Someone please help!!! I'm panicking

[Dentalmaniac]

I've had occasional irregular heartbeats for a long time now (over 13 years). In the past they've felt like extra beats where all of a sudden my heart rate goes fast. I've been told in the past that they're benign. I've had multiple holter monitors as well as stress tests. A few months ago, I started having irregular heartbeats when I excercise and they felt different. The last stress test I had was three months ago and I did feel these irregular heartbeats during the test. The doctor conducting the test said they were nothing to worry about. Since yesterday, I've been feeling the same kind of irregular heartbeats every few minutes the whole day. When I take my pulse during these episodes, I actually can feel that there is a pause in the pulse for a second when I feel them, like my heart has skipped a beat. Can someone tell me if these are pvcs or pacs? Does the pulse actually skip a beat when a pvc or pac occurs? or could it be atrial fibrillation? I've heard somewhere that atrial fibrillation is the dangerous type of arrythmia. Really need some piece of mind. I think being stressed out about it, makes the situation worse. I am panicking at this point and being a weekend, I can't see my doctor for the next couple of days. Someone's reassurance would help a lot

thanks,

[Dentalmaniac]

so i went to my doc yesterday and they did an ekg which ofcourse caught the missed beats. The doc told me not to worry about them as they are pacs. and gave me a prescription for tropolol. I am a little hesitant to take that as i've taken atenelol in the past and remember that it slowed down my heartrate quite a bit. is it ok for me to not take the medicine? considering i'm probably having close to 10 pacs in a minute the whole day. The doctor was not concerned at all when he'd seen my ekg

[Mom2four85]

sounds like pvc's, but you need to find out from your dr and just how many and what type  you're having - you can always call or send in a request for a copy of your records and see what they say

95%-99% of the time pvc's are benign; esp if you have no structural heart problems and are young and healthy; if you're on no meds for these arrhythmia's and have been checked out then the chances are slim you have anything to worry about BUT I would still get my test results and ask my dr questions just for your peace of mind

VT; VTach can be dangerous - they originate in the ventricles and when a certain origin turn into VFib or V Fibrillation which is the dangerous deadly arrhythmia.  Since you did have stress testing; anything dangerous would have probably shown up there as that taxes the heart - mine did and I passed out and they stopped the test at 4:55.

If you haven't, look at your environment & lifestyle to see if there's anything that's making your symptoms worse and that needs changing or eliminating; also if they haven't blood testing can yield some answers with levels that may be off or low.

head on over to our heart rhythm forum community, lots of us there share the same things you're going through =)

[blabhamilton]

See if your doctor would be willing to try to on a med called clonidine I use .1.  my heart beats three beats skips four beats. its been fun. but the clonidine helps keep it in check. and it also helps with panic attacks. on a normal day my heart rate is 154 on days when it is out of wack it can go as high as 300, they love me in the er because the new doctors think that I am having a heart attack.  and just a heads up the med, will knock you on your butt until you get use to it. because it slows you down but that will pass. I went to a old doctor that knew of my heart murmur and knew that you can not always hear it unless I am stressed. and he put me on it because for two weeks staight I had a really high heart beat even for me. so sit down with your doctor and tell him everything, and don't stop until the doctor gives you the answers that you need. oh and my murmur has never been caught on a ekg but it does show up on the thyiord scans and a few other scans that I can not rememeber the names of. but you can hear it.  good luck

[cindy707]

I loved Ireneos post because it came right to the point on this.  Especially the last paragraph.  Do not panic here millions and millions of humans on this earth have palps and atrial fib is in a league all its own.  Been there done that and my heart rate would soar into the lower 300's until i had it fixed thru an ablation.  Obviously your docs aren't concerned and feel that the situation is benign and if you know your docs, trust your  docs, and tests have been run you can pretty much take it to the bank.  If i am still sitting here on the computer posting on this site and i had a super severe case of atrial fib, SVT among other things that should kind of be an indicator for you.  There really is no need to panic here altho i completely understand what you are feeling.  You may want to put it into perspective for yourself and realize that in a 24 hour period your heart will be on an average of over 100,000 times...then you may want to compare that to the amount of incidents that you are having.  If you want to safeguard yourself a little and can tolerate it you may want to take an aspirin a day as a safety net because really the biggest issue with anyone with this would be clotting and an aspirin thins down your blood to safeguard you...but only if you are okay to take them and have no issues with it....and even if your doc isn't in the office this weekend he/she is on call or someone else from their rotation is and you can reach them 24 hours a day no matter what if you feel things are getting out of control and i always relaxed a little when i would remember that it only takes a visit to the E.R, for reassurance and correction if needed.  Would i be worried...i would say no worries on this one as Ireneo has said.....if you are reading this how many hours later you are doing better than okay...mostly its just scary and irritating and don't even think about atrial fib..and besides atrial fib is very treatable and reversable in most cases but you have never been diagnosed with it...i would divert myself this weekend and do things to take your mind off of all of this...sometimes we all make mountains out of molehills as they say......you are always just a single phone call away from help no matter where you are or what you are doing.....good luck with this................

[ireneo]

Possibly PVC's and yes, it feels like there is a pause. The beat comes early and the heart seems to pause as it resets itself back to the regular rhythm. All the beats are there, just a bit off beat. It's called a compensatory pause  and is quite common.

Can't tell if it's PVC or PAC without a monitor. What I know of a-fib is that the rate varies if you were to take your pulse every minute. It could be 72, then 104, then 86, then 98.  It fluctuates and that's typical for a-fib.

The standard I use for my heart is if I don't pass out, then I'm doing OK. My heart flips and races all through the day. I have to be stern with it.  :-)  So far we're both doing great.