How to live with Bigeminy....

[grannyheart]

I was diagnosed with ventricular bigeminy back in December and just told to live with it.....do take 25mg of Toprol XL as part of my heart failure treatment.  Perhaps I'm just not used to it yet but I'm having a hard time adjusting to the way I feel...maybe I'm just too anxious.
  But for those who have it ...how do you deal with the heart appearing to be so low....this morning I woke up with my blood pressure monitor saying the HR was 35....I felt like I was going to faint (not sure if really or anxious over seeing HR that low)...it's just a very uncomfortable feeling......this lasted for two hours.....presently I'm at 62 which is my normal HR.......before my heart failure I did indeed have pvc's but they didn't really bother me.....this does.  Wore a monitor for two weeks and he said "oh just pvc's".......and I do admit....during that time I felt very few of what they call bigeminey pvc's......
   So guess all I'm asking is if anyone has this what meds are you taking if any specifically for this....should my Toprol XL be enough?    And perhaps I am just worrying over what is normal but when one is 78...has had two open heart surgeries....heart attack and now in heart failure I'm finding it kind of hard to accept...
   Thanks for any input!!

[grannyheart]

Thanks so much for your response...I think that if I only had regular pvc's to deal with I'd be okay because I'm so used to them....it's just the bigeminy that is getting to me.....today I'm trying to see if cutting my toprol down a little helps.  Do notice I have been waking up with this and when I take my BP the monitor is showing HR of 40-45......now I know if I call dr he'll just say that isn't an actual reading because of the bigeminy.....so am I to just assume during these bouts that it's not possible to get a HR that would be considered "good"? So many questions and to be honest I usually get the response that I just need to stop be so anxious and ignore the feelings......boy, I wish I could!
  Thanks again......I cut out caffeine years ago because it made me so jittery but at this point willing to try anything......I do believe finding ways to relax such as yoga may help.....I do treadmill but lately the bigeminy pops up as soon as I start treading (slowly) and I don't know if I should  just continue or get off......perhaps I just need more advice from my dr as to just what is going on and what if anything I should do or avoid.......and not be satisfied with the "just relax and not be so anxious".........

[hjb60]

it turns out that when you have bigiminey, electronics monitors like blood pressure and pulse oximeters are NOT able to pick up on those irregular beats because they are too close together for the sensor!  i was having a rate of 30 beats per min. in reality my heart rate was in the 50's.  you may get a more accurate result if you take your carotid pulse manually, but the only real way is with an ekg monitor. you still wont feel well regardless, because that second beat isnt very effective because its comes too soon, and the heart chambers havent had time to refill with oxygenated blood. my doctor started me with 25mg metoprolol er for a week, then increased it to 2× a day. its only my secind week, but i think it is helping somewhat, but i get dizzy when i stand up.

[MichelleP_3811]

I am so sorry to hear about all your heart troubles.  I have pvcs and pacs but I mine are pretty isolated and so I don't get much bigeminy or trigeminy but maybe a few extremely short lived runs.  What I will say is I know when I have days that I have a lot of them they can make me feel a bit ill and cause my chest to hurt a bit.  It is a bit hard to say if some of the issue isn't related to the Toprol as that could be slowing your heart rate a bit but considering all your heart has been through I am not certain an ablation to correct the pvcs would be much help or if it would make the situation worse.  The best advice I can give would be to try and watch what you are eating avoiding carbohydrates as best you can, avoid over exertion, as well as try to find some relaxation things you can do like meditation or yoga to help calm your nerves.  I actually just read an article that yoga is helping patients with afib so I can't see why it wouldn't help people with ectopics as well.  Anything that can calm us helps calm the heart as well.  And the only other thing I might consult the doctor about might be to see if adding caffeine might help.  They usually tell you to avoid caffeine if you have ectopic beats but if your slow heart rate is making you feel poorly maybe a bit of caffeine used to speed it up a bit might help you feel better.  Though I would definitely consult with your doctor to make sure it is safe for you to have it. And one last thing though I am not sure this would help or not but when you fall into bi and trigeminy I wonder if the ectopics are getting stuck so maybe try coughing a bit to see if you can jar them loose.  I know sometimes when my heart starts acting a bit odd if I cough it seems to straighten things out so maybe it can help.  And hopefully someone else who deals with the geminys will jump on and offer some advice.  Well do try to stay strong and give yourself as much rest and relaxation as you can get.  Take care and feel better soon.