[MrsPB]

Hi - I'm new to all this- I've been having a rapid heartbeat at night - it wakes me up from a dead sleep and sometimes lasts for an hour or so, but I do eventually fall back asleep. I can have it up to three times in a night. Both my mum and dad have had this. My mum takes pills and my dad had an operation. I'm now over the idea I'm going to die in my sleep, but I'm so tired and just want answers. My doctor ordered the King of Hearts test and it took 6 months before I got a monitor. I wore it for two weeks - got the requisite huge blisters from the adhesive pads. I transmitted events everyday to the hospital, and received the "transmission accepted" signal. After two weeks, I went to the cardiologist, who said the hospital had received no transmissions. He said this has happened before. I couldn't believe the hospital never followed up. Now what? Is this a common occurrence? Should I ask to do the test again, or is there something more useful/practical i could do?

[poohbear2026]

Hi
I have had the King of Hearts several times. I always had to call the transmissions in over the phone. They always told me if it came through and if there were any reasons to call the dr. The times that NSVT were caught they would tell me that they were calling my dr...those were the scary moments.. If I were you I would request a different monitor. The sticky tabs are bad though they would make me break out every time...but if you tell the person on the phone they will send you a different kind of tab for sensitive skin.
Anita

[Jeff]

Wow! That is unbelievably frustrating!

If there's one thing I don't like about the healthcare system is that when you're your most worried, most sick, you have to be the strongest mentally and be your own greatest advocate.

I have two thoughts -

If you're having these at night and they're waking you up, it would seem a Holter monitor would be better than a King of Hearts, because the King of Hearts only records a brief period of time, and it might not even catch the beginning of your arrhythmia, which is something I know cardiologists want to see. A Holter records non-stop, for 24 hours or for 48. For the King of Hearts, when you wake up you may have been tachycardic for 15 minutes already.

And the 2nd thing - when I had my King of Hearts, after I'd been submitting transmissions for a few days (I had telephone contact with a nurse, so I knew the transmissions were being received), I called my doctor's office to ask if they wait until the 30 days is over or if they see something worrisome would I hear back right away. They said "uh, we don't have any transmissions."

So I called around. They called around. Turns out they had the wrong fax number for my doctor. So maybe my cardiac rhythm strips were being faxed to the local pizza joint. Who knows? Anyway, we got it straightened out after that, but if I hadn't been asking, nobody would have ever even noticed until I returned the monitor.

Very frustrating.

So I hope you get another chance at a monitor, and soon, and I would think you'd ask them about a Holter monitor instead of a King of Hearts event monitor.

[MrsPB]

wow! thanks for replying so quickly - oddly enough, the cardiologists office called me today to get me another test. I will have the 2 week monitor again because I never know when these nighttime attacks will occur...but i'm learning a lot from looking through the info on this site, so I'll be able to be more informed about what to ask. thanks for helping me out!

[Jeff]

Do you have to press a button to make the recordings? If you do, it seems to me that the test value is a bit dubious. If this happens every night (predictably), then I'd ask for a monitor that records continuously so this can be caught.

Good luck, and be sure to let us know how everything goes.

jeff

[jkfrench]

Good luck with your monitor. I have been getting runs of fast beats at night lately. They don't wake me up but I feel them as I am drifting off to sleep.
Jodie

[Jeff]

I must have had you on my mind last night, Jodie, because just as I was laying down to bed I noticed a quick burst of fast beats. Couldn't have been longer than a second or two. I just smiled, thought about you and your martini, then drifted off to sleep.

[jkfrench]

Sweet dreams Jeff!!

[Jeff]

lol - that they were.

[dld]

Mrs PB,

When I wore my king of hearts monitor I was afraid to ask questions. The man on the other end of the phone was not too friendly. I almost felt like I was bothering him. A few times he told me I was all set, and I noticed that the sound was a little weird and I asked why. He then checked and told me one of my leads was off. If I didn't notice the strange sound, he would have just let me hang up not knowing anything was wrong.
You have a second chance-press the button for anything and everything you feel. Don't be afraid to ask questions.
Good luck. D