Counting them yourself seems like a very bad idea psychologically. Especially since it's diagnostically meaningless.
A palpitation is anytime you notice your heartbeat, racing, pounding or pausing. It is not always an arrhythmia and even if it is, it's likely a benign one.
Yes, it's true people get ectopic beats and don't feel them. My son got over a thousand PVC/PACs on his Holter and never feels anything out of the ordinary. He got the Holter because a routine exam had a murmur and ectopics. The docs (regular and cardio et al) can hear them the minute they put a stethoscope to his chest, but he doesn't feel them.
Watching them like a hawk is probably part of why you feel them.
You are fixated and trying really hard. Like a person having a hearing test listening for every isolated beep, instead of to the cacophony of real life sound that drowns out, or blends in those little tones.
If you have a rhythm of concern on your Holter they will let you know.
It can't hurt to see someone for anxiety/obsessiveness. Cardiologists don't generally handle inappropriate "high anxiety" very well, it's not their specialty. If you had something the cardiologist could help you with, she would.
So what is the difference between PVC's and palpitations? I was under the impression they were the same thing? Whatever the #*(&*($# they are I hate them! I get a feeling of a double of triple beat and then nothing and then a huge thump. I also get runs of rapid beats sometimes and then sometimes I will get misfires every third beat or so. I just cannot come to grips there is nothing wrong.
Hi Carrie- I asked my sister (a nurse) today if she ever got palpitations and she said 'Oh no- I never get them' however on persisting asking her AND PROBING EVERY DETAIL (I have cardiac neurosis!) she then said 'oh yes actually i did get some the other day, my heart seemed to go out of control, race and beat funny up into my neck' I asked her how long this went on for and she told me 'oooh... about half a minute' HALF A MINUTE!!!! If that was me I would have been straight down the ER! She told me that she took a deep breath and thought 'it'll stop in minute' and carried on with what she was doing and forgot about it. My son also gets flutters and again he thinks nothing of it. So I guess the difference is how much people focus on normal bodily functions. I had a boyfriend who when I rested my head on his chest could feel his heart skipping and flopping- and he never felt a thing. I also have the theory that a lot of our fears are not about what they appear to be about, and the bottom line is that the base fear is fear of life and especially death, the feeling of being unsafe in our place in the universe, and this is the fear we need to address. We are all in the same boat in that respect (no- one gets out alive) and worrying about it will not prevent the inevitable end at some piont in our mortal existence, so we need to come to terms with life and death and accept that it happens to all of us and so therefore MUST be normal. We need to learn to have faith that all is as it should be. More easily said than done I know. This is just my opinion
Carrie, I think you're mixing PVC's with palpitations. Both are very annoying and can cause stress but they are not the same thing.
If you are talking about PVC's the amount you are getting is very low indeed.
I was under the impression you were having loads and loads of PVCs!!lol I get between 20-70 a day!! and i now know that is not much either. I don't know about you but mine have just recently started i don't know why i have started to get them so sudenly. i have had tons of tests and i've been told they're benign.
Do you get palpitations everyday Annako? I get between I would say three and 10 a day and hate them. They are all I think about. I know I have to stop my obsessing. I can have a really bad bout of them and then I know my anxiety brings them on more and more.