Heart Arrhythmia ( PVCs ) please Help ! :(

[Lucas2014]

Hello  I'm a 21 year old guy and I've been having heart palpitations ( PVCs more than 12 000 a day ) for the past four months . They have ruined everything in my life and I don't know what to do anymore !! doctors been telling how anxiety, stress  and caffeine and all the other stuff can cause them and it's okay to have them.  you just gotta have to ignore , that is soooo crazy !! because no matter how hard I try I can't ignore them :((  I feel everyone of these extra , skipped beats in my chest and they drive me crazy especially at night when I try to sleep .the head of my bed would start shaking from these extremely forceful beats and I get these fluttering feeling in my chest all the time . cant count the number of times I've been to the hospitals in the last four months !   but they usually send me back home saying it's probably the anxiety attack and my arrhythmia is benign , go home and rest don't think about it ! I mean Seriously  ??  i hate when they say that ! I feel so scared and I don't know where to go .
I didn't even know what the anxiety was ,   I was happy with my life , I used to go to the gym 4 - 5 times a day and I was in a great shape , not drinking or smoking never have , eating extremely healthy diet , why would I get these very frequent PVCs every day  ?  they are not able to tell me why ? there seems to be no reason  , all the tests came back normal , hormones and stuff . if it was from my anxiety can they last for this long  ?  4 months  ? will they ever go away  ? I wanna get my life back that happiness I had in me . please someone help , I don't wanna be scared like a baby but they freak me out . I know my heart isn't suppose to work like this . its not okay !!  how can they benign  ? I also take anti anxiety drugs Xanax 0.25mg at night but it's not helping me at all . please if there's someone out there help me to understand this .please :(

[yummysmokedham]

That seems like a lot, have you seen a cardiologist?  I just recently had a 48 hour holter monitor and I had 6,000 in 48 hours.  The weird thing for me was that I only had one event I could feel during that 48 hour period and some days I have dozens.  I have been doing research on catheter ablation therapy for PVCs, from what I have read it is usually around 80% effective.  Here is a link to a medical journal about a 35 year old male that was having 35,000 a day:  http://europace.oxfordjournals.org/content/9/9/781.full

[yummysmokedham]

I would seek out another physician IMHO

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

sorry your going threw that.

yes lots have them that many a day and lots have them a lot more than that many a day .

I have had that many a day and they are no fun, but remember they will not hurt you. or your heart

have you had a stress test , a echo of the heart done?

I know its hard to believe that they are not harmful but they are not.

I have lived with them for years and mine come on for no reason and stay for hours on hours.

went hospital and they hook me up said oh just pacs , go home your fine

did they tell you what yours were ?
being stressed over them makes them so much worse. but I know its hard to relax with your heart going crazy.. and I have lots many nites sleep when mine start. no matter how long you have had them each time is scary

are you going to a cardio dr for them? they can give you meds to slow them down, you can get a ep study and they might can go in and stop them. many things to do but got to go to a cardio Dr.   plz keep in touch and try not to let them drive you crazy . and yes they should calm down .

[Elli126]

Take it from someone who has been going through this for three decades. Mine started in my twenties and I'm in my fifties now. They are scary. They are annoying and bothersome but they won't kill you. At one point I had 20k a day. I also have SVT which I think is a lot scarier. If you were checked out in the hospital and they said your heart is fine then trust the docs. As others have mentioned there are meds that help with the amount and how much you feel them. Have your doc put you on a thirty day monitor so they can see how your patterns run and maybe put you on a beta blocker and try to stay calm as difficult as that may be.

