Painful PVC's

[manatee-]

I began having, what I learned to be, PVC's in 1995. I became overly concerned about the skipped beats and in 1996 had my first panic attack. I was a State Highway Patrolman and was told by different doctors that stress was causing most of my problems. I was in pretty bad shape for a few years and was diagnosed with Post Traumatic stress disorder, due to some events that occured while on duty, and panic disorder. Over the last few years I have had an echocardigram,which was normal, Stress tests, worn Holter monitors and event monitors and other than having annoying skips my doctors have all said I was healthy and not to worry about the skips. The skips do seem more frequent when I am under stess. I take atenolol 25 mg twice a day and klonipin .5 twice a day. My question has to do with some recent symptoms. Sometimes while having a bowel movement or straining while exercising or while relly nervous I'll have a skip that feels painful or uncomfortable. I am guessing that if I have a skip while straining that the recovery beat is more forceful and causes some pain. Secondly lately when having sex sometimes I get very lightheaded. I have never passed out and it doesn't happen every time but it causes me to be a little nervous when having sex. I guess its a vicious cycle like worring about my skipped beats I began worrying about it happening which makes it worse. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. I really want to overcome all this and have made great strides over the last few years. I guess I just worry what the years of worrying and stress have done to me

[wilson-wilson]

I'll be 53 March. I -WAS- on atenolol 25mgs for about 8 mos. my self 'til last Sept.  I might as well been eating that NEW cereal on the market, you know, "Nuttin' -RAISIN'- Honey!"  I'd rather my BP be -UP- some, than something else taht all we men cherish, NOT! And; this -WILL- happen on atenolol

wilson-wilson

[wilson-wilson]

Hankstar said: "I think Mr. Wilson is a down to earth guy."

-------------

Yes Hank I am a "down to earth guy" and I hope to stay that way (here on Earth) for another 47 years! I really want to hear Willard Scott wish me happy birthday!!

p.s.  [I said to my wife, "I'm gonna live to be a 100 and be  shot by a jealous husband!"]

p.s.s.  "Just call me 'Shecky' Wilson!"

But seriously folks...If I didn't use humor, [and most of the time 'self-deprecating' (for all the folks in Loma Linda, the term 'self-deprecating'-IS NOT- "nasty words") these things would've gotten the best of me long ago!

And as Jerry Lewis would say...."Hey Laaaaady"

"Waiter.....check please."

wilson-wilson

[manatee-]

Thanks for all your comments. It is great to have a place to get support like this!! One of the things that my Doctor told me is that I'm probably more aware of them because I have such a healthy heart. As I said I was always very athletic and because of this and in people with hearts in great shape your heart tends to react quicker to stimulus than someone not as in shape or healthy. Sometimes it's hard to convince myself of this but it is getting much better. Thanks again for all your words of wisdom. And as one of my favorite singers songs says "Growing older but not up" is the best way to live life. Have fun and Phinz Up!!

[wilson-wilson]

If you want to take some of the heat off the kind Doctors here and just want to talk about our "special" hearts, I started a Yahoo Support Group for "we-uns"

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PVC_PAC/

Come by, have a cup of Gaviscon {thought I was gonna say coffee dent-cha}, and a couple hits of Selenium, Magnesium, Potassium pills, and Omega3 Fish Oil caplets and tell us what's on your ectopic beating heart!

I only have a couple of rules:

No messages about, who's on Oprah
(you may, IF: Oprah's gonna tell America why her BILLION DOLLAR heart NEVER skips)

No messages about, grandma's bunions'
(you may, IF: her bunion's on her heart)

No messages about, Weather in FrostBiteFalls Minn.
(you may, IF: you can tell me what happened to BullWinkle in the last episode I missed and what he pulled outa his hat then)

No messages about, the last meeting of "NO-MAAM"
[Men Against Amazonian Masterhood]
(you may, IF: you can tell me what the meeting was about.......
'Cause I was putting REAL messages about our hearts in my Yahoo Group and couldn't make it!

wilson-wilson

[paola37]

I have read different opinion regarding Toprol Xl - does it really work on pvc? Logically it should make things worst...
if it is meant to slow the heart rate down, I would think that the thumb would be more noticeable?  What am I missing about this product?  is 25mg per day a good starting dose? My primary care physician suggested to give it a try at 25 mg... it seems to help but now a whole lot - would 50mg do the trick? Any suggestion would be grealty appreciated -
Paola

[arthur]

Beta blockers do at least three things:
(1) slow the HR, placing a kind of upper limit to the HR
(2) lower BP
(3) block the beta-adrenergic receptors in the body, including the ones in the PV foci

So the net effect is a slower heart, lower BP and, in principle, if your skips are being generated by foci sensitive to adrenaline, they can make you less prone to skips caused by adrenaline surges.  In my case, they worked fairly well to help avoid kicking in PAF due to PV foci when I exercised.  I don't think that they will stop skips that are generated as a direct result of PV foci firing, since those foci are always firing.  It's just that adrenaline can make them fire much stronger and cause more complicated arrhythmia to erupt.

The side effects of beta-blockers are primarily due to their inability to limit their action to heart tissue.

Of course, all the comments above are my opinions, and since I am not qualified to make medical opinions, should be entirely disregarded.