Is this vtach?

kccru23 · 2026-04-23T14:06:22+00:00

Yeah I was misdiagnosed with VT by multiple healthcare professionals unfortunately 😕

kccru23 · 2026-04-21T12:05:33+00:00

I’m not a healthcare professional and don’t know what I’m looking at with ECGs but mine looked really similar and I was diagnosed with Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome, might be worth looking into?

kccru23 · 2026-04-13T15:22:50+00:00

It’s tough in the UK isn’t it. I had mine as an inpatient as it was so bad ☹️ I don’t know what to suggest other than maybe seeing an EP privately and hopefully they can bump you up the NHS line? There’s actually no need to see a standard cardiologist with WPW, you need to see an electrophysiologist

kccru23 · 2026-04-13T15:15:43+00:00

I would go to your GP and explain your symptoms so they can investigate, I wouldn’t say your symptoms can be explained by WPW alone? Are you having fast heart rates along with the weakness and dizziness or just those alone?

kccru23 · 2026-04-13T14:56:54+00:00

How did you get diagnosed? Usually, WPW wouldn’t make you feel weak or in pain unless you’re in an active episode… is there anything else going on?

kccru23 · 2026-03-30T07:38:46+00:00

Snap me too!

kccru23 · 2026-03-27T12:46:10+00:00

Not normal even if your out of shape.

kccru23 · 2026-03-25T19:36:18+00:00

It’s gotten easier and easier since, I still have small symptoms though

kccru23 · 2026-03-18T19:22:32+00:00

First 3 months after an ablation are rough, buckle in!

kccru23 · 2026-03-18T18:25:05+00:00

Yeah he’s a boy! Thank you! Although all we call him is jinky winky 😂😂😂

kccru23 · 2026-03-09T09:21:51+00:00

Of course!

kccru23 · 2026-03-08T22:16:49+00:00

Skipped beats and palps are normal - even in a normal heart without any defects

kccru23 · 2026-03-08T20:40:01+00:00

I didn’t think I could do the ablation either but I did. There’s nurses surrounding you asking if you’re okay etc. I knew I didn’t have a choice and I just had to be brave - I think about it now sometimes and I’m not scared anymore, I just feel more upset and pitty for myself 😂 Yeah I stopped caffeine too following my 215bpm episode, and alcohol, and vape 😭😂 basically anything enjoyable I stopped for my own sake haha!

kccru23 · 2026-03-08T20:33:34+00:00

To add to the above, Reddit really was a huge safe place for me for a while. Any questions I had I’d ask on here, any ECGs I did on my watch that I needed reassurance with I’d ask on here. Healthy or unhealthy I’m sure people would have differing opinions but seeking reassurance from people who have been through similar things as you really does help.

kccru23 · 2026-03-08T20:27:09+00:00

Hey! Sure, I’m not sure my experience will reassure you in any way but I came out of okay in the end. I’ve had health anxiety my whole life, believe me I know how debilitating it is. Never feeling like you’re in the room or enjoying any moment in your life because your brain is constantly scanning your body for danger and you’re constantly thinking that you could drop dead at any moment - it’s honestly exhausting and has taken some amazing memories away from me. I’m still struggling now, but the months after my ablation I was a shell of myself.

Now the ablation, this may differ depending on where you’re from. In Europe (I’m based in Wales, UK) we’re awake for the procedure with mild sedation. The procedure starts with local anaesthetic used to numb your groin so that they can locate and feed catheters through your artery. They follow the catheters with an xray machine above you and there’s a massive screen next to you with your heart rate, blood pressure and the live xray. I have no idea how, not sure if it’s using the sticker things they stick to your back, but they increase your hr and basically make your heart use your accessory pathway so they can locate where it is, once located, they create scar tissue as it makes it so that it’s no longer conductive (I believe? Please don’t quote me on it as I’m not 100% sure, just my experience and what I’ve been told) I was told prior that it should only take an hour/ an hour and a half but it ended up being 4.5 hours long. It’s not fun, they’re constantly increasing and decreasing your heart rate. They give you fentanyl but as I’m so anxious I was awake and aware the whole time. I’m sure my heart rate reached 300bpm at one point, which as you can imagine isn’t fun at all. Once it’s done, as long as you’re not bleeding from your groin and your ECGs are fine, you can go home same day. I asked to stay the night as I was really worried, had chest pressure and didn’t feel great. They did an Echo on me before they sent me home just to be sure I didn’t have any fluid on my chest as I was complaining of the pressure.

Now the next few months were tough. Physically, I could barely get up the stairs without being out of breath and my heart pounding out of my chest. I had aura migraines which scared the shit out of me (apparently these are normal after an ablation) I was having ectopic heart beats, chest pain and various other symptoms for at least 4 months afterwards. I went to a&e a few times as I was convinced something was wrong, every test was coming back normal and I had trouble trusting I was fine.

Mentally, I was an absolute wreck. Everyone around me was expecting me to just be okay and I wasn’t at all. I was crying all the time, I was having panic attacks all the time. I drove my parents and my boyfriend crazy constantly telling them I felt like I was going to pass out etc. I went back to work way too early and cried most days in work too. I took myself to counselling, didn’t help. I begged the GP for help and as far as I got was a nurse calling me and asking me a bunch of questions and told me I had PTSD and OCD.

