My husband has a huge number of medical problems; some are genetic and others are from his injuries sustained in his career. The 'high points' being broken back and neck (5 surgeries to date), 2 heart attacks and 2 strokes. He's on 18 medications a day for a variety of problems.
Most recently he's not been feeling like himself. He can usually make himself go work in the yard, the one thing he really enjoys, and after some time he feels fine. But the last few months he just can't even find the energy to get out of bed, something very not like him. We've discussed it and I told him between his age (just turned 50), the medications, his physical condition, etc it's no wonder he's feeling blah, but he insisted that wasn't it. So I had him made a Dr appt.
The Dr diagnosed him with Bradycardia - his moving heart rate is about 50, resting is a bit lower as he doesn't really do much 'moving' when he moves. However, he said the last couple weeks he's had episodes of tachycardia where his heart rate jumps to about 190 for a couple hours at a time. He didn't bother to tell me about it because he was afraid I'd worry.
I'm NOT a panicky wife at all, but I do worry.
His doctor has done blood work and results will be back in a couple weeks. He hooked him up to a heart monitor, but one of the pads fell off in a few hours so he goes back tomorrow to have it put back on. Once his blood tests are in they'll do a stress test with medication because his back can't handle the walking. They also did some kind of breathing / oxygen test and said it looked good.
I've been reading on the internet and it says for tach they can give you meds to lower your heart rate. I'm guessing since his is normally low though that's not a good idea. He's not on daily meds for his cardiac episodes but does take nitro when he has chest pain. The doctor did also say it's quite possible that his heart is just reacting to the sheer number of medications he takes all the time.
Can anyone think of anything that would cause bradycardia with episodes of tachycardia given the amount of information I've listed? I'd really like to know some different problems this could be so I can start looking them up. I know I can't
do anything, but being able to focus on info on the internet at least keeps my brain occupied.
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