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PVC'S are Driving me crazy
I'm a 50 year old caucasion male. I have been suffering on almost a daily basis PVCS since I was about 20.
I have never gotten used to them and they continually drive me crazy.
I have been to numerous Cardiologists and I have never been given any drug that has seriously helped me.
Doctors usually put me on beta blockers which seem to make my problem worse. I try to eat certain special diets that are supposed to be heart rhythm healthy. I have tried certain vitamins like Coenzyme Q10, Magnesium, garlic, fish oil etc...nothing works? I work out regularly usually swimming, or working out at a boxing gym...I love working out, but sometimes exercise seems to bring them on as well....
I have almost truely given up at this point...I'm scheduled to see an electro cardiologist in mid March regarding this problem, but I;m not to hopeful to be honest with you...
Will somebody please help me with this, PLEASE...
Well I have had them since a teen, but only the past year have they been UNBEARABLE! I dont blame you at all for going for the ablation. I seriously dont know how long I will be able to deal with the TONS per minute I get. If you have an ablation, please let us know how it goes!
I've had some type of arrhythmia's since age 9, it took until I was 42 for doctor's to listen to me and find what was wrong. 95-99% of the time pvc's are more of annoyance than anything and wreck havoc on our lives making us feel miserable.
If an EP could ablate mine and I would be rid of them forever, I'd do it again in a heartbeat =) ablation and meds didn't work for me and I don't have anxiety with pvc's or vt runs. I did and do have them "continually" at one point for a couple of years I had 50,000 pvc's daily and stayed in bigeminy. There are those of us who have multitude of thousands and don't take meds for them, so it is possible to "just live with them" as alot of dr's prescribe :P
Good luck with your appt, hopefully the EP will be able to help you and alleviate your symptoms.
If an EP could ablate mine and I would be rid of them forever, I'd do it again in a heartbeat =) ablation and meds didn't work for me and I don't have anxiety with pvc's or vt runs. I did and do have them "continually" at one point for a couple of years I had 50,000 pvc's daily and stayed in bigeminy. There are those of us who have multitude of thousands and don't take meds for them, so it is possible to "just live with them" as alot of dr's prescribe :P
Good luck with your appt, hopefully the EP will be able to help you and alleviate your symptoms.
I think personally that the best thing that you can do for yourself if the bb's aren't helping you is doing exactly what you are doing...seeing an EP specialist. There are all sorts of questions that you should ask them in qualifying your decision to move forward or not. I had an ablation a little over four years ago and it was the best thing i ever did for myself and as everyone on this site knows i am a huge advocate of them...if they are great ablators...many times its not the issues at hand its the expertise of the ablator.....good luck w. your appt. and hopefully you are on track to getting your life back as you knew it before the uglies of the PVC's tried to take over your life....
In the course of 30 years of experiencing PVCs, kirk, I assume you must have (a) had numerous tests confirming that your ectopic beats are benign, and (b) you have read up on the phenomenon of PVCs? Right?
To recap much of the knowledge about there, here's a quote from John Kenyon, a knowledgeable heart guy who posts on a heart site that medhelp won't let us link to (you'll find the site if you just google his name). In this quote, he's answering somebody's question about PVCs:
"PVCs, the most common heartbeat irregularity, occurs in almost everyone at some time or another. Some people have them very frequently, others only occasionally, others sporadically. Your Holter monitor findings are very ordinary, and 65 PVCs in a 24 hour period amount to an average of less than three per hour, which is actually infrequent, although in most cases they occur in random patterns, so some could be closer together than others. What sometimes feels like multiple PVCs (which sensation you describe in your post) can be one of several innocent things: most commonly it is one PVC which, for some unknown reason, can sometimes be percieved as a "fluttering" sensation. There's little correlation between the perceived force, number, etc., of them, and the actual characteristics of a given PVC. Group beating (ventricular bigemeny, trigenemy, etc.) means every second, third, fourth, etc., beat is a PVC in a given period of time. Some people have bigemeny as their normal rhythm. Some people aren't even aware it's happening. Also, you could actually have, on occasion, more than one consecutive PVC, and as I'm sure you've found out, three or more in a row are considered, for technical purposes, a "run" of V-tach. In reality this is an arbitrary definition, and a very conservative one.