[Lucas2014]

Hi guys thanks very much for the respond ! It feels really good to know I'm not alone .;(
Yes I was refereed to a cardiologist and he did all those test ( echo and stress ) and my heart was fine , but Holter shower very frequent PVCs , when I had that monitor on me I was kinda okay that night and still I had that many  so I don't know how many I get when my symptoms are worse .  
I have been reading a lot on the internet and I understand that we all get pvcs and they aren't big deal but why do they stay 24 / 7 and it's been so long now 4 months ? Will they ever give me a break ? ;((  fluttering in my chest is the scariest thing I have ever experienced in my life , it's like the end , you think you gonna die any minute , I read something about cardiac arrest and I couldn't sleep that night . My family doesn't understand me they don't know what it feels like , at first my mom didn't believe that my bed was shaking from this and one night she saw it and she couldn't understand why was my heartbeat  that strong , now they know I'm not making this up . It's really happening , I also hear every beat of my heart in my ears and this sooooo annoying I feel it and I hear it the pause and the string best and the pause again I don't want to hear it ;( I often use headphone listening something while trying to sleep .   Guys is there something I can do ? Please there has to be something to get rid of this ? ;( how cam I enjoy my life when I feel I'm dying ? I've been sitting in my room all days doing nothing but feeling sorry for myself asking why would I get this ? Most of my friends drink and smoke do drugs and they're fine :/ how's that fair ,,I hate when they don't tell u the reason , it's like there's no reason for them but you have it and that's it . My dad's from Europe Georgia and he said he knew something there really well known and respected doctor cardiologist and he has his own hospital , my dad called him and he said I have to be there and he might be able to help , I'm thinking to travel there if they can cure me . Docs here  have no idea what's cause my irregular heart beats and they ain't interested to find out . ;((

[Lucas2014]

Thanks for your reply , yeah like I said I have those tests and my heart is normal , but I get very frequent PVCs , irregular beats , ectopic beats , and that's why I'm  worried , if I had just few I wouldn't be bothered but I deal with thousands a day ;(( I have a fear of dying , my heart giving up on this extra beats cuz I get so many , I read about cardiac arrest and things like that and it gives me chills , it freaks me our so bad that I start shaking , I don't want to read things like that anymore but I can't help it ,I'm trying to find something to get rid of them , blood test showed nothing , calcium , mag , potassium levels were fine , no hormonal imbalance and no thyroid problems .

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

hi , so sorry they are still going .

yes I get them for hours on hours last time I had them 10 hours straight every other heart beat was a flutter , and it just don't seem normal

scares me to , I lay there thinking this is it but ive had flutters since I was 19 now 55 so they have not killed me yet even though that don't help my nerves when they come


if you have had 4 months straight all day than you can rest that its not something that wil kill you, if it was you would be gone by now

cardic arrest will not happen with pvc/pac, its just a extra beat being threw in there
  what ids you heart rate . is it fast or normal. do you have a bp machine at home that you can check that ?

if all your test have come back heart is good than your fine , its just so darn scary and yes your young and need to be living your life.

try and get on a anxiety med that stays in your body that might help like klonopin, when mine was going crazy it helped me to settle down and get back on my feet and back to life

[Lucas2014]

My heart rate is normal , ( 64 - 80 ) it can get fast if I let anxiety take over me I just had my dinner meal now and my PVCs are so much worse ;(( I almost passed out a minute ago , food seems to aggravate them ;(

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

yeah your heart rate is good ,

try to eat smaller meals , eating a big meal can make them worse

[Elli126]

Sometimes PVC PAC can be felt more after eating especially after a large meal because your stomach can be pressing against your vagus nerve. This is just another annoying post of the whole thing. You may want to check into managing your anxiety. And ask your doc about those beta blockers you may benefit from those since you have so many. Hang in there! Keep reading others posts and you will see how many of us suffer with these pain in the neck things, and some with many more than you even!

[Lucas2014]

Thank you Elli ;) I'm really trying to calm down now after reading these posts , I'm be meeting another cardiologist in 10 days and I'll let you guys know how things will go. Im traveling far away to meet this doc ;))

[Lucas2014]

Can anyone tell me if I should take calcium and vitamin d together ? Would they help with my pvcs ? Thanks

[FLIPPINPATTY]

I've been having PVC's & PAC's for about 20 years. Two years ago they started getting real bad like every other two or three beats with some couplets thrown in. They can last this bad for hours. I was use to the random beats, but this many scared me. Anxiety about them will make them worse. I have found that when I start feeling alot of skipping, the best thing I can do is get my mind on something else. I just had all the tests & there has been no change in my heart function, so these crazy beats do not harm your heart.
Some people find that taking extra magnesium helps. Good luck with your appt. & let us know how it goes.

