Pounding, irregular hertbeat

• by Mojo
• 2014-12-10 08:12:31
• Complications
• 1169 views
• 1 comments

Hi Y'all,
I've been having a pounding, irregular heartbeat on and off for 25 hours now. I am dizzy, a little nauseous, at times. At times my heart pounds so hard my body moves with it. But it skips beats, and races up to 130 BPM. I'm paced up to 130. I called my cardiologist this morning after a restless night. He asked me to do my CareLink over the phone and called me back to say I've been fluttering and with periods of a-fib since yesterday afternoon. He told me I could wait it out and it would probably stop on its own or I could come in to the office this afternoon, which I did, but when I got there, I had gone back to normal rhythm. So he decided not to temporarily change any settings on the pacemaker. A year ago I had the same thing and he turned off the rate response with horrible problems and had to turn it back on the next day. So that's not a good option. Anyway, I was almost home again before it started all over again. I'm not sure what to do, and I don't think my doctor is sure of what to do either at this point. I am taking a low dose of Diltiazem (Cardizem) and he mentioned before about taking an extra one during these times. He also mentioned today that maybe I should try Amiodarone, but he knows I have asthma so bad so that isn't probably a good choice either. In fact I have just finished a high dose of steroids for asthma a few days ago. I kind of wonder if the steroids did me in again as this happened a year ago after finishing a steroid regimen. I just wonder if others have had this happen to them, whether it will stop on it's own, whether I should try taking another Diltiazem, or whether I will have to have a setting changed at least temporarily on the PM, although I'm not sure what he could change other than the rate response which doesn't work well on me. I would appreciate any advice.
Mojo