday. Bumped up some of the meds rather than do another ablation at this point. Hoping to hold that off for a few more years.

Scooter: don't wait for another episode. Go find a cardiologist and get a thorough work up. You have had slow VT so far but that does not mean it won't be more serious in the future. It can be deadly.

My underlying condition that makes me susceptible to VT is cardiomyopathy. Prior to diagnosis I had been an endurance athlete in high school & college. I had no symptoms other than an occasional twinge. My primary care doc ordered a stress test even though she did not think it was anything to be concerned about. Turns out my ejection fraction was down to 15. Normal is about 75 and you go on the transplant list around 10. I got lucky she was thorough.

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Turns out my ejection fraction was down to 15

Oh my, that explains a lot.

Regarding monitors for tachycardia: I strongly recommend the AliveCor Kardia monitor. It works with a smart phone and shows an actual electrocardiogram which can be stored and sent to one's physician. I've done that with my wife's atrial tachycardia, it was much more useful than the one-month "official" event monitor. They cost less than a Benjamin. Alivecor.com.