[Jeff]

@Sami - That's the same kind of monitor I had - you have to press a button. Here's a youtube video of me and my monitor:



You press the big grey button in the middle, and when you do, you hear a kind of loud sound of your heartbeat for 15 seconds (or whatever amount of time they programmed it for).

@momof3 - Have you asked for your EKGs? I would think you'd be able to get your hands on it and determine for yourself if you had long QT or not. Or show it to someone else at work and ask their opinion.

And anxiously waiting for them can definitely bring them on. Sometimes when I'm having them I'll try an experiment where I think about something really terrible, and see if I can get my heart to skip within a few seconds of that thought, and often I can.

The problem is, thinking of bad stuff is easy. NOT thinking about bad stuff is hard.

[SamiP]

Hi Jeff,
Thankfully, the one I have doesn't show my pulse..just another thing to make me go crazy. On this one, when I have the extra beat, I press a button and it will record for 90 seconds. I believe I have room for two or three sessions. After that, I phone in and place the unit near the receiver. There, it's documented/read and if anything is unusual, they notify my doctor immediately. I sort of like this, it's as if I have my own personal physician with me. Okay, maybe not really, but in MY mind, it is. So far, I haven't any any palpitations or rapid heartbeats..Murphy's Law kicking in perhaps? I'm sure this will change too, but for now, I'm enjoying some peace and quiet.
I can wear this from 14 to 30 days, it's my choice. I like the fact that it's very small, smaller than a beeper. Now I just want results (good ones).

[Jeff]

You must have a newer model - mine was bigger than a beeper, and at a few points during my time with it my kids were climbing all over me trying to press the button! And yeah - I put electrical tape over the screen after a few days, so I couldn't see the heart rate.

I will say this about phoning in the transmission - I also thought it was great that I could call in and talk to a nurse before and after I sent in the recordings, and after a week or so I figured out how to ask questions so that I could get them to tell me what they were seeing (I don't think they're supposed to do that).

But that was a double-edged sword, because on one occasion, when I asked, the nurse said she saw some v-tach in the transmission. My heart sank and I was worried sick for a couple days.

But I found out later that what happens is the computer on the other end is trying to decipher the data it's receiving and is forced to categorize every rhythm it sees. But with only two leads, there can be lots of "artifacts" in the data that make it impossible for a computer to read - so it spit out v-tach in my case, and the nurse just repeated what she saw on the screen.

My cardiologist reviewed that strip along with every other, and when I asked about that one in particular, she told me about the computer and the artifacts, and that a human eye needs to make the final determination on these, and she was sure it was PAT or PSVT, not NSVT.

So while having that access can be a real lifeline, remember that those people receiving the data are not cardiologists, and to take their input with a grain of salt.

[Jeff]

Oh - and wear the thing for 30 days - you get charged the same no matter how long you have it, so get your money's worth.

[momof3]

i'd wear it for 30 days too - it will make u feel better once it's done, artifact will make ur read deceiving - i once had a pt on telemetry ( we r an oncology floor so i don't have many pts on monitor- they go to the telemetry floor normally- i saw Vfib on pts monitor, it is easy to see Vfib - i ran in the room a nervous wreck b/c i thought i was going to defibrilate and the pt was sitting up and talking certainly not in Vfib - it was artifact - so don't get alarmed

jeff - my EKG is normal no wide beats - it's my brain that runs wide with thoughts.

i feel better thankfully, do u feel that the PVCs come and go - i've been feeling them for 3 weeks but noticed the past 2 days they r much less, only 2 on my run and less than 5 during recovery - an occasional one otherwise - a big difference from last 3 weeks - is it my ability to be less scared as each day passes or is it physically less for some reason, if so what reason

kris

[Jeff]

That's the million dollar question, Kris. I think everyone's individual body is so complex and interconnected that the things that might trip something in one won't do it in another. I know that for me, stress is the primary cause, and while the other factors like diet may play a role, it isn't the lead.

I know that withdrawing from activities that are known to reduce stress, like exercise, can only make things worse, because now that stress just accumulates. But then how do you exercise when you're afraid to?

I had a client back in 1999 (the first year I had PVCs) that was so frustrating and infuriating and worrying that when I'd pick up the phone and it was her, my heart would start skipping around within 5 seconds of recognizing her voice.

I'm glad you're feeling better. In time I hope to research most every cause and remedy for these things and put it into a comprehensive list for people to use.

