All my monkeys broke out of my cage again

Well I had #34 ecv today. My fault. Two days ago A lady walking her rat dog rang my bell to show me a geyser of water from a sprinkler head that popped off. I squatted to screw it back and got 150s tachycardia but luckily it self converted.

Today I went outside to fix two more and went back into tachycardia from screwing sprinklers back. I waited an hour to self convert but it didn’t convert today and my angina was 8/10 from the tachycardia. My small vessel disease and heart can’t keep up. Ordered a Lyft but they never arrived. Ordered a second and third, fourth and fifth, the prices doubled. That didn’t help my hr. I Arrived at Robles 2 hours later with 188 hr. The Er dr said it was too fast to determine if flutter or STV. I got ecv and I did not feel “normal “ afterwards in the Er. After every two beats I heard the monitor beep a double third beat. I confirmed it with taking my pulse. Usually my hr is in the 40s after an ecv. Not this time-high 60s. My hr was between 46-48 the past 18 hours.

They wheeled me to the hospital entrance to get a Lyft home. By chance I bumped into my np and we discussed my upcoming third ablation in two weeks.

As I was walking to the Lyft, maybe faster than decrepit slow speed, my tachycardia returned when I got into the car. Geeze...didn’t last I said to myself. I told the driver sorry and to pull over. Two tachycardia in total followed by nsr pattern.

I waited in the lobby to see where this pattern was going and bumped into my np again.

Looks like the next tachycardia I will be admitted if my tachycardia returns today and doesn’t resolve. I can’t be ecv twice in one day. I have to hang tight the next two weeks while stopping sotalol towards the ablation date.

I am a seasoned patient from years of being hospitalized from age 18 months—being left alone from an early age. I’m never frustrated because there is no point and I was taught to buck up from an early age. However today was a very frustrating day because the ecv didn’t last an hour and the angina was now so strong while in tachycardia. In December I got a type 2 MI from it.

Maybe the 100 joules were too low? Anyways thanks for tolerating my ranting. I hope ablation #3 is the charm and I get a stronger cage for King Kong and Donkey Kong to keep me out of tachycardia. It’s just too painful now with the angina during an episode and I can’t stand without wanting to faint. I never thought I would say that high tachycardia is worst than afib. Before my flecainide overdose and my two ablations my af was in the 60-70s hr. Those were the good ole days. Now my highest was 244.

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susan.d
Maybe the 100 joules were too low?

Nah, doesn't matter. Whatever interrupts the arrhythmia is "enough." After all, that's all a cardioversion does -- it stops your heart momentarily, which gives your heart a chance to restart, hopefully in its normal rhythm. It really is a lot like rebooting a PC.

In all but two of my cardioversions they used 100J and that was enough, and I weigh half again as much as you. I think it's likely even 50J would have been sufficient for both of us.

Thanks Carey! I was given a choice on the joules because I had so many. I thought I screwed up. The dr suggested 100 and I said go for it. She said I was one of the calmest before an ecv. No big deal. In the past 50 joules worked until it didn’t so 100 usually works now. I do not like 200 or 300. Bad skin burns. Lemonade for my dentist was the last 3 ecv broke my same front tooth each time and required a new tooth restoration. My dentist could afford a spring break in Florida from it. No broken teeth today because I asked for a mouth block which I saved for the next time. However the jolt knocked out my IV which was a first.

Good luck, Susan, look after yourself.