PVCs, without any other electrical or structural abnormality, are of virtually no diagnostic nor prognostic value at all. They occur in everyone in various sorts of patterns, and again, absent any structural or neurocardiological disease, they have no real meaning. They can, however, be very alarming when they occur, and can provoke a good deal of anxiety which, unforntunately, causes the release of adrenaline, which in turn makes the heart muscle more irritable, and often thus sets off yet more PVCs, sometimes making the sufferer a nervous wreck. This is truly unfortunate, because without significant left ventricular dysfunction PVCs have no meaning at all (and even with LV dysfunction they are only an indicator, not a cause, of potential trouble). "
So the bottom line is this: Your heart is almost certainly healthy, but anxiety about its meaningless and--this is important--largely incurable little twitches and glitches is driving you nuts, as you put it.
The logical thing to do at this point is to TREAT THE ANXIETY. Very few people like to hear this; they'd really prefer a serious heart condition to an emotional problem. But I can tell you that effective treatment for anxiety (which is why shrinks and counselors and psych meds were invented) will quiet your awareness of your heart and give you your life back. If you're serious about coming to terms with this long-term condition, I would strongly suggest that you see a specialist who deals with anxiety.
To recap much of the knowledge about there, here's a quote from John Kenyon, a knowledgeable heart guy who posts on a heart site that medhelp won't let us link to (you'll find the site if you just google his name). In this quote, he's answering somebody's question about PVCs:
"PVCs, the most common heartbeat irregularity, occurs in almost everyone at some time or another. Some people have them very frequently, others only occasionally, others sporadically. Your Holter monitor findings are very ordinary, and 65 PVCs in a 24 hour period amount to an average of less than three per hour, which is actually infrequent, although in most cases they occur in random patterns, so some could be closer together than others. What sometimes feels like multiple PVCs (which sensation you describe in your post) can be one of several innocent things: most commonly it is one PVC which, for some unknown reason, can sometimes be percieved as a "fluttering" sensation. There's little correlation between the perceived force, number, etc., of them, and the actual characteristics of a given PVC. Group beating (ventricular bigemeny, trigenemy, etc.) means every second, third, fourth, etc., beat is a PVC in a given period of time. Some people have bigemeny as their normal rhythm. Some people aren't even aware it's happening. Also, you could actually have, on occasion, more than one consecutive PVC, and as I'm sure you've found out, three or more in a row are considered, for technical purposes, a "run" of V-tach. In reality this is an arbitrary definition, and a very conservative one.
PVCs, without any other electrical or structural abnormality, are of virtually no diagnostic nor prognostic value at all. They occur in everyone in various sorts of patterns, and again, absent any structural or neurocardiological disease, they have no real meaning. They can, however, be very alarming when they occur, and can provoke a good deal of anxiety which, unforntunately, causes the release of adrenaline, which in turn makes the heart muscle more irritable, and often thus sets off yet more PVCs, sometimes making the sufferer a nervous wreck. This is truly unfortunate, because without significant left ventricular dysfunction PVCs have no meaning at all (and even with LV dysfunction they are only an indicator, not a cause, of potential trouble). "
So the bottom line is this: Your heart is almost certainly healthy, but anxiety about its meaningless and--this is important--largely incurable little twitches and glitches is driving you nuts, as you put it.
The logical thing to do at this point is to TREAT THE ANXIETY. Very few people like to hear this; they'd really prefer a serious heart condition to an emotional problem. But I can tell you that effective treatment for anxiety (which is why shrinks and counselors and psych meds were invented) will quiet your awareness of your heart and give you your life back. If you're serious about coming to terms with this long-term condition, I would strongly suggest that you see a specialist who deals with anxiety.
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