[SamiP]

I did have an run of palps late yesterday, and the downside is I can only record 90 seconds at a time and then have to call it in, empty out the unit, and start over. So..if this is going on for a while, the extra beats, I have to stop, call, and record again. A real pain, but I think I got myself so annoyed, it took my mind off of the palpitations/extra beats! NO, I would never ask any of the techs that answer the phone anything about what they see, that would be the kiss of death for me! To me, a little bit of knowledge is a very dangerous thing. I will wait for my doctor to call if something shows up that is unusual. I did call the doctor's office this morning and spoke to the medical technician who explained they do get faxes every day from the central monitoring office, but unfortunately, with my insurance, I can't get another event monitor that will store more than one 90 second recording. Okay, so now onto my insurance company. Since I'm self-employed, I pay for my own health insurance, called Horizon and said I need to upgrade to a PPO. No good, they only take enrollments once a year in November. I never realized that the difference in price between my policy and the PPO is only a few dollars, because I happened to take the best HMO (is there such a thing with an HMO). So, I will deal with the 90 second recordings, I will keep it close to my heart for the next 30 days, and see what my results are. I'm finding myself stressing less and less over them, maybe because of the comfort knowing I can call in and transmit my beats? Maybe this is like having a security blanket because I know if something very unusual happened, my doctor would call me right away. That being said with just the slightest, ever so small, bit of sarcasm.

[Jeff]

Does yours make that awful whining noise when it's transmitting?

I'm not sure I should even tell you this...

The first week I had my event monitor, I was dutifully phoning in the recordings. I never heard anything back and thought that was odd. I thought there would at least be someone calling to give me the "all clear." So I called the cardiac monitoring unit to see what the protocol was for these recordings, who sees them, and what's done with them after they see them.

I was told the data was faxed to my doctor's office after each transmission. So I called my doctor's office (family doc, not cardio). The doc wasn't in, on vacation, but the nurse checked his desk. Nothing. Checked my file. Nada.

So who was seeing my transmissions? Nobody. They had the wrong fax number for my doctor, and had been faxing it somewhere else (pizza place, maybe?) for the week. Needless to say my confidence was a little shaken, but we got that ship righted eventually, and he was able to see all the previous recordings.

And yeah, as a business owner I pay for our coverage, too. Very expensive and the coverage is pretty average.

I still find it weird that you only get a single 90 second recording. Is there any wording, brand name or anything on your monitor?

[SamiP]

Hi Jeff,
Right now I'm typing from the hospital. I woke up early, let the dog out and went back to sleep for an hour. When I woke up, I had some pretty bad palpitations, kept getting worse and I kept calling and transmitting. On the last transmission, (and by this time I called my doctor who wanted to see me at 2:30), they told me they were sending a report immediately to my doctor and I should contact him. I told them I already did that, the palpitations were getting worse, they suggested the ER. I was going to drive myself there, but felt very weak..not to mention scared out of my mind. My Mom called an ambulance and I was informed I was in A-fib. The adminstered meds in the ambulance and about 20 minutes after I was in the hospital, my sinus was a normal reading.
I'm staying overnight just so they can monitor my bp, which is usually low and the meds can lower it..all things I'm sure you know already. The drug is called (phonically) cardazam..I think that's how it might be spelled.
My sister just brought my laptop here and I wanted to touch base. While I know the palpitations were very bad, I know fear was playing a large factor as well. The one thing everyone told me was that if you were going to have something go wrong with your heart, this as about the safest.
Yes, I only get a 90 second reading..it's by Phillips and it's now tossed in a drawer at the hospital. I would imagine I won't have to wear it now since they have more than enough info. All I want is to be "me" again I'm not doing so well mentally.
Sam

[Jeff]

Holy smokes, Sam! I hate that you had to go through this, but I'm glad you had the monitor on and were able to catch this arrhythmia and are now safe in a hospital.

Cardizem is probably the drug you're taking. It's a calcium channel blocker, and blocking calcium release within heart cells means the contraction of your heart muscle after depolarization of cells will happen a bit slower - the logic is that it will slow the fibrillation of your atria. (check the last 2 paragraphs of this article: http://www.skippinghearts.com/articl...tbeat-anatomy/ )

Looks like the side effects may be minimal, fatigue mainly. And it doesn't look like there are any long term effects to worry about.

They will probably put you on a low dose aspirin or coumadin to thin your blood a bit - standard precaution for people who get A-fib, but I think you're probably already in the low risk category as far as A-fib goes.

People continue to live long, normal, happy lives with A-fib - both of my parents have it and they're doing just fine.

I'm always checking my email and you have my email address (jeff[at]skippinghearts.com), so if you need someone to talk to about all this over the next couple days, I'm happy to help.

Hang in there, Sam. You're going to be OK.