tachycardia

[Wanda]

Hello, thank you for a great forum.  I am a 40 year old female in excellent health except for my rhythum problems.  I have been for an EP study and they have found nothing wrong with my heart, although I feel they have missed something (possible?).  

My questions are as follows:

1.  Do most of the population suffer from skipped beats daily? I was told that 75% of people suffer????

2.  I suffer from very hard skipped beats and short runs of skipped beats almost daily.  I have had all testing done and my heart is normal.  I was prescribed Atenolol, but the skips were still happening and more frequently (possible?).  I thought that the Atenlol would stop the skipping?  Anyways I chose to go off it completely and now take nothing.

3.  I do alot of walking and I will feel my heart dropping really hard beats sometimes every few minutes or so?  Cause for concern?

4.  Maybe once per month my heart will start going fast and really hard.  It is almost like it does a skip which sends it into a fast hard rhythum.  It pounded like that for 8 beats and then just stops on its own and goes back into its normal rhythum. I was in bed watching TV last time this happened.  It is not like when you run and your heart pounds, but a strange weird feeling that makes me jump up.

5.  I also sometimes (once again maybe once per month), get skipping that goes on for 2 - 3 minutes.  Once again this happened when I was in bed watching TV a few days ago. Normally I jump up and start breathing hard to get it into a normal rhythum, but this time I thought to myself I would just lay there to see how long it did this for.  It skipped every third beat for 3 minutes and then again automatically when back to its normal rhythum again.  It continued skipping every 10 minutes or so until I went to sleep.  What in the world would that have been?????

I apologize for this long post, but I know it is very difficult to get through to your forum so I thought I would get all questions in at once.

Thanks!!!!

[Jodie]

Heidi,
This is exactly what happens to me.  I will feel a few skipped beats, they are actually more like pauses then my heart takes off.  The beat is FAST and SPORADIC.  I honestly don't know how I
stay conscious.  I really don't even feel faint when it happens, just wierd.  Sometimes it last 10 seconds and sometimes about 5 minutes.  It just happened the other day.  They are so few and far in between (last one was 2-1/2 years ago) that my doctor doesn't feel the need to do further testing.  I tell you, they are much worse then the occasional pvc or pvc clusters. It always happens when I least expect it to.  Not when I'm actually stressed but a day or two after a stressful situation.  It never has happened when I exercise.  e-mail me at ***@**** if you want to talk more about it.  It is good to know there is someone else out there that has this.

[heidi]

Hi Wanda, I know how you feel.  Lately I've been suffering tachycardia and skipped beats.  It's like my heart will stop for a few seconds and then pound really hard and really fast for a few minutes.  It doesn't feel like a steady rhythym, either.  I take my pulse, or try to, and it's hard to count the heartbeats because they're so irregular.  Then other times my heartbeat will be very faint rather than the pounding.  I think my fastest rate was about 240 and I almost went to the hospital for it, but it stopped.  The longest episode I think was about ten minutes, and they've been happening more and more frequently.  Sometimes two to three times a day now.  And this happens when I'm resting, too.  Not when I'm doing strenuous things.  I'm starting to get really scared, but I'm half afraid to go to the doctor.  Has anyone else gone through this?

[JR]

hi jodie,
exactly the same here...go get an ep study done (im going to) and they might be able to cure the whole deal with an ablation! no more meds....! im not getting my hopes up, but i sure do hope it works. just not having to worry about it anymore will add 10 years to my life!

[Jodie]

Greg,

Let me know how it goes.  My doctor has never recommended I go for this.  What exactly is an EP study?

[dah]

Hi Wanda,
Your symptoms sound exactly like the ones I've had off and on for many years.  I'm 43, and have previously been diagnosed with PVCs, PATs, PACs, and SVT.  I've had lots of tests: stress, EKGs, echo (showed very slightly enlarged left atrium), holter, and long-term monitor (wore for 3 weeks).  All tests showed nothing serious and I was told not to worry.  I started taking Atenolol last year at 50 mg/day.  It didn't seem to be helping much and I was feeling very fatigued on it.  So I went down to 25 mg/day (taken right before bedtime)and after a few more weeks, the arrythmias started to drop off.  The Atenolol works great for me at a very low dose, but it took a while for it to take effect.  I still get the arrythmias once in a while but they're greatly reduced in frequently.  Thought I'd let you know about my experience.  Good luck and hang in there; in time the arrythmias will not bug you as much as they do now.

[Jodie]

Hi Wanda,

I have some of the same problems you do.  It happens more when I lie down and it will sometimes skip until I stand up.  I also get the kind where it feels like a longer than usual skip, then all of a sudden beats really fast for 10-15 seconds. It is a strange feeling and not anything like when your heart beats fast due to exercise.  I hate them!  I take the same approach dah does.  I take 25mg of Tenormin before bed.  It does seem to help.
My doctor say not to worry.  I don't until I get those bad ones.  The bad ones for me being the longer skip that sends it into the fast beats.  Fortunally that hasn't happened in almost 2 years.  It used to happen about every 3 months.
Good luck!

[Linda]

I have PVC's (premature ventricular contractions) which sound like what you describe as skipped beats (your EPS doctor should be able to tell you for sure) and I also have SVT's (supraventricular tachycardias which for me is a rapid heartbeat (usually between 15 seconds and a few minutes).  I've had two EPS's and my doctor (who is one of the best around) keeps telling me not to worry about the PVC's -- they're just annoying.  If you've had an EPS you can be pretty sure that your doc knows what you have and if he's not worried, try not to worry (although I know first-hand how frustrating and sometimes frightening it can be).

My sister just read in the March 2000 issue of Prevention Magazine that taking your meds with an orange or bananna or grapefruit juice can exacerbate arrhythmias so you might want to check out that issue (I just ordered it).

Hope this helps.

[Jason]

I have an ICD and then was put on atenolol and had two shocks in 10 days and bad side effects. I am convinced that it exacerbated the problem. I am now on sotalol, which is working much better.

[JR]

i have the exact same symptoms....but sometimes the tachycardia will last up to 20 min. atenolol didnt help me much either (and kinda seemed to make the skipped beats worse) im still on it though because the tachycardia hasnt returned since ive been on meds. the side effects suck though. shortness of breath lethargy etc.
just thought id let you know, your not alone

[CCF CARDIO MD - DLB]

1. Yes, skipped beats are extremely common.
2. Atenolol usually decreases the frequency of skipped beats, but rarely eliminates them altogether.
3. Given hte normal EP study, I do not think you need to be too concerned.
4 + 5. Again, with the normal EP study, it is unlikely that some serious arrythmia has been missed, though of course, any test can miss things sometimes. I am assuming that you have also had normal stress tests and Holter monitors that did not reveal any dangerous arrhythmias. If this is the case, then your skipped beats are nothing serious, just a nuisance to you. Medicines like atenolol, perhaps at a higher dose than what you were taking might be a good idea, just to decrease the symptoms. Eliminating caffeine may also help.