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1005642 tn?1286907158

PVC's & Flutters

I am not crazy and those who suffer with PVC's, flutterings, palpitations, etc are not crazy. I was having odd heart beats - not palpitations yesterday at the gym.  It felt like a thuddering that would stop and go, several times in a row.
I kept calling my cardiologist for the day until he called me back.  He told me to continue my meds Toprol XL 12.5mg
because he cannot determine what type of PVC's they are.  He believes that my PVCs and Palpitations are benign.  The doc has never been able to record one on a loop monitor because OF COURSE the fluttering/palpitations/throbbing in my neck/flip flop heartbeats cease to exist every time I wear a loop monitor.
However, he noticed on my most recent EKG, an ectopic rhythm in the upper chamber of my heart, nothing to worry about he says.  Again he says he cannot determine if it is accelerated sinus rhythm or an ectopic rhythm until we can catch one on the recorder.  Everyone keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer because I am so tired of dealing with these freaky beats.  It gets me down, depressed, anxious, a nervous wreck, and makes me want to stay indoors as a hermit, I feel out of place with society.  For those who get this way my encouragement is to keep posting your stories, keep in touch with your doctor when changes occur, have at least one person you can talk to about this, and know that God knows what is going on!  
7 Responses
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1057595 tn?1257898338
My daughter's PVC's did show up on a 24 hour holter a few days after she went to the ER with what she thought was a major panic attack.  The psychiatrist was in the room talking with her when they did the routine EKG.  He took a glance at the tracing and said "well, I'm not needed here - send in the cardio guys". She is pretty much in constant bigeminy and trigeminy right now and sometimes throws couplets too.  I can't imagine how she is living with this and taking a full load at law school too.  She couldn't take the semester off because when she turned 25 in September she was knocked off of my wonderful health insurance and is now just on the university coverage which is horrible.  I am waiting for word today that the COBRA from my insurance has gone through.  I feel so blessed that she can afford the COBRA coverage.  Imagine the people in this country that aren't as lucky.  It's very sad.
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967168 tn?1477584489
Stutterheart; I have problems with exercise also even after having an ablation. I used to walk/run and do all our yardwork, but can't even walk very far now without major issues, which scares me.

During my treadmill stress test I passed out, but the results explained it. During the 4:55 min test; I had VT; 2 PVC couplets and 1 PVC triplet and a QRS segment of PVC's narrowed substantially with exercise, widening again in recovery (180 ms to 80 ms)

Since having my pacemaker/icd implanted; it showed I was converted from VT twice and defib'd once - 2 out of those 3 times I was walking around shopping; once I know I was pushing a shopping cart with my 2 younger children.  The time I went into vfib, I was cleaning house and passed out.

kozlosap, good luck with your daughter's ablation - hopefully they will find out what's going on and will get to the bottom of it and get rid of her pvc's
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Avatar universal
Just a comment here:
I've had these exercize induced arrhytmia for a few years now. With 2 ablations, I have some answers but no cure. Who knows why they pop up but when I lift weights, I get a pause, then a flutter, then a pause, then a flutter etc. My docs have mapped pretty extensively and say they have eliminated the scary stuff and that I should just live with it. One of the docs is a specialist in assessing risk factors of sudden cardiac death and gave me the ok that nothing should happen. I'm still reluctant to exercize but am a little more at ease with these scary things.
Best of luck
Helpful - 0
967168 tn?1477584489
wow, that's wild she would have 30,000 a day and then not during surgery, other than the meds making them go away I would wonder why it would happen

did more than 1 test show she had that many or just 1 holter on a particular day? it's interesting to me how we all suffer so differently, but 30,000 is ALOT to just poof go during surger.... thats why I call them monsters - for some they hide :P
Helpful - 0
1057595 tn?1257898338
It's so funny that you talk about having loads of PVC's and then having them disappear when you wore the holter monitor - I think it's a very common situation.  My daughter was averaging 30,000 a day which DID show on the holter, but when she got into the EP lab to have an ablation, they would not come!!  After 7 hours of trying to get the PVCs to replicate, the cardiologist called it a day.  He had done 12 burns, but the minute she got into the recovery room they started up again!  She is scheduled for a second ablation on Monday and will have no tranqs at all except for where they do the cut downs for the catheters.  They think that the tranqs slowed down the PVCs last time.  She is also off of all meds as of today.  Good luck with tracking your PVCs down, and don't give up.  Force the docs to do something for your symptoms!
Helpful - 0
967168 tn?1477584489
Pvc's are frightening, everyone in their lifetime will some type of irregular HR's at some point, but it still doesn't help the fact when they do happen how it makes us feel.

Anxiety, worry, stress etc, all make things worse and may affect us later on.  Try to adapt a lifestyle of finding what triggers yours and keep track of them just to see if there's changes, and eliminate stressors.

I wish I had known many years ago what was going on in my body instead of being told I was "fine" nothing was wrong with me.  I may have known what to look for and not ignored some warning signs of dangerous symtpoms.

Even after I was told I needed an ablation for constant persistant pvc's (over 54,000 daily) I still didn't believe it.  I had been told for 5-7 years the same thing and really believed the EP was mistaken, and the way I felt was because I was overworked, stressed and had gained weight/lost weight/gained weight, didn't sleep and just plain fatigued.

Only we know our bodies, what changes there are and what's going on inside. If something feels different it probably is, BUT don't add stress & anxiety to the mix - that's one thing that probably saved me - even though I was stretched to the limit, I didn't get upset or anxious over what I couldn't control.

Btw - there are exercise induced pvc's; I had them and still have them - which is the opposite of most people.  When they heart is resting is usually when you feel pvc's the most and they become more prevelant.  Check my journal under doctor results and surgery - it's too early to quote the correct thing for my case :)

I had an ablation almost 3 months ago, which cured all but 1% of my pvc's instead of being 42% of my heartbeats, and now I have pac's LOL go figure...I ended up having malignant pvc's only found in surgery and had to have a cardiac mri, catherization and pacemaker/icd implanted.

There is light at the end of the tunnel....you can't let pvc's and the way they make you feel ruin your life - live like there's no tomorrow and don't sweat the small stuff.  I have to remind myself of that daily and even kick myself in the behind sometimes to make myself believe it...the mind is a very powerful tool; use it wisely.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I completely agre... I have been suffering with these as well. my PCP said they are actually quite common and usually nothing to worry about. He had me wear a 24 hour holter which of course showed NOTHING. I had been having bad bouts of PVC's for days before going to see him and of course the moment I put the monitor on, they stopped, and when i took the monitor off they started again. It was extremely frustrating. I took it upon myself to see an actual cardiologist, and am now wearing a 2 week monitor. I have managed to catch some of them, so I am feeling confident that I'll finally know what's going on. If you haven't had the monitor from Cardionet yet, then I would recommend it. It has a record button you can push if you feel one, but it also picks up on any abnormal rythm as well, so you don't have to worry that you aren't catching them. I hope your find an answer to all your anxiety soon, and know that others are feeling the same way. Try not to stress, avoid caffeine (they make them 10x worse) and keep your head up. :)
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