Heart Rate Changed!

[Johmann]

My heart rate has recently changed and it has constant missed beats.  The pattern is similar to this:
(beats) beat, beat, skip, beat, skip, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, skip, beat, skip, beat, beat, beat, skip.  My HR is NEVER a normal beat pattern.  My average HR is 40-60.  As a result I am tired all the time, and can sleep several hours per day, as well as all night.  I had an EKG, an echo, and a stress test.  The echo showed a new mitro valve leak, the EKG showed PVCs, and the stress test showed no blockages, but I went into Bigeminy rhythym during the tread mill part.  The techs were ecxtremely concerned during the tread mill test, but the doctor says I'm fine.  HUH?  Is this possible?  Is it okay for my HR to never be normal again?  I am on chronic pain management for bad arthritis in my spine and finbromyalgia.  I take 210mg of morphine daily and 200mg of Celebrex daily.    I also have regular epidurals in my spine.    Is it okay to have this abnormal rhythym?  Am I at risk of going into a rhythym that will result in death?      

[griz11]

I had the same thing happening the pattern and all and it was blood sugar being too high. You develop insulin resistance and the heart cannot access the energy from the blood. So your heart "rests" every few beats to compensate. Find someone with a meter and check it before eating or drinking anything that day. If its high go to the Dr and get some meds. It will clear up in a matter of hours. I've been on morphine for 15 years although I'm getting off it now since its not effective anymore.

[MichelleP_3811]

The missed beats you are feeling are not in a concerning pattern.  It sounds like you have some random ones but fall into a short bigeminy.  From what I understand pvcs in general are not life threatening.  What I have found is most medical personal find any heart abnormality quite alarming except cardiologists.  They seem fairly unfazed by it all.  This leads me to believe that our hearts really are very resilient and can deal with a lot and still keep on ticking.  From what I have gathered from what you said I wonder if the pain meds you are taking are lowering your heart rate to the point they are causing you to have the ectopics.  They do tend to jump in more often at lower heart rates maybe as some sort of concern mechanism to ensure the blood gets pumped proper.  You obviously can't stop your pain meds and I don't normally recommend something like this but if I were you I might ask if adding a little caffeine to the diet might help the heart rate and tiredness.  It might help because who wants to sleep all day.  That isn't much of a life.  In any event, it sounds like you have had enough tests to show the overall health of your heart is fine but I might go back and ask the doctor what you can do to counter your tiredness.  Maybe they have some ideas that can help.  Take care and keep us posted on how you are doing.