My PVCs are sudden and have lasted 48 hours, this has never happened before to me

[Ewall2008]

My PVCs started two days ago in the early morning. Generally I drink 1 cup of coffee a day, and haven’t had issues with PVCs ever. Well I’m going on 48 straight hours of them. Cut out caffeine. Worsening with my heart rate is below 80. I’m abnormally exhausted and the PVCs are constant at ever 5-9 beats. Went to ER and they said there was nothing they could do. They gave me potassium and magnesium but neither helped. But it’s effecting my sleep, and I’m worried there’s something else underlying. Follow up with cardiologist in AUGUST (forever away). Does anyone have advice?

[klutzer25]

I totally know what you are talking about. Been there.I often have thousands of these PVCs a day. I have had this condition since 1978 and I'm 67 years old now. It does affect the quality of life. Doctors are not very sympathetic, especially if they have never experienced these irregular beats.  They just say they are benign. But that doesn't help you to cope. And it becomes a vicious cycle since you become anxious, and the anxiety over them causes adrenaline to be released, which in turn can cause more PVCs.  I had to raise 4 kids with this condition. Needless to say, I was crabby and miserable.  A year or two ago  I read a study that said people with this condition benefited from Acebutolol. Over the years I had been on several "beta blockers" but they didn't get rid of many of the PVCs and some caused depression. I asked my cardiologist if I could try it and he said that it was an older drug but worth a try. I am on 400mg twice a day and it has been like a miracle. I might get an occasional PVC in a month, but most of the time I am not aware of any at all.  Previously I had like 10,000 or more a day.  Not sure if everyone will get the great results I did, but it might be worth a try to ask for Acebutolol. I hope this has helped you. God bless.

[dongato17]

Welcome to the fun of PVCs!  Unfortunately, there's not a lot you can do except go through the battery of tests (EKG, echo, stress test, calcium scoring, etc.) to confirm that they are "benign".  I put that in quotes because it will mean that they probably aren't going to kill you - but it won't stop them from annoying you.

Most likely is that they will be benign - most are.  What did they do at the ER?

The most annoying thing when you first get PVCs is that it is easy to get anxiety from them which can lead to more of them.  Then if you let it really get to you, it can trigger panic which has similar symptoms to a heart attack.

The only thing to do is to try to ignore them.  I found they are most difficult to ignore at night when trying to sleep.  Some nights I've taken a sleeping pill to help on that.  It's been a couple of months now and the longer they hang around the easier I find them to ignore.