PVCs

[kcossich]

Thanks to a doctor's answer to a previous post about my chest pain, my family dr. has diagnosed me with costochondritis and I am finally starting to feel better; however, in the past few weeks, I have begun to have some PVCs. Can stress cause PVCs to happen?  My father died unexpectedly on Dec. 22 and both my brother and I have had episodes of PVCs (I am 31 and he is 29).  I also had a baby 5 weeks before my father died, so I have been under some addition stress! We have never had PVCs before.  The only reason I know that I'm having them is because my brother is a nurse and told me what they feel like.  Both of us have had treadmill stress tests and I have had a Thallium stress test, which all came back normal.  How do you cope with PVCs?  Is there any deep breathing technique that can help with them? Is just de-stressing enough to make them go away?  I usually have 1 every other day, but yesterday, I had 4, and I got a little worried.  Thank you!

[ZEET]

Yes, the heart racing, and extra beats, I guess they are(you feel like one beat, and then its over) as unpleasant as they are, you get use to them. But the other episode is the one the scares me like you wouldnt believe. The thing is at least with the fast rate, you know it is there, but when this thing happens, it comes out of the blue. I can get this thing when I feel absolutely fine with no other symptons, or on a day when you feel cruddy with all the other symptons. I can be doing anything and then I get a flutter or something, and I put my fingers to my neck to see what it is doing. It is either beating real slow, or out of rythm, but I think it is usually slow. I cough, not that I feel I have to cough, but that is what it seems to take it from whatever it is doing, and kick it in to a super fast rate, then back to normal.
It scary because I always think wonder if it doesnt kick from the slow rate to the fast rate. As it is beating slow, if it takes too long to go from the slow rate, that is when I start to feel like things may go to black. As of yet I never passed out. It depends how severe the event is. If it is a bad one, I will get the feeling in my head, because of the slow beating, and at the end of the event, the hot flushed feeling. Do you get the feeling you may pass out? or the hot feeling? Maybe the hot feeling comes from when the heart picks up from the slow rate to the fast rate, and the blood is being pushed up to the head? I dont know, all I know I wouldnt wish this on anyone. This event started I think in 1996. The first time I got it, I didnt know what just happen. My hands were shaking. Then it would do it once every couple of months or so. Now it happens once, sometimes more a month. I figured it out by the calendar I notice it may happen right around ovulation, and two weeks later, around that time. It happened the other day, and my hands were shaking, and I was almost in tears at the end of it. I can actually live with all the other arrythmias, but this thing I HATE. You never know where you might be when it happens, that is the other thing that is scary about it.

[ZEET]

Thanks, for your comment. It does help to know that other people know how you feel, and may have the same symptons. Not that I wish this misery on anyone, but when people know exactly what your trying to describe, it really does help. Yesterday was the first day that I took the Toprol three times a day. They said try to space it every eight hours. So I thought today when I got up I would not have the heart racing and whatever else. But as soon as I got up, BOOM there it goes racing. Then Ill have something to eat, and I start to feel good, the racing goes away, then sometimes after a while, after I have a meal BOOM again it starts up again. Then after some time it slows back down. Is it the stomach that is the culprit? The digestive area, that causes the heart things? I dont know. But when it is close to that time of the month, especially when it is late, it is misery. Like yourself, if I sit down, it slows down. If I stand up it starts to race. On and off all day. Also when it is beating fast, I can always tell by how my stomach feels. It feels like it is tensed up, like tightened up. Then when that feels better, the racing is gone. Also you feel like, I dont know if nauseous or sick is the word, but my stomach feels slightly empty or queazy when the heart is beating faster than normal. You dont know if to eat something, sometimes that helps, or not, because sometimes it starts up after eating. The arrythmia I get that scares me, the one I described above, sounds like you get something simular. The heart pauses or slows, then I cough, and it starts to beat fast, then back to the normal rate. I do feel sometimes, not all the time depending on the severity of the event, woozy and get like a hot, flushed feeling and the end of this thing. I sound like a broken record to the cardiologist describing the same symptons to him when I go for a follow up. He cant tell me what this is until it is recorded. I will also go through a period of time where I feel fine, symptons here and there, then I will go through a period where I feel everything. I dont know if it is a sinus node problem, like that sick sinus syndrome. Who knows.

