Do you have a lot of 'different' feeling arrhythmias?

[nervouslady]

Yeah, I've got yet another question.  LOL.  So, so far, I've been diagnosed with NSVT and PVCs.  But I have about a half dozen, distinctly different 'feeling' arrhythmias.  I don't know if they are all NSVT and PVCs, presenting differently, or if I could have more than just these types of arrhythmias...

Bear with my descriptions, but one type is a hard THUD - usually feels like just one beat.  Some feel like a couple of skips followed by a THUD.  

But then sometimes it feels like my heart is beating 'backwards' - like instead of Dub DUB dub DUB it's DUB dub DUB dub like something is 'off' but the rate and rhythm is normal.

What turned out to be the NSVT was something that just felt like several hard beats in a row.

Then there are some - these scare me the most - that just feel like my heart is going crazy.  No rhyme or rhythm to the pattern.  Feels like a flopping and stopping and starting - these only last a couple seconds.

Lastly, there are some that feel like it's beating normally with a THUD in the middle so - da dum da dum da dum THUD da dum da dum THUD da dum da dum THUD, etc.

Based on what you guys feel, are any of these familiar to you, and are they just variations of the same type of arrhythmia or could they be different types.  I didn't have all the different types during the 30 days I wore the monitor.  Just curious.

Thanks, you guys have been so comforting and helpful, I really appreciate it.

[banglamom]

He- he- he

I read it and I love your answers but I have to wonder if people who don't speak the same language we do understand all that.  As a nurse, it is very hard not to write in our own shorthand and speak the language that is not at all foreign to us.  Maybe so many people here do so much studying on their cardiac issues (real or perceived) that they fairly learn the language.

[Brooke_38]

Hello...

You are welcome...I'm sorry that I didn't completely answer your question...

Ventricular arrhythmias, including PVC's, arise below the level of the AV junction. These arrhythmias are characterized by ectopic impulses, which result from either myocardial irritability or the phenomenon of reentry.

I hope this answers your question completely:)

[jkfrench]

Thanks honey!  But where is the pvc generated from?
(my last question)...of the day anyway!  

[Brooke_38]

Hello...

Heart block is due to disease or dysfuntion at the AV-Node (junction where impulses are transmitted from the atria to the ventricles)

Most people with first and second-degree heart block don't even know they have it. Yes, it can come and go, but I wouldn't worry about it.

It is only when patients go into heart block Type 2 second degree heart block (Mobitz II) that there is high risk for Third degree AV block (Complete heart block).

I think you're thinking too much...nothing wrong with that!:)

[jkfrench]

Do first and second degree pauses come and go or would it have shown up on the hundreds of ekgs/echos that I have had?  Now I'm worried that is what that pause is right after the pvc or early beat I"m feeling.
Am I thinking to much?
Frenchie

[Brooke_38]

Hello...

I too have had (and still have) just about all the above mentined arrhythmias...SVT, Afib, AFlutter, VT, PVC's (mostly in bigeminy), Mobitz type II heart block, competing junctional rhythm...ok I think that's about all of them*LOL*

Like banglamom mentioned, many times it is only by EKG that I know exactly what rhythm I may be in...However, when I'm in rapid Afib, I tend to always know because I'm near syncope when this comes on...When I was in a sustained VT, the rate was about 250 and I felt like the floor just came out from under me...Believe me, I wouldn't wish any of this on anyone (not even my worst enemy!)

Well, the best of luck to you at the Mayo tomorrow. I think that you have sparked a great bit of interest with the news you were given by the EP at the Univ of Mich. I'm sure that there will be alot glued to the forum waiting on your report:)

[banglamom]

I have had most of the dysrhythmias... a-fib, a-flutter, PVCs, PACs, SVT, bigeminy, trigeminy, first and second degree pauses..  They do not all have their own feel.  An ekg is the only way to know what you are having if indeed there is a variety.  Many of them are just plain more annoying than dangerous.  It is a yucky feeling when it isn't going right.  My husband will ask if I'm ok.. what's going on... I just tell him I have engine knock.  Hope you get lots of reassuring answers at the Mayo clinic.  Maybe there is some meds that will help quiet the storm.  It feels like I just take 2 of (everything) and it gets a bit more calm.  Hope yours works out much easier.

[nervouslady]

I can only imagine what having that sensation for a day must be like psychologically.  That's the worst part about all of this for me - the psychological trauma of having these things strike randomly, not knowing if I'm going to be fine, pass out or die and not knowing if and when I'll get a normal rhythm again.  UGH.

I can't take aspirin either.  I tried baby aspirin for a few mos and ended up getting a really bad case of gastritis.  Had to go get an upper GI thingie and all.  Yuk.  

Seems like a-fib (though insanely freaky feeling) isn't as dangerous as VT in the short term. I don't think you can have VT for very long without it causing serious problems.   I have the non sustained variety of VT, but who knows - maybe I had a long run of it while asleep and it caused a small clot to form.  I wish I knew what the dilio is up with all of these issues for me.  So strange.

