Skipping Heart

[sandy134]

Is it true that if you have a normal heart (with some slight regurtiation which they told me was fine) that skipped beats are benign.  I have had an echo, stress test, holters and even a King of Hearts monitor for 30 days and all that is found on it is some triplet premature ventricular contractions and triplet premature atril contractions.  I believe they recorded around 100 single premature beats of each and then the triplets and couplets of some of the others.  I am a little concerned about these finding but I seem to be the only one concerned as the heart doctor is not at all.  When a person dies from irregular heartbeats is it always because they have something structurally wrong with their heart or could these beats actually kill you.  I am one of the unfortunate ones that feels every single irregularity in my heart beat.  My family physcian says I am great health and not to worry as well but that is not quite a easily done when I feel these strange sensations every day.

[artskip]

I wish I only had 100 or so a day, that would be easy. I don't mean to sound like "oh what you have is nothing", because even when I only had a few PVC's a day, they scared me then, just like they scare me now. I can have bigeminy PVC's for hours. I was in the ER with bigeminy PVC's for 4 hours they just told me to go home and take my beta blocker. PVC's really don't kill. According to my Dr. mine will not go into other rhythms(like VT or afib).  
It's a lousy condition. Try to find some way that you can come to terms with it. You know what they say "that which does not kill us makes us stronger".  You need to be very strong to deal with PVC's everyday. I agree with upbeat633 that there are times you just can't stand it anymore.

[dr_oz]

(36yr old male, non smoker, physically active, healthy diet) Wow..all very interesting posts. I think its amazing that I chose today to finally look around for info on what I have been experiencing for over a year now. My condition started about 1.5 years ago when, during a VERY stressful time of my life, I had a severe panic attack. I seriously thought I was gonna die right there. My heart was racing, I was cold and sweating bullets..Went to the ER and they hooked me up to EKG and told me my heart was fine. After that episode I started noticing this uneasy sensation originating from my heart. It would come and go but it freaked me out because I thought I was going into another panic attack. I finally concluded that this sensation was in fact a "skipped heart beat".  I changed my lifestyle(stressful job) and started to do things that released tension and stress but the sensations continued. In fact I stopped playing sports for a while because I thought the intense pressure on my heart during exercise would cause more problems. I researched this symptom online a few times and each time the conclusion was that this is not a life-threatening condition. Nevertheless I still felt this helpless feeling that at any time I could drop dead from heart failure. For the past few months I have been monitoring the occurrence of the skipped beats and noticed that they are more prevalent when I am fatigued, stressed or when I party too hard(drinking). In fact I had a whole month where I did not notice once occurrence. Then last weekend I stayed out late 3 nights in a row with little sleep. I started noticing them on Monday(20+ times). and by yesterday they increased to 80+. I got a good nights rest last night and have only experienced a few today. Nevertheless I definitely feel much more at ease now that I know others are going through this same experience and living to tell about it..lol... I think the most important thing is to keep the stress levels to a minimum, exercise, eat a healthy diet, be HAPPY, and STOP THINKING ABOUT WORST CASE SCENARIOS!!!  Good luck to you all!

[howiesmom]

I loved both responses by dolfnlvr and upbeat633 - I could have written them myself - thank you! After dealing with what you're describing for over a decade, and having numerous doctors and cardiologists reassure me that "it's no big deal" (this was told me the first time lying in the ER waiting for the conversion meds to kick in!) I've been trying to train myself to RELAX and accept the arrhythmias as just part of how my body works at the moment. I've been monitoring them for years and know there was a link to my monthly cycle, to getting a cold, to stress (of any kind - 'good' or 'bad'), to lack of sleep, even to mild hypoglycemia because the skipped beats I often experience in the morning go away 15 minutes after I eat something. I can identify with your terror, because it's something we can't seem to fix or make 'go away', but I think the comments about distracting yourself and just moving on with your life are the best advice.  At first (for a couple of years!) I spent all my reactionary energy trying to pinpoint what caused my heart to flip out, whether or not this time it was going to kill me, what I should or should not be eating or doing or thinking about, whether those doctors 'really know what's going on', etc., etc.. Then I finally just got angry that my reaction to whatever was going on with my heart was causing me to miss a lot of my life, and decided to not give the arrhythmias that much power. So...even though I sometimes just have to "sit" until they pass if they are making me feel weak, I generally try to just keep on doing something, take a glass of milk and banana in case my potassium's low, go outside and breathe some fresh air and remember I'm a small part of a big and beautiful world and God has me still here for a reason, and just trust that the heart weirdness will eventually pass. If nothing else, this experience has given me a much greater appreciation for the hours and days when my heart is just ticking along in a steady, wonderful rhythm - helped me see what a blessing that really is.
It's also VERY helpful to read forums like this and see how many others are struggling with the same stuff - and we're all still here writing about it! Take care of yourself the best you can, try not to worry, rest, and, whenever your heart is fluttering, remember that there are thousands of us out there at the same moment, experiencing the very same thing.  You're safe, and you're not alone.
Take care.

[dolfnlvr]

The combination of being in great health AND having a structurally normal heart means that you are at no greater risk of dying from a heart attack or heart related issue then Joe Schmoe down the street.  In other words....no, you won't drop dead from them.  

You are right though.  It is much easier to say don't worry then it is to actually not worry about them.  But, your doctor is not lying to you, and having some faith in your diagnosis is the first thing you have to do in order to begin to live with these things.  

I'm sorry that you are having to deal with this.  There are days when my PVC's get so bad that I can't "be normal" even though I KNOW I'll be fine.  When your heart is skipping around in your chest it is hard to believe that you are "fine."  But, I've gone through at least 8 years of these off and on and I've always come out fine, and I guess after about 5 years I started to believe that I would continue to be okay.  

Good luck to you.

[upbeat633]

Well, the party line is, "structurally normal heart, pvcs are benign" meaing your chance of dropping dead from them is very, very slim, if any chance at all. Your chance of developing something more serious is very, very slim, if any possibility at all. I hope that helps. It doesn't seem true considering the sensation of them.

Living with them, ignoring them, is another matter altogether. It takes practice, and even then you may have periods when you think you can't stand it anymore.

I've found distracting myself through work, exercise, active hobby (not like reading because I notice them more at rest), and just plain not focusing on your heart is best. I'm on an event monitor now, and while I've had some pretty good days, I've had some of the worst days ever because I'm always wondering what is my heart doing now? I just felt a little pain in my sternum and recorded a pvc string of 26 in a row. Now, did the pain come from the pvcs? I think it actually came from lunch lol, because I've had long strings alllllllllllllll day long.