What is it Like Wearing an Event Monitor?
I had my event monitor (first one) beginning in late January, and I had it for 30 days. It was one of the stranger experiences of my life.
If you don't already know from having read my posts, stress is my main trigger for PVCs (and now PAT / PSVT). Stress had been piling on since about October, and when late January came around I was just about non-functional.
When I went in to have it connected for the first time, I was very nervous. As the nurse was explaining the King of Hearts monitor to me I was watching the readout as it jumped from 70 bpm to 90, 70 to 100, all while I was just sitting there, talking to the nurse. I saw the flashing "record" icon on the lcd display and I thought it was like my Polar heart monitor that only flashed when it felt a heartbeat. This one didn't, which freaked me out a bit more, making my heart rate skitter around even more.
But I got home, and it took me a couple days before I filled it up with the first five recordings of my arrhythmia. One of those first five was a brief moment of panic when I glanced at the monitor and saw it reading 190 bpm. Then I realized it was a flaw in the monitor (see video).
In a span of just a few days I found myself needing that stupid little monitor but hating it at the same time. I needed it because it gave me the sense that somebody was watching over me and my heart, which I found to be reassuring. But I hated it because I was worried that: 1) I'd have the thing on for a month and never capture the arrhythmia I'd experienced pre-monitor, or 2) I'd experience lots of the arrhythmia and be able to capture it on the monitor.
And transmitting the data made me sick to my stomach. Why? The way the king of hearts works is once it's filled with recordings you have to call in by phone to transmit the data - you place the receiver on the device and it transmits the recordings via sound.
And it's the most awful sound I'd ever heard.
Sounded like Yoko Ono getting a colonoscopy. And transmission of NSR wasn't bad, it was the transmission of the arrhythmias that was bad - the sounds that little device made sounded like my heart was about to deflate in exhaustion, never to start again.
I got to the point where as soon as I started transmission, I would leave the room, walking around with my fingers in my ears, humming to myself so I couldn't hear the monitor.
And THEN! 30 days was up and I had to turn the thing in, and crazy of crazies, I didn't want to. This nausea-inducing arrhythmia monitor had become my connection to professional medical help, from both the cardiologist reviewing my case and the nurses who took my transmissions (and snuck me some info about what they were seeing, even though I don't think they were supposed to). Taking off those sticky pads for the last time, bundling up the monitor and wires into the blue lunchbox they called home felt like someone had just told the circus helpers below the tightrope to remove the net, just before I was due to go across.
A week later the cardiologist's assistant called and went over the results with me - nothing serious, they would put me on a low-dose beta blocker if the symptoms were really bothering me, but that they were fine with me not taking anything if I didn't want to.
A few weeks after that I was able to believe that good news. Not sure what took so long - but that month and a half felt like a lifetime to me. So I can empathize with anyone who is so very worried about their upcoming event monitor, but I can also say with at least a little street cred that having that monitor and being able to catch your very worst symptoms, and then having those EKG tracings reviewed by a cardiologist is VERY reassuring. Certainly worth the $300 per hour or whatever it is they charge.
If you don't already know from having read my posts, stress is my main trigger for PVCs (and now PAT / PSVT). Stress had been piling on since about October, and when late January came around I was just about non-functional.
When I went in to have it connected for the first time, I was very nervous. As the nurse was explaining the King of Hearts monitor to me I was watching the readout as it jumped from 70 bpm to 90, 70 to 100, all while I was just sitting there, talking to the nurse. I saw the flashing "record" icon on the lcd display and I thought it was like my Polar heart monitor that only flashed when it felt a heartbeat. This one didn't, which freaked me out a bit more, making my heart rate skitter around even more.
But I got home, and it took me a couple days before I filled it up with the first five recordings of my arrhythmia. One of those first five was a brief moment of panic when I glanced at the monitor and saw it reading 190 bpm. Then I realized it was a flaw in the monitor (see video).
In a span of just a few days I found myself needing that stupid little monitor but hating it at the same time. I needed it because it gave me the sense that somebody was watching over me and my heart, which I found to be reassuring. But I hated it because I was worried that: 1) I'd have the thing on for a month and never capture the arrhythmia I'd experienced pre-monitor, or 2) I'd experience lots of the arrhythmia and be able to capture it on the monitor.
And transmitting the data made me sick to my stomach. Why? The way the king of hearts works is once it's filled with recordings you have to call in by phone to transmit the data - you place the receiver on the device and it transmits the recordings via sound.
And it's the most awful sound I'd ever heard.
Sounded like Yoko Ono getting a colonoscopy. And transmission of NSR wasn't bad, it was the transmission of the arrhythmias that was bad - the sounds that little device made sounded like my heart was about to deflate in exhaustion, never to start again.
I got to the point where as soon as I started transmission, I would leave the room, walking around with my fingers in my ears, humming to myself so I couldn't hear the monitor.
And THEN! 30 days was up and I had to turn the thing in, and crazy of crazies, I didn't want to. This nausea-inducing arrhythmia monitor had become my connection to professional medical help, from both the cardiologist reviewing my case and the nurses who took my transmissions (and snuck me some info about what they were seeing, even though I don't think they were supposed to). Taking off those sticky pads for the last time, bundling up the monitor and wires into the blue lunchbox they called home felt like someone had just told the circus helpers below the tightrope to remove the net, just before I was due to go across.
A week later the cardiologist's assistant called and went over the results with me - nothing serious, they would put me on a low-dose beta blocker if the symptoms were really bothering me, but that they were fine with me not taking anything if I didn't want to.
A few weeks after that I was able to believe that good news. Not sure what took so long - but that month and a half felt like a lifetime to me. So I can empathize with anyone who is so very worried about their upcoming event monitor, but I can also say with at least a little street cred that having that monitor and being able to catch your very worst symptoms, and then having those EKG tracings reviewed by a cardiologist is VERY reassuring. Certainly worth the $300 per hour or whatever it is they charge.
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