pvc help

After taking depakote, I started having heart problems. My doctor reccomended that I keep taking it. After 8 years, I had an attack one day where my heart went out of rythm and stayed that way. I have seen 2 different doctors. The first told me I am having 31,000 pvc's per day. He tried verapamil and when that didn't work, told me I could expect to have heart damage within 5 to 7 years. The second doctor put me on inderol. When that didn't work, she switched me to atenolol. I am now taking 150mg per day, and am still on 240mg of verapamil per day also. She told me I am still having one in five beats that is a pvc. She told me the heart damage won't occur for possibly 5 to 70 yrs. I am a 40 year old female. Shouldn't something be done before the damage is done? This seems ridiculous to me that they don't do anything. I feel awful every day at age 40. Most days I feel like I'm about 90. Is there anything that can and should be done about this? I have never heard of another person having 31000 a day. Is this normal?

[riverwide]

I think you should get a second opinion, or rather a third.  Were either of these doctors cardiologists?  5 to 70 years?  Think about how ridiculous that sounds.  not of you, of the doctor!
If you read here, you will see, that there are other people who get 10's of thousands of these things a day.  For years.  I'm also questioning all of this medication they have put you on.  I am sympathetic, I have PVC's too, they suck!  I too, have gotten the run around from most doctors.  I am not on any medication, but if I thought one would help I would be on it now!

Do you feel that anxiety triggers any of the pvc's, or are they there no matter what?

[cindyanng]

Thank you for answering! Its good to know there are other people out there with the same problem. Both of the doctors I saw were cardiologists that specialize in heart rhythm. I also had an echo done and they said that as of yet, no damage has been done. The doctor I'm seeing now is supposed to be the best in the state, so I'm just not sure who else to go to. Anxiety doesn't seem to be a trigger for me, but I've noticed they are much worse in the heat and humidity. According to my heart monitor, mine go away as soon as I go to sleep and start again the moment I wake up, but they have been so bad that once this summer, I was getting three pvc's in a row and then one good beat. I honestly felt like I was going to die. This lasted for a few hours. I'm sorry to hear that you also get these. What are yours like and what seems to be triggering them? Do you think these doctors are just giving us the run around because they have no idea what to do?

[Mom2four85]

I would try to go to an EP (electrophysiologist) at one of the large clinics if you're in the US...Cleveland, Mayo Vanderbilt etc all have great cardio's and ep's I've read from others

while 31,000 pvc's isn't anything to sneeze at, there are others who have that amount and more...normally doctor's wait until a patient has >15-20% pvc's daily which you certainly have if your heart is "normal" and beats 100,000 daily (31%) to do an ablation and treat 6,000 - 8,000 pvc's with meds.

I don't want to get blasted so I won't mention that there may be complications if your pvc's do remain that high, as your dr says there is a chance of cardiomyopathy developing but it's very rare and if pvc's are the cause of the CM, then it normally reverses with treatment

I think 5-7 years sounds about right...in April 2007 I was in constant bigeminy but my first ones started back in 2004 that were constant just not caught on the EKG they did...forward to June 2009 I had roughly 50,000 pvc's daily; though CM wasn't there until after I had an abltion - dx during a cardiac cath.

if they decide to do nothing and just treat with meds; it's important to keep track of your symptoms dates, times etc and make sure you have an echo when they suggest to make sure damage isn't occuring.