I was looking for posts to do with pacemakers but finally came across this old post which was more appropriate for my situation.
Most of my life I have experienced palpitations/skipped beats/thumps and even no pulse on occasion but it has never scared me. In my early thirties and early forties I was fitted with a halter monitor for 24 hours to track the situation but nothing significant was noted. Guess it's like going to the dentist with a toothache and when you get there it stops
.It actually usually coincided with some stressful situations at the time and a possibly weakened immune system.
Being aware of all that and my several past months of crap I have had to deal with, the heart situation resurfaced. This time, however, I finally called an ambulance after my heart persistently thumped for 20 minutes so that my chest movement was obvious through my nightgown. There was no pain, just a little exhaustion like running would bring on and very slight light-headedness .
When the medics came and connected me to their little contraption my heart continued to beat up to 270 and after about 15 minutes (an hour since it first began) they gave me a shot of Adenosine 6 mg. They explained that it would very briefly stop my heart and then allow it to reset its pace. It worked and I was ok ever since other than the usual occasional flutters I get anyway.
So, everyone has left my house now, mum is in a good nursing home under dementia care and I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that I am no longer employable due to my back and wrist injury. The latter was hard to accept and a kick to my worthiness scale, but it is what it is. And now I get diagnosed, after a few visits to my doctor and cardiologist, with SVT. They are really pushing for an ablation and possibly/probably (depending on the results they get from frequency readings during the op) a pacemaker. That did not go down well with me.
I discussed with my doctor alternate means of handling the problem via vagus nerve stimulation, magnesium, vitamin D, omega 3 and iodine for starters to attempt to retrain the rhythm and pace of the heart. He was so quick to dismiss it all that in my mind, I was really disappointed at his reaction and was beginning to think red flags. I rarely see a doctor because I have yet to meet one I can trust to be open minded and not devoted to the plaque on his wall announcing his qualification.
Point blank he basically said, no, none of that is going to work it's broken and this is the only way to fix it. He even added that stimulating the vagus nerve would make it worse. I nearly walked out of his office but kept my cool, thanked him and said I would see him soon after my pre-op ultrasound to hear more on the actual condition.
I will go for the ultra sound to expand on my knowledge of the situation but I sense a huge NO to the operation from my perspective. Whether or not a pacemaker is installed, and I suspect it is someone's financial interest to do so, I am just not keen on functioning on battery and chip power.
Having said all that, I'm wandering if anyone has any experience with or professional advice on the situation with this type of surgery, especially pacemakers. All feedback is most welcome.