was wondering the need to keep checking one's heart rate

Heart Rate Monitoring

by Marybird - 2021-07-24 17:41:16

I think the reasons for keeping tabs on one's heart rate vary, from trying to achieve a maximal heart rate with exercise, to perhaps thinking that one's heart rate is not where it should be ( either too high or too low) and wanting to verify that,  to just being curious about it. But as I see it, unless there's a problem, or if one's trying to achieve a target heart rate with exercise, it's not essential to keep track of one's heart rate. 

Before I got my pacemaker in June 2019, I monitored my heart rate using a Garmin watch, saw both bradycardia and tachycardia incidents that went along with the symptoms I was feeling. I think I was a little OCD with knowing my heart rate 24/7 and I didn't want that.  So after the pacemaker, and feeling  so much better ( especially with the rate response set up) that I took off the watch, and decided all I needed to know about my heart rate was that it was where it needed to be, and there was no need for me to think about it much. The funny thing is that I have had pulsatile tinnitis ( sounds like a whooshing in the ears in time with each heart beat), so I have an idea about where the heart rate is. I can't get away from that, but I can and do tune it out. I also have a heart rate monitor on tbe blood pressure monitor, and a pulse oximeter if I want to check my heart rate over a short time. But for me, I've seen no need for a continuous heart rate monitor on a watch, even for exercise, as I'm unable to reach anywhere close to a target heart rate due to the rate control medications I take to control my a-fib ( they told me to aim for exercise times instead of target heart rate). 

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Monitoring

by Persephone - 2021-07-24 18:45:05

Hi New - I personally don't monitor heart rate, but we're all in different places with our concerns and health issues.  Back in the day when I led aerobics classes (!) we were trained to tell participants to check their rate at the carotid artery, but looking back, that was really not helpful unless one was also instructed about what range it should be in, which of course is individual.  Anyway, I now tend to go by how I feel without monitoring, but that could change over time depending on my health condition.

checking heart rate

by new to pace.... - 2021-07-24 18:47:23

Thanks  Mary Bird  and Persephone for your answers.

new to pace

Checking heart rate

by Gemita - 2021-07-25 06:06:36

Hello new to pace.  I agree with Marybird and Persephone.  For me personally, it is not essential to keep checking my heart rate when I feel well, although it is good to know information from time to time.  

Personally, I only use my blood pressure/heart rate monitor when I need feedback, when I feel particularly poorly.  It is usually during an arrhythmia when I have symptoms and feel my blood pressure and heart rate surge and fall.  Although my monitor may occasionally error during an arrhythmia, particularly during an irregular arrhythmia, it is fairly accurate at confirming what is happening during these periods and easily identifies unstable blood pressure/heart rate.

However I have to say new to pace, that I can usually feel immediately when my heart rate or heart rhythm changes without needing monitor confirmation.  This is not always an asset.  I think I would prefer to be less symptomatic and unaware of my rhythm/rate changes sometimes, but it has its advantages.   Which monitor is best for heart rate is another subject.  I believe a good blood pressure monitor is the Omron

Aware of Your Heart Rate?

by Marybird - 2021-07-25 10:08:28

Gemita, just a question about how you're aware of your heart rate without a monitor? I'm just curious about how that might come about? If you're like me, the awareness comes at any time through the pulsatile tinnitis- a "whooshing" type sound with each heart beat,  I can tell when it speeds up, slows down, and even what seem to me to be short pauses ( would be maybe a second or less, I've thought those might be pacemaker delays programmed into the unit?). It's gone on for a number of years, so though I'm aware of it, I tune it out most often, or it's just white noise. I'd gotten used to kind of correlating a documented heart rate ( say on a watch, pulse oximeter, or blood pressure monitor) with the pulsing "rates" in my ears, so before the pacemaker I  used to know ( besides feeling so lousy) that my heart rate would be in the low 40's because I could "hear" it. I'm happy to report that these days my heart rate seems to hang around the low 60's at the couch potato rate, around 55 ( my lowest setting) at the inert rate- though I don't check that- and in the 70's and 80's during moderate activity. Just where it should be, and I'm happy to " hear" that, too. 

The tachycardias are interesting. Like lots of people I can feel most of them ( not all of them these days, apparently), as flutters in my chest, if they go on for any length of time I can feel a tiny bit short of breath, perhaps a little light- headed ( mildly), but I don't "hear" those flutters. I might hear a pause as I feel the flutters, with a ventricular rate ( I guess that's what it would be, I hear it as "whooshes") that can be fairly fast,( when that happens it records  between 105-115) or variable. 

