What is going on NOW? A-fib or SVT? plus sweating

About 90 minutes ago (and up to this very minute and continuing) , in the LaZBoy watching a movie, i started getting tachycardia at 140 bpm. My BP was slightly high, but it seemed my pulse was steady versus bouncing around. Out of the blue!!!! No triggers that I could tell! I was relaxed! I do not have a Kardia and am guessing that it's a-fib and not SVT.

Since then (and my pulse ox has remained around 98), I've started sweating on the back of my neck, clammy forearms, but I have cool cheeks on my face. I've been doing the urine dump or whatever it's called, too. I used Ancient Minerals Mg spray on my pulse points, and drank 11 ounces of low sodium V-8.

I'm still kind of sweaty (forehead too) and clammy, but with cool cheeks. Every once in a while, for maybe 3 seconds, I'll feel a little chilly.

I took my morning meds at 11:30... flecainde 100 mg, and ExR metoprolol along with lisinopril and Pradaxa.

I really don't want to head to the ER during COVID-19 time, and I've always been reticent to increase my Flecainide dose in between my regular twice-a-day doses (I take Flec twice a day at 12 hours apart). I'm quite fluffy and over 150 lbs so I don't think an extra Flecainide or even half of a flecainide would be bad, but I'm nervous.

My pulse or bpms (are they the same thing??) remain in the 140s. How long should I wait until I get me hither to what may be a petri dish of an ER???

Thanks for any input. P.S. I'm very many years post menopausal so no hot flashes.

UPDATE: It's now about 15 minutes after I first started typing the new post above. I did nothing and yet, my pulse rate is now in the mid 80s for beats per minute. Yes, hooray! .... but what the heck?! My question remains, how long do I wait in the hopes of a resolution? ...& there's still the Flec question, & the biggest puzzle of all, why/whaaaat?

Thanks for reading this.
Sue
edited for clarity and update



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2020 09:50PM by SueChef.

SVT or atrial flutter will generally feel regular. Afib will feel very irregular if you feel your radial pulse. If you are looking at some kind of monitor with a flashing heart, similarly the flash spacing will be irregular for afib.

Would never give you advice on flec, a doc should do that.

At least where I live (CO) they encourage folks who have material issues to go to the hospital. They say they isolate the COVID cases. They note that people are waiting to go and then ending up with more serious issues.

Is there a nurse call line or such that you can contact and talk about this?

Sue. I was ECV twice within the past 5-6 weeks and it was done in the hospital’s Cath lab. I avoided the ER. Luck (if there is such a thing as luck having AF) Dr. Natale was in town and they arranged the Cath lab because of my age/risk for the covid19 spiking. I did have to go twice for covid19 testing. It wasn’t instant. I got tested and returned the following day to be ECV. Ask them if you can have the oxygen mask put OVER your face mask. They allowed it both times.

I didn’t like being tested because I had to remove my mask and the last time the RN wasn’t wearing a mask until he approached me and then put one on.

My HR was 205 the first time and 170-190s the last time. I was in atrial flutter and intermittent AF.

Thanks, George!

I must have been typing my update when you were posting yours.

I thought SVT (I needed adenosine the first time to convert but don't think I've had another episode) didn't resolve on its own.... I'm still wondering why the sweats.

The nurse call line has never been helpful anytime I've called...the person answering the phone will take info, then you wait for a nurse to call you back, then the nurse tells you to go to the ER. A good suggestion, but a big waste of time out in my neck of the woods.
Sue

Thanks, Susan D.... I appreciate you sharing your recent experiences, and esp about face mask and the oxygen masks during you ECV !

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SueChef
UPDATE: It's now about 15 minutes after I first started typing the new post above. I did nothing and yet, my pulse rate is now in the mid 80s for beats per minute. Yes, hooray! .... but what the heck?! My question remains, how long do I wait in the hopes of a resolution? ...& there's still the Flec question, & the biggest puzzle of all, why/whaaaat?

You wait as long as you can tolerate it -- within reason. I've gone as long as five days, but that may not be within your tolerance level (and it shouldn't be -- I shouldn't have let it continue that long). If you're exhausted and unable to withstand it any longer after 5 hours (or 5 minutes) then that's when. I totally understand whichever choice you make. It's just that if you're paroxysmal then go by your prior history. Do your episodes usually stop within X hours? Then wait that long at least (if you can) before you go rushing off to the ER. Paroxysmal AF usually stops on its own and nothing the ER does makes it happen any faster.

As for the flec, I agree with George. Talk to your EP. Ask about using it as a PIP.

As for why/whaaaat?... sorry, nobody can answer that one for you.

Sue or others: Perhaps ask your EP if you can be ECV in the cardiac Dept instead of the ER. It maybe safer than exposure to covid19 at the ER. Natale’s NP suggested it. However it took a tad under 2 days because I got my flutter in the late evening, got to see Natale the following mid day and was tested and I had to wait another 24 hours later later the next day covid19 test came back. I started at 205 hr and then it dropped so by the time I was finally converted, my hr was in the 80-90s. Had it remained at 205, I don’t know what my options would had been because they didn’t have a rapid test and I was very symptomatic.

Hi, Carey,

The first time this happened recently was last week on the 28th! It resolved in about half an hour & I did become hot and sweaty.
This time, less than a week later, it took about 90 minutes to resolve. I did read on one website that sweating was a symptom of SVT. Goodness knows I was hot anyway for a lot of the day... maybe having the A/C on me helped, I don't know.

Susan D.... thanks for the suggestion--and a very good one at that! Do they do ECV when you're in normal sinus rhythm? If so far, I'm resolving, it seems I'd need a crystal ball or something.

If it resolves within an hour or two I wouldn't do anything at all. You'll probably be back in NSR before you can get to the hospital and an ER or cardiologist can even get you prepped for a cardioversion.

They warned me they only ECV for AF or atrial flutter. There is zero reason to convert in nsr for me.

Thanks Carey and Susan D. for your additional posts!