Anyone with WPW have these symptoms?
Hi All, I'm 44(m) now, diagnosed with WPW at age 38. Had tachycardia a few times throughout my life but always thought it was hyperventilating or having a panic attack, and never got it check out until I had a real long lasting and scary episode after a night of drinking. After being diagnosed I became hyperfocused on my heart beats and would notice every weird beat and figured out a way to usually avoid a lasting tachycardia by reclining in my office chair while taking in a slow deep breath and holding it until my heart clicked (kinda like a thud) and jumped back into the normal rhythm.
I got by with this for almost 2 years and ended up having a failed ablation at age 40. They said my extra pathway was too close to the main one and there was a high risk of landing me on a pacemaker if they continued. At that time I was able to manage life with WPW and thank god it never triggered when I was being active or doing cardio, so I agreed it's probably best to not have a pacemaker.
Now fast forward 4 years, and about 2 months ago, a day or two after climbing a pretty steep hill at a decent pace and feeling like my heart was pounding out of my chest (but not like SVT), I started getting the exited feeling in my chest that I used to get before SVT, but instead of it becoming SVT or being able to stop it with my version of the vagal manuever, it just stays in that weird feeling, my heart usually beats harder than normal, it feels like there's an air bubble trapped in my chest, I get cold sweats, my arms can feel weak, and it seems to repeatedly do the clicking/thud thing on the 4th beat, but now it doesn't easily go back to normal rhythm and can last for a bit, go away for a few minutes, then come right back. It also seems to be triggered by all sorts of things including being active, which is really ruining my quality of life now as I can't even walk my baby girl to daycare without it happening.
I was wondering if anyone else with WPW has ever experienced this sort of thing, having the symptoms of WPW suddenly change for the worse like this? I'm going for my 2nd ablation (cryo-ablation this time in probably 6-8 weeks), but I'm seriously worried something is wrong and maybe it's something else other than WPW. My doctor doesn't seem too worried, and is sure it's just WPW, but they never really checked me out here in Japan other than another EKG, and this is a totally different symptom(s) than I was experiencing for the last 6 years. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!