I've pretty much stopped trying to get numerical documentation for my heart rates, except for whatever it reads when I check my blood pressure ( that's at rest so it reads in the low 60's.)  I question the accuracy of the ongoing heart rate measurements with a watch in my circumstances, and for me there is just no need to know. I also figure that thanks to the remote pacemaker monitoring, if any of those heart flip flops or flutters I feel are significant, I will be notified about them, and I've learned this is indeed the case. 

So just wondering, for people who are aware of their heart rates without the electronic monitoring, are the means by which this is possible similar to what I experience? Are they purely by symptoms one's feeling ( ie, normal vs. " something's wrong"). Inquiring minds want to know......

HR monitoring

by crustyg - 2021-07-25 11:20:26

I use Garmin chest straps for cycling and running because I know that if I push too hard I can provoke some form of tachyarrhythmia - and as my EP-doc warned that I will eventually end up in AFib, I'm keen to avoid that.

I can feel my heartbeats much of the time if I make an effort - one of the downsides of an enlarged, athletic heart, and especially if I'm lying on my L-side.  But like my tinnitus, I ignore it as much as possible, otherwise it would tend to drive me mad.

So, unless you, NTP, have a *need* to measure your HR, then don't.

Marybird

by Gemita - 2021-07-25 11:44:59

What an excellent question Mary and really worthy of a new post.  A major symptom that alerts me to a rhythm/heart rate change is a sudden sinking stomach feeling as though I am about to face danger.  I can actually feel my heart rate suddenly speeding up, revving away, uncontrolled, then calming down, slowing down, then speeding up again.  If the heart rhythm is “regular” - evenly, fast, evenly, slow - I can usually tolerate the arrhythmia for long periods.  However throw “irregularity” into the mix and the slow/fast heart rates will cause additional symptoms like sudden weakness, SOB, dizziness or fainting spells and also chest pain. 

From my symptoms or lack of symptoms, I can tell whether I am in Atrial Flutter, Atrial Fibrillation or just a plain SVT.  Atrial Flutter or SVT (unless at exceptionally high rates) do not seem to bother me.  Yes I feel the fluttering sensation of Atrial Flutter but it usually doesn’t cause troublesome symptoms.  I actually feel the irregularity of AF instantly and whether it is at a fast or slow heart rate, it immediately affects me, preventing me from enjoying my regular daily activities.  I feel awful with AF, highly symptomatic.  I like a “regular” rhythm.  My clinic is surprised that I can tell them what happened at a specific time and date from my symptoms alone.  I surprise myself sometimes too when they tell me I am often correct in the arrhythmia I diaried.

Yes I also get a gushing sound in my ears and pressure building up in my carotid artery.  Sometimes when the high heart rates start I think I am going to get a stroke.  Pressure surges into the neck/head often take my breath away, causing facial flushing too, although since my pacemaker and beta blocker these symptoms are better controlled.

The pauses can be coming from your heart Mary during an irregular rhythm like AF, or from whatever is set up in the pacemaker, for example when mode switching occurs to protect your ventricles from your fast atrial tachy arrhythmias.  A fascinating subject I agree and like you I trust my symptoms and how I feel more than any monitor to tell me what is going on.  Understanding our arrhythmias certainly helps us to feel less anxious when they occur.  Hope you are doing well on Apixaban.

New Thread

by Marybird - 2021-07-25 21:18:02

I'll start one on this topic when I have a little time to make it make sense, LOL. I didn't do much of anything I had planned to today, as I think it may have been a bad afib day, felt like short episodes that would come and go, come and go, and so on, from early this AM through late this afternoon. I just felt the palpitations, starting around 3 AM as I was half awake, I cussed at them and went back to sleep. No idea how many or long they were, but I fell asleep this afternoon as I was trying to work on a continuing education course, just couldn't stay awake. Felt ok otherwise, fortunately, and am better now.

Doing well on the apixaban, no excess bleeding or even bruises. But I had one experience a few days ago that taught me the stuff deserves respect! I was shaving my legs in the shower, nicked my ankle in the process.... I hadn't realized it till I looked down, and saw a scene worthy of a re-run of "Psycho", blood all over my foot, the shower floor, and gushing out of the tiniest nick you could imagine. I managed to bloody up a few towels, a bathmat and track blood all over the bathroom floor, into the bedroom. But, got it wrapped up with pressure on it, all was ok some time later. But I made a resolution, besides giving up the razors, to get someone else to trim our bougainvilla bushes- those have large thorns and I always look like I've had an encounter with Jack the Ripper when I trim them, so I'm done with them. 

Why

by ROBO Pop - 2021-07-29 15:08:14

My sentiments exactly. I guarantee you'll know when your heart stops. Most people have a home monitor which tracksvyour heart and will tattle on you when you go astray. Let your doctor worry about it and get back to living stress free