16 year old boy with heart problems - Heart Disorders Message Board

HoneyLove925 · 01-23-2009, 08:07 PM

Hello... I really need advice or something. I don't know what to do or to think of this.
My boyfriend is 16 and for the past, a wild guess, maybe a year (?) he's been having heart palpitations. I've looked up his symptoms and the possible diagnoses and what it seems to be is a kind of cardiac ahrrythmias- dizziness, lack of consciousness, palpitations, etc. I have felt the palpitations when I've put my hand on his chest and it feels like a fluttering, like his heart is having a seizure or something. It's very frightening. He went to the doctor about 2 weeks ago and they did an EKG and for 2 days he had a heart monitor and had to keep a log on his daily activities. He's convinced that it's something to do with stress and anxiety but my mom and I aren't sure. I mena, I know that stress can cause something like that to happen but these episodes have happened when he's not anxious. He's lost feeling in his limbs on multiple occasions, been rendered unconscious, dizziness, and almost collapsed multiple times because he couldn't breathe. I looked up the treatments for cardiac ahrrythmis would be and the most common is medication. Okay. Fine. But then I read more into it and pretty much all of the medications increase the heart problem instead of making it better. We're very worried and the doctors haven't told him anything yet.We're supposed to find out on February 2nd, but I wanted to know if anyone has experienced this or had anything to say about. Please please I really don't know what to expect.

paramagic · 01-24-2009, 01:03 PM

It's common for many people to have a sensation of 'palpitations' in their heart from time to time. They are usually limited in duration, self-terminating, and do not cause any other problems. Palpitations are just caused by an electrical disturbance in the heart, which interrupts the normal pathway of the electrical impulse that your heart fires off to cause the muscle to contract.

If you start having these sensations for longer periods of times, in increasing frequency, and with associated symptoms like weakness, shortness of breath, chest pain, or even collapsing/fainting, then you need to investigate further. If your boyfriend has a palpitation attack while wearing the monitor, the doctors will be able to examine what the heart was doing at that point in time to come to a diagnosis. Treatment will vary depending on what the cause of his palpitations end up being. If it's benign, nothing at all will be done. If there is an actual identifiable cause, they may do either medical or surgical interventions. Medical interventions may include correcting an underlying cause of the heart problem, or giving drugs to stop the start from acting up. Surgical interventions may include repairing part of the faulty electrical conduction system, or inserting a device called an 'Automated Internal Cardioverter-Defibrillator'. This device will deliver a shock to the heart to correct the heart rhythm if the disturbance ever becomes so severe that it causes death. It is similar to what you see paramedics or doctors do on TV with the paddles, except it is a very tiny electrode inside the heart that gives a much smaller dose of energy.

I hope your boyfriend is okay, and that you get everything figured out!

HoneyLove925 · 01-28-2009, 08:13 PM

thank you so much!

He had a few heart palpitations while he had the heart monitor so they should be able to tell. The thing I'm worried about is that the reviews for the medication said that in most cases it made the heart problems worse. If he has to have surgery the only thing I'm worried about is if they mess up, which I assume is unlikely and I'm probably just worrying too much. The other thing is I won't be able to be with him. He lives in Oregon and I'm in Cali. Anyways, trailing off. Thank you so much, it was very comforting to read your reply. I've been really worried...

midi77 · 01-29-2009, 03:08 PM

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions until he gets the test results back. I assume if there was a dramatic problem that needed immediate attention, the EKG would have shown something.

HoneyLove925 · 01-29-2009, 08:51 PM

yeah, I've been trying not to freak out, but I wanted to get as much information as possible on what could be the problem so the results won't seem so foreign, whatever they may be. We don't even know what the EKG showed because they haven't told him anything at all. He said that he read the doctor's notes over his shoulder and he thinks he may have seen something that said parts of his heart are too small, but we dont know for sure. Is that even possible?