[Jodie]

I know exactly what you mean about how when you get the racing, your stomach feels tightened up.  The thing about it is, my normal heartbeat is around 72.  When I feel it racing, it is usually only around 90 or 100 (standing up) but I just don't feel normal.  My stomach is tense or it feels like there is a knot in it. I'm kind of dizzy but not really, it is so hard to describe.  And you are right, I can feel fine and then eat something and there it goes.  If I don't eat to much at one time it seems to do better, but sandwiches for some reason really set it off.  I'm on my 15th hershey kiss right now, and am having no problem.  Go figure.  My doctor told me that thin people noticed this more than others.  I'm 5'5", 105 lbs.  I do notice if I drop under 105, my heart acts up more.
I know that one episode can be really scary.  I hate it because it comes out of the blue.  You feel just fine and it happens.  The pacs and pvc's are daily occurances and you kind of get used to those.  This other one is really really scary.  It feels like my heart won't start beating again and then it takes off.  Is yours out of sync as well as fast when it starts up again?

[Jodie]

Sounds like some of this is anxiety or anxiety might be a contributing factor.  I have weeks where my heart beats fine.  Then I can wake up and it is beating fast for no reason.  If I sit down, it slows down, if I stand up it shoots up to around 110.  I usually take a 1/2 of a Tenormin and it works perfectly.  Have you ever tried taking that?  It really works wonders.  I also get a similar incident to you where I can be feeling fine,then I feel wierd flutters and my heart pauses.  It doesn't slow down, the beat just goes away for 3-4 seconds.  I feel a little woozy then BOOM, it starts beating really fast and out of rythym for 90 seconds or so and goes back to its normal rythym.  This one scares me because the doctor has never caught it.  It happens to infrequently.  (once a year or so).  I would ask your doctor about Tenormin.  Because of the low dose I am on, I can take it only when I feel the fast heart beat.  I have however started taking 1/2 of a 25mg pill every night.  That way when I wake up and get out of bed, it never starts racing.  I also notice more pacs, and pvc's around my period.  No doubt about that.  I think it is the water retention building up against the vagus nerve.  If I take deep breaths it starts skipping.  Yucch, I hate all of this.  It would just be so nice  to feel NORMAL.  E-mail me if you like..***@****.

[ZEET]

I forgot to add that I currently take 50mg. Toprol twice daily. I was just told by my cardio, that to take three Toprol daily only during that time of the month.

Thanks,
Val.

[ZEET]

I have been dealing with different arrythmias since 1993. It started one day with a fast rate, and would slow down after a couple of hours. Everyday after my heart would do the same thing. Then in february 1998, this one day my heart would not slow down, and I started to feel all this fluttering and those hard beats, that come one at a time. So I ended up going to the E.R. and then to a cardiologist for the first time since all this started. I have had the blood work, cardiograms, and echo and told all is o.k. I still had symptons and then I was put on Toprol in september 1999. The one arrythmia I get that scares me more than the fluttering or racing heart, is I can be fine, then I will feel a flutter and my heart beats very slow or out of rythm. Sometimes at this point I start to feel slightly woozy, and I cough or do something with a quick motion to correct the rythm. Then it goes from a slow beat to a fast beat and then back to normal. Sometimes at this point at the end of the event I get a hot feeling, like a hot flash. These events I guess are better since the Toprol than before, but these events can come much more about and much more severe I noticed if I am behind in my dosages, and it is around my menses. When it is close to that time of the month, also if I am behind in taking the Toprol I pay for it. DOES ANYONE, know what the symptons I describe are? DOES ANYONE, have terrible symptons around their time of the month?

Thanks,
Valerie.