[Susie]

Well, I am FINALLY going to go through with it. I just talked to the heart center, and they said since the doctor did not cancel the 7 day king of hearts, it was I who did because I was scared of it, I could still have it.

I will be wearing it starting January 9 for 7 days. I am scared, but, I need to know what is going on instead of trying to guess. This should give me a pretty good idea.

I have some questions, maybe you knowledgable folks can help me.

1. Does the monitor record all the time like my 24 hour holter ones did? Or, does it just kick in when you have an event?

2. If you are asleep and have an event, how can you press the button, or, does it pick that up.

3. Are you supposed to exercise and do what you normally would do while you wear it.

4. Do they pick up every little "blip" etc.

I think that is all. I will let you all know the day I get it how I am and keep you posted during the duration of wearing it. I have to admit, I kept putting it off because I was afriad it might find A-fib or something worse, but, I am not going to hide my head in the sand anymore, scared or not, I have to do this.

Hugs to all
Susie

[Susie]

Oh, also, the tech said they were going to give me extra pads, do you use those when you take a bath or one gets loose? I know you can take the leads off for a quick bath.

[CMoore416]

Good luck. I hope this helps you. I really do. I k ow you and I are struggling the same. I pray you get the positive answers you need to hopefully start a new happy life!!

[bypeep]

Susie,

I think there are different versions of the King of Hearts. I wore a KoH for the past two months and it was the type that stored 10 events, all which had to be user triggered with a button.

That being said, since I get some strange palps at night, I wore mine all night long.

It continuously records but overwrites after a time. When you push the button, it goes back like 30 seconds and forward about 30 seconds so they can see what your heart was doing even if you can't trigger it immediately.

They will give you extra pads that you will change once a day or if they come loose. If you wear them for too long the moisture goes away and there isn't good contact. With no contact, it won't pick up your heart rhythm.

But, there are also monitors that will trigger themselves when they catch an event. I think KoH makes one of these too.

Either way, the technician will explain all this to you and show you how to use it properly.

The last two that I used required that I transmit via a landline phone. All I had to do was call a number, put the recorder over the receiver and press a button.

That was really the most stressful part of the whole experience.

If you were wearing it longer I might suggest that you request pads for sensitive skin because I actually have scars on my skin from wearing these things.

I too hope that this will put your mind at ease.

[Susie]

Thank you, mine will be for 7 days, wow, I can't imagine wearing one for a month or more.

This one, I believe you need a landline phone too, you need to call in every 10 events, it sounds similar to what you wore.

Oh, if they see something wrong, when you send the info, who calls, one of my docs is in Seattle, the other in Yakima, both are 70 miles from me, does the tech at the cardiologist clinic that receives the info call? The closest hospital is 25 miles from me, sort of scary.

[CMoore416]

I called my cardiologist and made an appt for feb 6. Nurse thought I might we'd tonwear a Event
Monitor to reassure myself. But my goal is to work on my anxiety and stress for the next month to see if I can make it better since I'm sure that's all it is. Nurse just called Me back as I type this to say she is leaving him a message too and asked how Long I have the episodes. Maybe knowing I have an appointment will help stress levels.

[DaniRae]

I had a 30 day monitor that transmitted via cell signal. I had to push the button to record though. There are so many different kinds.

[Susie]

CM, I am doing it for reassurance, but right now, I am extra nervous, and I am noticing every little movement, probably all in my head, but, just the same, I feel like some weird things are going on with my heart right now. I will be glad to have it done and to find out what is wrong, if anything, good or bad, at least I will know.

[Katie]

Susie I had the exact same monitor. You press or when you feel something funny and it records 15 seconds before and 30-45 seconds after the push. Then once you fill the little recorder that's the size of a pager you call and transmit the recordings which found like a fax. Mine only recorded 5 so 10 is great. Then you'll clear the recordings and start over. It's stressful but you'll be happy to finally find out your heart is ok.

[bypeep]

Susie,

Which is worse? The crippling effect of not knowing, or the fear of finding out what's really going on?

I'm obviously not a medical professional, but I have read through your posts thoroughly since I joined the site a while back. Your major complaint seems to be PAC's. Going out on a limb here... you mention one of the reasons for cancelling your original monitor is because you worried they would find "A-fib or something worse." In your case, A-fib would most likely be the worse thing they could find. Anything is possible, but from what I've read, they are only seeing premature beats originating in your atria. This should be such a reassurance to you. I know it's what I hoped for when I was going through testing. Yes, the sensations the PAC's cause are very uncomfortable and scary, but a PAC will not hurt you. Imagine the reassurance you will receive when this monitoring session is complete and they find out that PAC's are your only issue.

Here's a suggestion - your latest worry is over the resting size of your left ventricle. Know that echo's aren't the "gold standard" in estimating the size and function of your heart. If this is truly plaguing you, perhaps request a cardiac MRI. This will give the best images of your heart and determine the real size of that ventricle. It's entirely possible that the echo is off slightly on its measurements and the MRI could prove to you that this chamber is of normal size.

Our bodies are all very different. I'd be more worried if that ventricle were enlarged or thickened than being 2mm smaller during one phase of the cardiac cycle than the average person's.

As far as your question about the transmissions...

You will transmit your data to a call center. They will analyze the strips it produces. If they see something that is alarming, they will most likely fax over the results to your Cardiologist. There are very few things that would cause them to send you to the ER and each of those things would (probably) be very apparent to you if they were going on. They don't even worry about NSVT (usually) on these things. My 9-beat run got a "it looks like you had a little bit of a run" response from my technician, but she didn't seem like it was dire. She just told me that she'd be faxing my event to my cardio asap and he might be calling. He didn't.

Yes, you're 25 minutes from the nearest hospital, but you have never had to rush there before right? So nothing has really changed. If they tell you to head to the ER it would be no different if you were having stomach pains and told yourself to go.

I've read a lot of stories on here, but the only person I recall getting a "head to the ER" response was Lisa. Remember her? Well all her tests showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that her heart was abnormal. Yours really haven't.

You will be fine. This will be a positive experience. You will get the answers you need and feel better in the long run.

Yes, we are all hypersensitive to our hearts. Maybe that's the real disease they need to treat, lol. I told my electrophysiologist that the only reason I can't ignore them is because they are so jolting. I told him that I don't sit there and obsess about my heart until it knocks the wind out of me and makes me take notice. I suggested that he research ways to deaden the awareness and then we'd all be happy. I guess the only way we can do this now is with some biofeedback or something. I don't know.

But what I do know is that you will get through this. What I'm hoping is that you can get through this and take with it a little peace of mind.