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Heart Palpitations Forum >> Symptoms and other concerns >> Palpitations from anxiety following WPW ablation
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Message started by lee77681 on Mar 17^th, 2013, 7:48pm

Title: Palpitations from anxiety following WPW ablation
Post by lee77681 on Mar 17^th, 2013, 7:48pm

Hello. I'm new to the forum and glad to have found it. A couple of months ago, I had an ablation for Wolff Parkinson White syndrome. The procedure was successful, the extra pathway was ablated, and my EKG now looks completely normal. I am back to my regular level of activity and can exercise, etc., without incident.

However, since the ablation, I have been experiencing strange palpitations -- a flip-flop feeling in the chest, skipped beats, "hard" beats -- during moments of emotional stress, nervousness, or excitement. It's almost as if my heart is more sensitive to anxiety than it was before, and anything that gives me an adrenaline rush of any kind seem to set it off.

I've tried to capture an incident on a Holter monitor over the past couple of weeks, but I haven't yet been able to. I'm a bit worried because I'm scheduled to travel overseas for business soon -- I'm a nervous flier anyway, and I don't want to experience these palpitations on the plane, especially if I'm still not sure what they are.

If anyone has any advice or similar experiences to share, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Title: Re: Palpitations from anxiety following WPW ablation
Post by Seabass17 on Mar 18^th, 2013, 11:02am

Welcome to the board. Since you have already had an ablation, I am sure the doctors have kept a close watch on you. What are they saying about your new palpitations?

If your EKG looks normal, I wouldn't worry too much. For a piece of mind though before you travel, you might consider getting hooked up to an event monitor for a couple weeks. When you get a sensation, you hit a button and it records the event.

I get a lot of palpitations when the adrenaline is going as well. The doctor put me on a beta blocker, which pretty much stopped that completely.

Title: Re: Palpitations from anxiety following WPW ablation
Post by lee77681 on Mar 20^th, 2013, 10:37am

Thanks. My cardiologist doesn't seem overly concerned, but he did have me wear a monitor for a while to see if it would pick up one of the episodes. Unfortunately I didn't experience any palpitations while wearing it.

He said I could consider taking a small amount of anxiety medication -- thinking that if I could keep nervousness/excitement at bay sometimes, it might help with the palpitations -- especially if I'm a nervous traveler and want to try to keep this from happening on the plane.

Does anyone take anxiety meds to help with heart palps that seem anxiety-related? Does that work?