[SammiiLynn]

Hope you figure out how to get them under control soon. I'm 21 also and started having those same feelings about a year ago. I've been to the hospital plenty of times, just last week also. Results are always normal, besides the holter monitor showing pauses in my heart beat. No helpful advice yet but I see my cardiologist next week and hopefully will have some then. I was also told its most likely anxiety, which *****, because it's so hard to control. I read that certain breathing techniques and possibly yoga can help. Good luck !

[Lucas2014]

Hey guys I just came back from ER it's 2 a.m   , ECG showed PVCs and had chest pain all day . They told me the same thing as always but one doc freaked me out ! I can't stop thinking about what he said . He told me pvcs could form blood clots ?? Please someone tell me is that true ? ;((((

[Lucas2014]

Sam thank you , I hope we all get rid of these scary beats soon .

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

No pvcs do nt caus blood clots

Afib can throw a cloth, if your not on meds for thinning the blood but not sure how common that is

So don't even worry about what that dr Sid ve do acs for 30 years same s pvcs and know lots on here that have pcs and they never got blood clots from them

[Elli126]

I second what Heartflutters said. I've had them for like thirty years and no one has ever said that too me, plus I've worked for a cardiologist for years. Never heard such a thing.

[Lucas2014]

Hi Elli  and Heartflutters Thank you guys for posting , your comments always make me feel better and thanks for much for that !!!
I wish that doc had never said that to me , he scared me  , I actually  didn't know anything about blood clots and stroke before , always been told that PVCs won't hurt me , I dont want to think about heaving a stroke ,  I'm feeling tense all the time , I can't  seem to get these things out of my head ,  i hve had some pain and discomfort the last two days , it comes and goes , i dont know if its my heart / good news is that there was no PVCs on my ECG last night , this is the first time seeing no PVCs on ECG/

[Lucas2014]

I wish there was more people like you in my life , things would be so much easier , thanks for your comments , now someone told me that it could lead to heart aneurysm , they just like to scare me like that . :((((

[Elli126]

I don't know why my last post ended up higher on the list but let me add...You gotta stop listening to people telling you scary things! Listen to the doctors, the professionals! Not people who are just trying to scare you.

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

No they do not, only thing they do is drive you crazy, make you feel bad

Don't listen to anyone trying to scare you, you have to believe in your drs , if you don't you will always live in fear and your life will pass you by

As far as your Er visit that should a sure you again your hearts ok

[achillea]

You are certainly not alone with your worries about this.  So many, many people post on this forum with the very same symptoms and concerns you have, and unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

The truth is that no one really knows the cause of benign ectopic beats in a young, healthy heart like yours.  And since the cause or causes are not known, no 'cure' is known, either.

What is understood is that everyone has these weird heart beats--but not everyone is aware of them.  Those who are often wind up on this board, looking for advice.

I will give you the advice that I received from my own doc:  After a lot of testing, you simply HAVE to learn to believe that you are not in any physical danger from these things.

The real problem is hyper-awareness and fear of them, and then anticipatory fear of the fear.  That is not a cardiologist's field.  So, what professional do you see about fear?  You see a shrink to learn to deal with chronic anxiety and with bouts of outright panic.

A good shrink is a person with medical training who can help you understand what is going on when you have PVCs or whatever, and who can give you tools for dealing with your dread of the sensations you perceive.  Usually, what will be offered is a kind of thought-training called cognitive-behavioral therapy, plus a better, more long-term kind of medical therapy that employs meds called SSRIs or 'Selective Serotonin Receptor Inhibitors.'  These are drugs that will gradually quiet down what my shrink calls 'your internal car alarm.'  This is a good thing, believe me, because anxiety makes PVCs much, much more frequent.

Under the new national health care system, you should find at least basic, affordable medical care for people your age.  If you truly cannot afford to pay for this, there is a wonderful little paperback called 'Help and Hope For Your Nerves,' by Dr. Claire Weekes, which discusses what you have been feeling AND provides some simple mental exercises to help you calm yourself down.

Do consider buying this little book.  It will at least give you a handle on what you have been experiencing.