Will my heart stop?

Hi, I have been having a fluttery feeling in my chest for about six months, this is accompanied by missing heart beats. I have had the 48 hour ecg/horter and have been told that I have venticular bigeminy. I have always had a very slow heart beat but since this problem it is 40 at rest , 30 when asleep and only goes up to 85 on my daily fast two mile walk. The doctor has put me on a very low dose of beta blocker as I have had asthma in the past. He said that my pulse may even go slower, I now feel that I will go to sleep one night and my heart will just stop. I hate this feeling I am having for most of the day when relaxing, I am ok when doing anything physical. My heart beat is so slow that when I miss a beat the delay to the next can be 2-3 seconds and this is scary. It is much worse after eating or drinking. Anyone have any thoughts on this please?

Ray

[Smiley2000]

Don't worry, a lot of us suffer from these "miss beats" and it is really annoying and scary, especially when you want to doze off and sleep!  you have my empathy.

I am a little confused why they have prescribed a beta blocker for you instead of another anti-arrthythmic med?  The function of a beta blocker is to slow down your HR, in your case it is already VERY slow!

can anyone help us with this one?

[yar1950]

Hi Smiley, Forgot to mention that I  am 57 and have had High blood pressure since the age of 28. The doctor said that he is going to try and get my blood pressure a bit lower with the beta blocker and this should help my irregular heart beat problem.  He called my complaint ventricular bigeminy .

[kenkeith]

Contact your doctor or nurse right away if the heart rate is <50 bpm an ECG should be performed even if the patient is asymptomatic. The dose of beta-blocker should be reduced if there is symptomatic bradycardia. Review the need to continue treatment
with other drugs that may slow heart rate e.g.verapamil, diltiazem, digoxin and amiodarone.
With the medication the heart beats more slowly and with less force, thereby reducing blood pressure and verey good for heart failure.  The danger with a very slow heart rate, and 40-30 heart rate is in that category, together with reduced heart beat force can cause blood pooling and producing clots that can cause a very serious problem.

The usual symptoms are dizziness, fatigue, etc. but you don't express any symptoms other than anxiety, and there is relief when your mind is occupied with a task.  A beta blocker should reduce anxietry,  but that doesn't appear to be happening when relaxed!  

You should contact your doctor as the low heart rate is not genarally acceptable.

[kenkeith]

Just read your recent post.  Your doctor states there isn't any drop in heartbeats, but the beats sometimes are close together and a longer pause before the next rate rate.  The issue is the slow rate, and what was your doctor's response to that.  

[yar1950]

Hi Kenkeith
                    He did the 48 hour ECG. He said that as I have always had a low heartrate he is not worried, I used to run 5-10 miles every day for quite a few years and they always put the slow rate down to being athletic. The rate has dropped a fair bit in the last six months since haveing this bigeminy thing. I am yet to get onto the higher dose of beta blocker and will worry more if the rate drops more.
It appears that my body hates rest or relaxation, when I get up of a morning if I take my blood pressure straight away it wil be around 160/86. I take the dog for a walk and then do it again and it drops to around 135/75, this is before I have had my medication.
Thanks for your help on this