How to get heart arrhythmia diagnosed?

[CrazyToast]

My DH has a problem with intermittent slow heart beat. It makes him exhausted when it flares up. He has monitored his heart rate at home himself with a device and it confirmed what we thought was happening. He then went to the the docs about it. Trouble is, when they do the heart monitor thing at the GP his heart is never doing it at this exact time, so the GP has dismissed it.

Is there another way to get the GP to listen about such things? Anyone had any success with this type of thing? We are so worried, it's stopping him being able to go to work etc. We suspect he has had it for a long time and it may well be a symptom of something else but either way, it needs to be confirmed by the GP.

It's possible for his GP to fit him with a recording heart monitor for 24 hours or up to 7 days. Worth asking for.

My son was referred to hospital and saw a cardiologist. As part of the appointment he had an ECG, an echocardiogram plus physical tests (treadmill etc) whilst hooked up to monitors and then had a 48 hour heart monitor. He has a ventricular arrhythmia which can cause painful chest pains.

As rslsys says it sounds like a longer term heart monitor might help prove his condition to his GP but he'll still have to convince the GP to make the referral.

What exactly happens? What is his normal heart rate and low does it go? How does he monitor it?

If he is concerned he can be referred to a cardiologist who can fit him with a small monitor on his chest that he keeps for 5 days.

It’s called a Holter monitor - I had several tries with them to capture SVT arrhythmias ( never did , but had a non reverting episode captured in a & e that gave a conclusive reading) . Always issued by cardiology unit rather than GP, though, and returned to them for analysis .

What was it your DH used at home, as a matter of interest ?

I think perhaps visit gp again and explain things, and ask for a cardiologist referal, it's either that or go private.
I guess gp not too concerned if they dismiss it, but I'd rather hear that from a cardiologist if it were me.
They can diagnose with heart rate monitors, ecgs, stress test and heart scan!
Good luck with it.

Book an appointment with a private cardiologist. From personal experience, chest pain can be very random and I was bounced from GP to A & E, acute admissions and eventually a chest pain clinic before really getting any answers. It took nearly 5 months to get a diagnosis, and in absolute honesty I massively regret not going private from the offset. The money would have been irrelevant against the amount of stress and worry.

He really needs the Holster monitor.
Keeping a diary of these events will help persuade G.P to refer to cardiologist for investigation.
Keep note of time, what activity was he doing before event/resting? what happened during the event and how long it lasted.
These are notes he will need to keep on e he has the monitor also.