Question about heart rate

[marche81]

Hi everyone.

As some of you know, I was diagnosed this summer with "possible HCM". Well, I have been sick with some sort of sinus infection or something, with a fever, dizziness, all that good stuff. When I went to the Dr. yesterday, she took my blood pressure and listened to my heart, and did the whole pulse thing, which it turned out my heart rate was going extremely fast..137...She said normal is upper 80's I think? She then did an EKG to make sure it was just "sinus arrythmias". Which, it was, so she told me to come home and take my atenelol. (The card. gave me a bottle, telling me to take it when I exercise, which isn't too often..lol). Anyways, my question is if the fast heart rate (137) was related to the HCM? I am wondering if I should call my cardiologist and let him know? Please advise.

Thanks!
Marche

[marche81]

Re: Question about heart rate

I just reread my message after I posted (duh) and forgot to mention the Dr. I saw yesterday was just our regular family physician, not the cardiologist. Sorry

[Pam Alexson]

Re: Question about heart rate

Of course, You should absolutely call your cardiologist. Taking a prn beta blocker for hcm and symptoms that you report is really not suffuicient oversight and management of your disease. Have you seen a specialist? or Called Lisa?

Take care and let us know how you do.
Pam

[Sarah]

Re: Question about heart rate

Yes, get checked out. You should not be walking around with a heart rate of 137. Normal is from 60-80, anything over 100 is considered tachycardia.

Even if it is "sinus" (regular, steady) tachycardia, it is still too fast.

S

[shirleymahoney]

Re: Question about heart rate

Marche

Yes call your doctor....my Cardio doc wouldn't let me leave until mine had went down and it was 135 then
Shirley

[Reenie]

Re: Question about heart rate

Definitely call them, but why did they only want you to take a beta blocker when you exercise? There may be a good reason, but I didn't think that beta blockers were to be used on an as-needed basis.

Reenie

[Glen Beamish]

Re: Question about heart rate

It's odd that you were instructed to take your beta blocker when need like an aspirin.
Maybe it's OK, but I don't think I have read about anyone else having to do that.
If your rate is that hi for doing next to nothing, it would seem you should be taking the beta blocker every day.

[SheliRenee]

Re: Question about heart rate

Hi Marche -

Please call and get it checked out and then let us know what happens. I'll be thinking of you.... and waiting to hear further news....

Take care and God Bless!!!

SheliRenee

[Burton Borrok]

Re: Question about heart rate

Hi Marche,
About your heart rate / pulse rate – you absolutely should have one. Of course 137 is overdoing it a bit. I guess most of us would agree that the sixty’s is a very good number to aim at. What is your blood pressure with your pulse so high? If you don’t remember what your PCP recorded, and you don’t have your own machine, you can easily check it at almost any drug store – especially the ones in the super markets.

You really have to check in with your cardiologist - and recording your pulse rate and blood pressure would be of help to him. Take your atenolol and see if it brings down your pulse rate. Personally I have never heard of that medication being used on an as needed basis. You might want to check with your cardiologist to find out what he has in mind.

I am a layman and there might be a perfectly logical reason for his directions, but then again, maybe not. HCM occurs on average in one in five hundred people – and many of them don’t even know they have it. It is a tiny little corner of cardiology, and its care has gone through a lot of changes fairly recently. Many cardiologists are just not currently up to speed in its current care and handling. I would suggest talking to Lisa and seeing if there is an HCM specialist in your area. You might just as well get the best care you can.
Take care my friend, and take it - s-l-o-w - - pulse rate that is.
Burt

[marche81]

Re: Question about heart rate

Hey everyone!

Sorry I havent posted back..We have all been under the weather with a flu. I have been taking 50mg Atenelol every 24 hours since the incident as my family physcian advised, and I called my cardiologist the day it happened. He isn't in until Monday, so I just have to wait for a call back, or call him on Monday.
I talked to Lisa, and she is working on finding another cardiologist for me in my area so I can go visit soon.
I REALLY hope I can FINALLY be formally diagnosed with this disease so I can start recieving the proper medication on a regular basis. The reason why the cardiologist placed me on the Atenelol only during exercise, is because I don't have the strong, fast heart rate unless I am exerting myself (and while I was pregnant.) As some of you know, I have seen three different cardiologists, two in the Dallas area saw me while I was preganant and said I did NOT have HCM (but could not offer an explanation of what I DID have..and why I was blacking out while I was pregnant and having horrible palpitations, etc.), the one in San Antonio says I have mild HCM, then called me back the next day saying other Dr.'s in the practice do not agree that I have it. Well, I still do know I have a murmur, mitral valve regurge, aortic valve regurge, very slight left ventricular hypertrophy, a 1.3 mm septum and an abnormal EKG showing that I have had a "heart attack", and a very low intolerance to working out. I hope to eventually find someone that can diagnose me with SOMETHING!!! lol.
Hopefully Lisa will find someone for me around the area, and I can stop bothering ya'll with all of my questions.
Thanks for your help everyone!
Marche

[shirleymahoney]

Re: Question about heart rate

Marche

Hey you are not bothering anybody, anytime you have a question please ask....that is why we are her

I'm glad you got to talk to Lisa, she will get you fixed right up. Take care

Shirley

[Burton Borrok]

Re: Question about heart rate

Hey Marche,
If it quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck and swims like a duck – there’s a good chance it’s not a chicken.

You wrote, “Well, I still do know I have a murmur, mitral valve regurge, aortic valve regurge, very slight left ventricular hypertrophy, a 1.3 mm septum and an abnormal EKG showing that I have had a ‘heart attack’."

OK, Here we go.
A murmur MAY be a sign of HCM. I was diagnosed with an athletic heart and a murmur at about age four, and not diagnosed with HCM until 67 years later. (Some doc’s are a little slow on the uptake.)

Very slight ventricular hypertrophy really has almost no bearing on how symptomatic you are – and a 1.3mm septum only means that you do not have an excessively thick one.

An abnormal EKG showing that you’ve had a heart attack MAY be very misleading. There is a troop of us here who get told they have had a heart attack every time they get an EKG – but it really is only an expression of their HCM.

So, you fall into the category of many of us here who have gone symptomatic for years with no clear diagnosis of their problem – and boy, do we know how frustrating that is. With Laura’s help in finding an HCM specialist I expect you will have a definitive answer to your problems before long, and can move forward to the proper care for it, whatever it turns out to be.

Good luck – Please keep us posted, and you are always welcome to come and pose any questions you might have, or post any gripes for that matter. You will find a sympathetic audience - and comments from people who’ve “been there.”
Burt