Member Profiles

VINO

Hi,

I'm a 16-year-old secondary school student from Malaysia. Late last year i was at a 5-day course and all of a sudden (when i was praying) i felt an icy cold sensation make its way from the tips of my toes right up to my head. it wasn't long before my vision blurred; everything turned black and that is all i can recollect before i regained consciousness a couple of minutes later.

The whole episode seemed weird and unreal to me, because after that i started feeling unwell and uneasy. i was always sweating and kept fearing for nothing, and for no reason.

On January 11th, at about 11.00 am at school, my heart started pounding against my chest in an unusual manner. i confided what i was feeling to a classmate, who casually said that i was just feeling uncomfortable due to the hectic environment. she seated me in a quiet corner in the laboratory and asked me to take rest.

i went back home that day still feeling sick; i started sweating cold sweat, my heart was beat faster and i found it difficult to inhale and exhale. it took about 20 minutes for my irregular heart beat to slow down, which left me feeling worn out and exhausted. but it was still banging against my chest, eventually causing severe pain and suffocation.

on the very day itself (at night) i was brought to a private clinic. the doctor checked my pulse and immediately referred me to a local hospital,where my ECG,blood test and blood pressure was taken. the results were perfectly normal. but just to make sure, i was warded under observation for two days. doctors were puzzled and couldn't comprehend why my pulse was always high although physically i was fine.

day after day this experience worsened. At one point i couldn't even attend school because just the act of walking or getting out of bed triggers the abnormal series of heart beat.my father concluded my symptoms to a series of panic attacks, because my stepmother was undergoing the same symptoms and she has been under medication for 9 months now.

i was referred to a psychiatrist who listened to my story and confirmed that i was diagnosed with panic attack, palpitation and mild depression. he put me on two kinds of drugs (Xanax and Remerom) but it didnt work. he kept increasing the dosages of my medication but my heart beat never reduced.

then i was asked to go 4 a thyroid test, which turned out to be negative. next i got an appointment with a physician who asked me to go for an ECG again. my pulse rate was high but was still considered normal.

my physician referred me to a cardiologist, who performed a 24-HOUR ECG test on me, using a machine called Holter which was the size of a walkman. 7 tubes were attached around my heart. i  was also given a patient diary. whenever i get my palpitation i was told to write down the time of the occurance, the symtoms that i experience at that moment and the activity i was doing at that time.

the result was out the next day and the cardiologist explained to me that my series of palpitation was 140-150,which was bad as i wasn't doing anything strenuous to provoke such a high reading. he checked the structure of my heart through an ultrasound machine and found it to be intact and fine.

only after that he diagnosed me with Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia and put me under medication for two weeks. i'm still undergoing the treatment and after reading so many articles and experiences contributed by other IST patients, im able to muster back my self-confidence, assuring myself that i'm not alone in this, and i have other people around me who are suffering from the same diagnosis; people whom i can depend on.

IST can only be a scary diagnosis if you think it is...its all in the mind, and the mind can be so powerful that it can ruin you physically more than the actual diagnosis can. Have faith in yourself, take your experiences as something normal, and try fighting it back. God bless,

vino.

my e-mail is vinoshini_devi@yahoo.com
i would love to help out and assist any IST patients out there who feel insecure and helpless about what they're going through.


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