While I'm determined to get to the bottom of all of this, I'm terribly afraid of what I'll uncover in the coming days and weeks. I'm scared they'll find something really bad.  I'm not sure I could handle another invasive procedure or serious disease of some kind.   I'm off to Mayo - I'll post again when I return.  Cross your fingers for me!

[Mike85281]

Yes, the battle with a-fib is a frightening one. I used to get PVC's pretty often, but they seem to have subsided a bit. Maybe because of the new medication, I dunno. As far as clots go, I don't think a clot would form in a matter of hours like that. From my understanding, it can take days or possibly weeks of being in a-fib before a clot forms. I remember my heart doctor saying if I got "stuck" in a-fib for a week they'd probably NOT want me back in a normal rhythm until the blood was thinned properly for fear that any clots that formed in the heart might dislodge under a normal rhythm. But I've never been in a-fib more than a day at a time and I don't take any blood thinners at all. I can't take aspirin because of severe acid reflux. I take a pill for that twice a day, but aspirin still kills my stomach, even the enteric coated ones.

[nervouslady]

Wow, I can't imagine having that flip flopping craziness for an entire day!  That must've been terrifying.  A few seconds and I'm on my way to a freakout.

You know, now I'm starting to play doctor myself with regard to my health history.  10 years ago I had a stroke while I was sleeping.  I had just started atenolol for PVCs shortly before this happened.  While hospitalized, they really couldn't find any reason for the stroke - no risk factors, no family history, no clotting disorders.  To this day I am not on any thinners or even aspirin.  

I do have these crazy arrhythmias though, that no doctors seemed to care about until now.  What if I had an arrhythmia in my sleep that caused a clot to form?  Or what if the atenolol plus my naturally low BP caused a clot?  

They did find a PFO in my heart and said a clot must've traveled through that hole and to my brain.  But I don't know that they knew that exactly.  They wanted to find *some* cause and so there it was.  Hmmm.

Maybe I'm paranoid, but why I'd have all of these problems, and have them be unrelated (or so they say) seems really odd. I'm young and have already had a stroke, heart surgery, and now potentially dangerous heart rhythms.  ???  They must be connected somehow, don't you think?

[Mike85281]

The part where you said your heart just goes crazy rung a bell for me. I have occasional attacks of atrial fibrillation. That's exactly what it feels like to me, no rhyme or reason, just beating crazily, erratic. It sometimes lasts a few seconds, a few minutes or as long as a day. I always go back into a normal rhythm again, but the last time it happened (this past July) I was hospitalized again and put on Amiodarone. Within 15 minutes of them starting the IV drip my heart reverted back to normal. Then I was tapered down slowly over the next day and finally taken off the IV and given pills instead. I've also tapered down on the pills to one 200mg pill a day. A maintenance does, I'm told. I've had no a-fib since July, but I've gone as long as a year without an attack before, so it's hard to say if the medication is working or if it's just my normal waiting period. I guess if after a year I've had no more a-fib I can thank the medication for it. A-fib is a very common arrhythmia and people live with it all the time. But it usually involves a blood thinner is you stay in a-fib, due to clotting issues.

[nervouslady]

Okay, yeah, that's the same one I meant when it felt like a normal beat with intermittent 'Thuds' - the 'normal beat does feel a bit lighter than a normal heartbeat.  Not a true 'flutter' but just not as solid.  With a pause before and after the thud.  Or what feels like a pause.   If that makes any sense.  I hate those.  You kinda sit there and wonder, when is this going to stop?  Yeesh. It's like a trail of PVCs, or something.  Is that what you are talking about?

Another I forgot about is a true fluttering feeling.  I feel it the most at the base of my neck at the top of my collarbone (kind of where that soft, fleshy spot is at the base of the middle of the neck).  That's the kind I got when I was pregnant last summer.  Whoa, those freak me out.  It feels like my heart isn't working at all, just spasming.  So, yeah.  Now I'm wondering if these are all the same kinds of arrhythmia or if maybe I have more than just PVCs and NSVT.   I'll ask tomorrow.  I've got a really long list of questions for this poor doctor tomorrow.  

[jkfrench]

oh my gosh, I am going through this same thing right now.  I have pvc's and PAT. (as we talked about yesterday)  I just e-mailed tickertock about this because at the moment my pvc's are either that hard thud feeling or the light early beat with a pause that seems longer than the normal pvc.  I sat in my stupid bed last night for over an hour trying to catch one with my watch to see if the pause was longer than a couple of seconds.  I wan't having very many last night.  About 20 in 1-1/2 hours but I think the pause was only a little over a second.  It just feels so much longer.  Plus some of them aren't that long.  So many sensations for the same thing.  How can that be?  I get some that I feel in my stomach too.  Yours all sound like pvc's to me.  
Frenchie