Anyone currently having 10,000 PVC's or more daily

[stringplayer]

I posted in June.  I mentioned my ablation for PVC's in 99 was a disaster.  Since then I have talked with several prominent Cardiologists, EP DRs and they all said having an ablation for PVC's is unethical.  I have 10,000  25000 a day 24/7.  I used to get relief but those days have gone.  My current DR wants me to try Tambocor.  No monitoring, no big deal.  Call me in 6 months.  I travel around the country playing concerts.  The skips really get me down.  I am reluctant to try Tambocor because I have enough problems already.  Anyone in my shoes?  Tired of PVC's.....

[cobbfamily777]

I have been struggling with pvc's since June 2018.  I was told from a young age that I had mitral valve prolapse. I have felt palpitations off and on since I was very young. No big deal, honestly.  About a year, and then again 3 months, before my PVC's started, I had major symptoms.  I went limp, lightedness, nausea, vomiting, and sweating. When I finally was able to lay down, it took several hours to come back to normal. I should have called an ambulance, but I'm stubborn . In June, I was at walmart walking around when out of the blue dizziness kicked in. It got worse from there. I dealt with dizziness, heart flip-flopping, difficulty breathing, loss of appetite and extremely fatigued, for 2 weeks. Then, on June 2nd, everything got worse, I went in the house and I started sweating, chest pain, nausea, and vomiting it was overwhelming. I knew I needed to go to ER. I hate going to the doctors, nothing personal, just my husband and all three of my children have to see different doctors constantly, Im sick of seeing doctors. So, I grabbed my keys and drove myself to the ER. They got me back quick, to only tell me it was pvc's and Sinus tachycardia. They sent me home with atenolol and referred me to cardiologist. I went too him 2 months later. Wore a Holster for 24 hours and it said I was had 15,000pvcs in 24 hours. Had Echo and stress test done. They stopped the stress test because of extreme lightheadedness and I almost fell.Today got results, and all was normal. However, the symptoms have not left. He put me on Tambocor to help with pvc's, scheduled me to come back in a month. If this doesnt help, then referral to another heart doctor for a Radiofrequency catheter ablation. That's where I'm at as of now.

[nanoart]

I think 15,000 PVC and dizziness needs addressing - I am at 18-20,000 a day now and almost incapacitated as flight of stairs make me bigeminic and I can not walk from office to the parking lot. Ablation - with a good doctor (check record) and while PVC's in place (they are very capricious and can vanish only to start week later) is a good solution. Good luck!

[itdood]

ahh, can you try starting out on a small dose of the tambocor and work your way up?  Not sure how it works, best to ask your doc that question....I've read some posts in the past that said the tambocor worked well for them.

I hope you find some answers and relief, keep searching.

[Wisconsin2007]

I'm 40, have had PVCs for coming up on 11 years.  In 2006 I had as many as you, for about 10 straight months.  On average, every 5-6 beats, all day, every day.  Each day I woke up wondering if that would be my last.  I kept about my daily routines like you do, but it sure took the "life" out of my life.  

I've found some things that work for me, too.  Since the PVCs more or less faded in late 2006, I've had about 80 "bad" days where I get back up to 15-20,000 PVCs in a day.  But during '06 I was thinking that this was how the rest of my life was going to be, and I wasn't liking it.  

I think everyone is different, triggers are different, solutions are different.  For me, building stress is the biggest trigger, and it took me awhile to figure out how to remedy that, and it required me to re-think how I run my entire business, so that stress doesn't catch hold of me and take me for a ride.

It still does sometimes, but I seem to be able to extract myself now, where I couldn't before.

Have you tracked your PVCs to know when they are their worst and their best, to try to pin down your triggers?  And be open to consider everything.  Maybe the vagabond lifestyle of a traveling musician just isn't healthy for you anymore.  Or maybe there are other dietary or sleep adjustments you can make to improve things.

[stringplayer]

Thanks for your comments.  I appreciate it.  I should have mentioned I've tried the BP's, Dr said next step Tambocor.  He wanted me to try it 5 years ago.  But again thanks and I will keep working on it.  Below is my post in June.  Discussing my ablation and some history.  

Here is MY JUNE POST.
I have had PVC's since I was 17.  About 34 years.  Just a few at 17, hardly any in my twenties.  I would have 2 or 3 minutes worth.  By 35 I had built up to running 3-5 miles a day.  At age 36 I started having bigeminy.  Tons of skips a day.  In March of 99 I had an ablation in Northern KY, a Cincinnati DR.  It was a disaster.  He burned something that should have not been burned.  The burn pain was unbelievable.  Afterwards I was very short of breath from my left lung.  My blood oxygen was extremely low.  My family would stay up at night staring at my chest because I would quit breathing.   Dr Burroughs went into denial.  He accused me of it was all in my head.  He zapped something that controlled my breathing.  I was very bad off.  I went everywhere including Cleveland clinic.  But there was no way to fix it because no one knew exactly what went wrong.  After a year I started breathing better but still had problems and the skips were worse.  I started walking and tried a little jogging and when I started breathing heavy, huffing and puffing, which is natural while exercising, I knew something happened on that left side from breathing deeply. I was starving for oxygen again.  I had to rest for months.  I could not stand the low oxygen.  Finally this nerve or whatever it is,  healed up some to where I could breath better.  So I never huff and puff, no way.  I did a treadmill test for 5 or 6 minutes breathing very shallow.
I have been having 15000-25000 skips a day lately.  I think I am a master at handling them but they still get me down and wear me out.  I play concerts all over the country.  Sometimes I am in bigeminy the whole 2 hours of my concert.  The show must go on.  Ha. It is not easy.  Medicines never helped.  I am afraid to try tambocor.  

[itdood]

p.s., I want to add, that for me there was no single magic bullett.  What seems to have worked best for me is losing weight, making sure I get enough electrolytes throughout the day, and I manage my stress better.

I was very afraid to exercise.  I would get what I thought were symptoms but I got so frsutrated one day that I said screw it, I'm running balls to the wall and if I die so be it.    My wife and kids have ample life insurance on me.  :-)   guess what, nothing happened.  

I tried BP meds myself and those seems to make it worse.

My question, when you get your heart rate above 100 bpm during exercise, do they go away?

[itdood]

I've lived days with that many PVCs as-well so I know what you're going through.

Usually for benign PVCs docs wont treat unless they are disrupting your life.   The fist line of drugs are BP meds like beta blockers and calcium channel blockers or a combo there-of.   These have little to no risk.  Like you heard from the other docs, going straight to an ablation is a rather drastic first step in addressing PVCs.

The Tambocor would be like the next level up from BP meds.  I've anecdotally read people have great success with it, and I've also read that it has a higher risk profile than the BP meds you should think about.

There is also some homeopathic stuff you can try.  Diet regimens that might help.  There are many angles you can attack the problem from.  For me I started researching blogs like here and seeing what some of the anecdotal feedback was like.  I started trying some of those diet and supplement ideas.  Eventually I think I found something that works for me, for now...

As far as testing, I've recently had a cardiac MRI to rule out ischemia and other issues.  Haven't heard back yet on results.  But I would suggest you could take it that far to further give you piece of mind that your heart is OK.

Good luck and keep searching, keep trying different stuff.