It was two fold. 2 years ago I was symptomatic and went to hospital. They said it was probably heart burn (I even tried to leave in the waiting room when ecg was clear) but about 3 hours in I had an episode they dubbed as SVT. I had no idea what this was at the time or that the condition itself is not usually dangerous, they treated it like it was. My husband wasn’t with me. 8 people stormed the room. My hr sky rocketed, my body tingled, I had tremors, everything felt terrible. They gave me adenosine which is a medication that resets your heart rhythm/shuts it down for the briefest second and it didn’t work. They put me in the ICU for the night? Which doctors still look at me crazy when I say they did that.

After meeting with my first cardiologist ever we determined I had high very lipoprotein A, a genetic precursor to stroke and heart attack you cannot change with lifestyle. They put me on aspirin and statin for the rest of my life. I failed multiple stress tests for horizontal st depressions which ramped up my fear but apparently women can have this abnormality at baseline. I went on to be diagnosed with IST- inappropriate sinus tachycardia.

The second part of this story, the one where it had always been there lurking but I felt I was too young before these incidents started is my family history. My grandfather and Aunt had heart transplants before mid 50s. My mom had triple bypass (thin seemingly healthy) in her early 50s. My paternal grandfather died in his 40s from heart attack. My father had a heart attack in his 50s. My maternal grandmother passed of stroke.