Question about PVCs

[KLB32]

I have a history of PVCs (was diagnosed about 2 years ago).  I was told they were benign after multiple EKG's, an echo and 24 hour holter monitoring.  For the most part, I am able to deal with them.

Lately, they have been worse because I've been ill.  I know they can get worse with illness.  I was also taking a quinilone drug for a sinus infection and it made them WAY worse.  My Dr. stopped the drug and has now prescribed me Augmentin.  Hopefully, it will kill the infection without causing so many symptoms!

I wanted to ask if anyone has had PVC's where they come very fast, strong and then you get other symptoms along with it like dizziness, feeling weak, tingly, sweating and feel hot.  This happened to me yesterday afternoon and I really thought I was having a heart attack!  I blame it partially on the illness and the medication but how can you tell the difference between a real heart problem and something that is benign?  I am really struggling with that.

I had an EKG on Wednesday which was normal.  I am 32 years old and am in decent health, not overweight, don't smoke or drink.

If you get PVC's with the above symptoms, how do you deal with them?  I am having a hard time focusing on work right now.

[bama jane]

I have gotten them for years and had exactly the same symptoms with some and have asked my self many times the same question, how do you know when to go to the hospital.  I was told that how a palpitation feels depends on where it comes from in the heart and how it affects the heart's ability to fill. I get weakness with some and feel a rush throughout my body and sweat a little with others.  I'm not sure how much is from the arrhythmia and how much is from the anxiety caused by the fact that your heart isn't beating normally.  As long as I have had this it still scares me at times when I get lots of them or I have them very close together for an extended period of time.  If you look through the archives on this forum you will see lots of posts about the same thing and maybe that will help you. I try and tell myself that it will pass and it always has but when you are feeling them it is difficult to be confident that they will. I have gotten reassurance from numerous doctors that while being unpleasant this will not kill me. I get lots of them daily. Of course everyone should be followed by their own doctor to be sure it is a benign problem.  Hope this helps.

[anacyde]

Yep.  I'm actually having a bad spell of them here lately.  Really bad.  Can't say there is any rhyme or reason to it at all, nothing's changed.  It's unnerving at best, distracting quite often, and enough to make me want to drown my thoughts in very loud music at it's worst ;)  The kind where it's so loud you can only feel the vibration of the music, and you have no clue what your heart is doing.  I like that, lol

[mariop]

I was on a Holter Monitor a couple weeks ago and it registered about 16000 PVCs for 24 hours.  This was a mild day for me.  I had a number of short runs of VTach too.  There are many different meds to try but for a lot of people the side effects precludes that option.  If the PVCs can lead to VTach as mine do, a PVC ablation is an option.  The Cleveland Clinic specializes in that and you might want to discuss this option with one of their doctors on the medical side of this board.