Heart Problems After Chemo

[mercyriver]

Yesterday my husband had his monthly checkup with the oncologist. The issue with the PET scan was never discussed because there is to much concern about his heart at this moment.

They did do all the blood work, including tumor markers, thankfully. He is also still on track to have another CT at the start of June.

Now on to his heart. Hoping someone else has been through this to offer some encouragment.

My husband has been having episodes of tachycardia since about the 2nd round of BEP. Being his concerned, intuitive wife, I have been gently pressing him since February to see a Dr about it. The oncologist thought it was most likely due to stress and it would go away. My husband thought the same. And after chemo was complete it did seem to let up some. But over the last few weeks it has actually increased again.

Yesterday while he was in seeing the oncologist he had an episode of the tachycardia. The Dr listened to his heart while his pulse was being taken. It wasn't just a fast heart. He has some sort of an arrhythmia. The Dr was listening to his heart race, who knows how fast, but at the same time his pulse was only reading out at 40 something. The Dr explained this as his heart was putting out extra beats that wern't strong enough to be felt in his pulse, but could be heard. I wasn't able to be there (all the "babysitters" are out of town this week).

Well it concerned the Oncologist enough THIS TIME, to where he wouldn't let him leave the office until the, now called, tachyarrhythmia had stopped. He is also trying to get him into see a cardiologist today or tomorrow at the latest. And as my husband and I have found, anytime the oncologist takes concern over something, it is serious, he is a VERY even keeled man. My husband said yesterday he was VERY concerned. He also advised him to go to the ER if there is ever a time it doesn't stop.

I still wish I had enough influence over my husband to have had him listen to me about this months ago. But at least it is being addressed now.

I am REALLY hoping I will be able to go with him when the appointment occures, but as I said, almost everyone is out of town right now, it is crazy!

I would love to hear from anyone that has had heart issues after chemo. The oncologist thinks this is 100% unrelated to chemo or cancer. I think the chemo could have irritated or made something weaker.

I let you all know when I have more details of what is going on with his heart.

Becki

[mstlyn]

I'm sorry to hear that you and your husband now have more health issues to deal with. I am interested in seeing what others have to say about this too.

It seems like your doctor would know if it was chemo related, but I have certainly seen my share of doctors that were wrong about certain things. Whatever is going on, I hope it will be easy to treat and your husband will be ok.

Tammy

[Margaret]

Gosh Becki, that is scary...and considering everything else you have had to go through. I wish I knew something about this topic but I have no real advice to offer. I guess if it were me, I would search the internet to get information...but I always caution myself and others that the internet, while helpful at times, can also open up many cans of worms that can make things seem more distorted. Let us know how he is doing and I am thinking of you guys.

M.

[djmac]

This sounds a lot like SVT, supraventricular tachycardia. This is a small mass of pacemaker cells that are 'misplaced' and occasionally fire, causing arhythmias. It's a fairly common and mostly benign condition. It is definitely exacerbated by stress (I've had it, during stressful times) and caffeine. He really needs to give up coffee if he drinks it. Anyway, with me I was simply told if it happens only a few times a year, there is nothing to worry about. If it happens more frequently, and affects quality of life, heart surgery is required, but its a fairly simple procedure. They go in through a leg vein with a catheter and cauterize the abnormal cells.

Find out if its SVT, and if it is, I would take conservative measures such as eliminating caffeine and minimizing stress before I would consider ANY surgery.

Good Luck

djm

[mercyriver]

Still haven't heard back from the Dr's office about an appointment with the cardiologist.

Tammy-thanks for the support!

Margaret-I tried looking up info and there are SO many different types of heart arrhythmias is was overwhelming....


djm-He is actually having the tachyarrhythmia SEVERAL times a day. He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks pop/soda. He drinks milk most of the time. Yesterday he had 3 tachyarrhythmia's after the episode at the Dr's office. Hopefully it is still something as supraventricular tachycardia. It sounds a lot simpler then other arrhythmias. Thanks for all the information.

Becki

[mercyriver]

Arterial Fibrillation

My husband got into the cardiologist yesterday afternoon. His EKG in the office came back normal and they were having trouble getting him to reproduce the event in office.

So they sent him home with a heart event monitor, the portable heart monitor that you push a button when you are having symptoms record the event. You then call a number and play what sound like fax tones over the phone so the heart monitoring center can record it. Apparently they then send it off to a local hospital. Because at 9:30 last night, about 90 minutes after my husband had trasfered his first couple episodes, the hosptial called him.

My husband said they actually sounded quite concerned about him. He explained to them he had these all day long and they never last more then 5 minutes. They told him if it ever goes for more then an hour, head to the ER.

They told him he has arterial fibrillation. Which basicly means the top part of his heart (I guess just when he is having an episode) is fluttering. It is not the easist thing to explain. But do feel free to look it up online to get a clearer picture.

It isn't the best thing for him to have, but it isn't even near the worst either. I found a statistic that said in people 25-35 (my husband is 29) that the occurence is .05%.

From reading, it looks like it puts him at five fold increased risk for stroke....not a pleasent thing to think about.

And from what I read, they still have to determine what is causing the arterial fibrillation, before they can really treat it. And there were a lot of diffrerent possibilites when it came to causes.

Hopefully we will hear back from the cardiologist today on the next step.

My husband is also schedualed to have blood work done and to have a echocardiogram.

Becki

[Margaret]

Becki, you and your husband are in my thoughts. I know it has been a stressful few days and I hope that they can find a way to treat his problem soon.

M

[mercyriver]

Thanks Margaret

Thank you for thinking of us. I actually belong to a mothering forum and one of the women there has a husband that was diagnosised with the same thing at age 28, he takes an asprin a day to decrease the risk of stroke. That was an assuring thing. It always amazes me when something is so rare, yet you can find someone else who has it. Love the internet!

Becki

[mercyriver]

The cardiologist has now confirmed it is arterial fibrillation, we are now waiting for them to do a bunch of tests to find the cause of it.

They still have him on a heart monitor and have now added Cumadin and Toprol, cumadin is the blood thinner, Toprol is a beta-blocker.

Yesterday the cardiologist called, before they put him on the medication, to let me know they needed to get a hold of him (they didn't have his cell phone number, only our home phone), because he had submitted an episode and his heart rate was at 177. They wanted to make sure to let him know if it was still occuring to go into the ER. A wonderful thing to hear when your husband is at work.

Then last night his heart kept going into arterial fibrillation, it would go for about 5-10 minutes then stop for a few minutes and start back up. It was a bit tense.

But since this morning he hasn't had one single episode....so it appears the medicine is working. Great sign!

Now I am trying to go back and look up all the information about BEP and its long term effect on the heart. I remember us all talking about the long term effects of chemo. Now I am wondering how much this adds to his risk of things, or if this is because of chemo. I guess it may be something we never know.

Becki

[Margaret]

I am so glad the medication is helping. I have been hoping he was feeling better!!

Margaret

[mercyriver]

Thanks Margaret!

Becki