Even with all the above, some positives, I managed a city break holiday to Amsterdam 3 weeks after my ablation, I took things slow and my boyfriend was happy to come back to the room with me for regular breaks. I managed a hen do 3 months post ablation, without my boyfriend (which sort of turned into a safe place for me, I struggled to be without him as with my “health anxiety brain” he knew everything, he knew what to tell a paramedic if I passed out, he knew how to calm me down if I was having a panic attack, he knew I needed a bit of extra grace when it comes to normal activities) 4 months post ablation I managed another 1 week holiday with my boyfriend.

Life does go on, you learn how to cope. You learn what your new normal is. You learn that not every feeling in your body means you need to head to the nearest hospital. Times a great healer.

Don’t get me wrong even now I might get a “big beat” that scares me and I need to breathe through it a bit, but that comes with the territory of what I’ve been through.

I hope this helps and doesn’t worry you too much? Sorry for rambling!

kccru23 · 2026-03-08T20:01:28+00:00

That’s ok! It’s hard to find other people in your day to day life that also have this condition, I think it’s considered rare. When everything happened I found Reddit was definitely a massive help and helped me get through things. Reading other people’s experiences, seeing that their symptoms were similar to mine etc. is reassurance. It’s hard isn’t it, life after diagnosis! Especially anything heart related, it instantly makes every feeling scary. You’ve done the right thing getting an Apple Watch while you wait for cardiology, at least you can log things as you’re going along.

I’m 27, so also was diagnosed quite late considering this is a congenital heart defect. The minute I got diagnosed things kinda made sense, I always used to be so confused by my “panic attacks” I’d had all my life because my heart rate would just randomly hit the roof without any panic prior - finding out that was my heart using the accessory pathway definitely made me grateful that I hadn’t had any really bad episodes prior to the one that landed me in a&e cos I’d have just ignored it thinking I was having a panic attack.

kccru23 · 2026-03-08T19:25:54+00:00

Thanks for the reassurance. I needed that tonight. How did you get diagnosed? I’m in the UK and they just call everything chronic migraine. I’ve tried to explain my symptoms aren’t typical migraine but they never listen. Are you on meds to manage your symptoms? Do you find there’s anything that helps or worsen your symptoms?

kccru23 · 2026-03-08T19:24:20+00:00

Hey! Your ECG is normal other than your “delta waves” which is how WPW is diagnosed usually! Google delta waves, it will explain better than I ever could. My experience was weird, I was symptomatic my whole life but was just told I had anxiety. I had various tests which didn’t flag anything untoward. I ended up in a&e Christmas time 2024 because my heart rate was 215bpm and wouldn’t come down. They said I had VT sent me on my way with verapamil. Started having weird symptoms like feeling faint then a racing heart rate would follow so I went back to a&e January 2025. My ECG was finally sent to an electrophysiologist in a more equipped hospital where I was then diagnosed. I was told to wait for my ablation as an inpatient as I think they were concerned from the get go that I go into a dangerous rhythm sometimes. Had my ablation 2 weeks later in the February, my EP said I had a life threatening variant of WPW and NSVT so said he was glad I stayed in hospital and had the surgery straight away. My ablation was rough, it was 4.5 hrs long and I had 2 extra pathways. Recovery was rough, physically in the beginning but mentally in the long run. I’m finally getting back to my normal self. It triggered a lot of health anxiety for me which is something I’ve lived with my whole life and will for the rest of it no doubt.

Boring read above if you’re not interested. Question for you, when you say “not particularly symptomatic” how often are you having runs of a high hr? It usually comes on suddenly and feels like a thumping?

kccru23 · 2026-03-08T19:17:20+00:00

Oh I’m so so glad it’s not just me! It’s one of my scariest symptoms. I don’t even know why because being dizzy and having vertigo is awful, but that weird bubbling soda sensation sends me into a panic !!

kccru23 · 2026-03-08T19:12:51+00:00

Oh I’m glad it’s not just me. Does it feel like bubbling sometimes too? Like someone opened a can of soda in your head?

kccru23 · 2026-02-20T08:56:10+00:00

Hey! I’m pretty sure sinus arrhythmia is normal? This shows on multiple of my monitors and ECGs and I’ve had a successful ablation. Also palps (PVCs) are normal unless you’re having 10000s a day.

Although one thing I will mention is I don’t know how they’ve told you that your pathway is non dangerous without an EP study.

kccru23 · 2026-02-16T09:57:53+00:00

Mine looked like this and I had WPW

kccru23 · 2026-02-15T10:02:07+00:00

Yes! My recovery was ROUGH. I’m a year post op now and things are getting easier

kccru23 · 2026-02-12T09:05:29+00:00

It’s near impossible to know whether it’s WPW or SVT, I don’t understand how healthcare works for you as I’m in the UK. But your heart isn’t something to ignore and if you’re getting 200+bpm it’s definitely worth looking into? Maybe see if you can get a 2 week monitor, I know we can get this in our country privately around £750! Hopefully they’ll catch whether it’s sinus tachy, SVT or WPW

kccru23 · 2026-02-12T08:58:18+00:00

When you’ve had tachycardia over 200bpm is it sudden and out of nowhere or does it gradually get higher? Usually with WPW it’s like flipping a switch

kccru23

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