palitations

[perfectlyamy]

First i would like to tell you that i find this site very helpful when i am having palpitations , as do lots of others from what i am reading and i will apologize before hand for asking the same palpitation questions . however even though we all have them they are a very personal thing in that for myself i talk myself into thinking that they are so different from what others are experiencing. so on to my question i have what feels like a skipped beat then a really hard thump then some times it feels like it is quivering for a minute then a missed beat they feel so scarry it is almost debilitating as i find myself like all the others fixated on them just waiting for it to happen again. ive had all the tests however they never happen when im on the holter or echo this causes me more stress like im going to drop dead from them. im 30 female non smoker drinker on occasion even this is causing palpitations.
i do have anxiety disorder and probably alot of unresolved anxiety from my child hood, i have fixated on my own mortality and think that this could obviously be causing me some of these problems.
so not to post the same old question but i feel like i need a personal opinion oh im also taking paxil only 10 mg a day sub theraputic i know im very stubborn about meds. i will seek therapy for anxiety but in your opinion if these do not show up when im being tested how do they know what really is happening.

[GingerG]

I am so glad to hear of others that are pregnant and suffer from these horrible PVC's.  I'm 29 and 4 1/2 months pregnant.  I have had PVC since 17 but it wasn't until I had my last baby almost 2 years ago that they got to where they scare me to death.  

Before that, I would only get one PVC here and there, but after having my last baby, I have been getting many PVC's in a row which scare the daylights out of me.  I had a huge attack when my last baby was 1 week old, I was really stressed out with the nursing and I was just loading the dishwasher and felt one PVC, then another, then another, right in a row and I paniced, thinking my heart wasn't going to go back into rhythem like it normaly did in the past.  My body felt low on oxygen, thought I was going to die from lack of oxygen.  When my heart finaly came back around, my heartrate was sky high, don't know exactly what it was but I was hyperventalating from it beating so fast.  

So ever since that severe attack, I can't help but to get that anxiety feeling when I feel the thump from my PVC.  I get a pit in my stomach and feel like I need to escape, which sometimes makes the PVC's stronger and get more in a row.  I don't understand how to NOT get many in a row and I often wonder if it is dangerous.  I hear all the time here that PVCs have not killed anyone and are not dangerous, but how can they not be when you get several in a row and your body isn't getting the oxygen it needs?  It scares the daylights out of me.  

I'm pregnant so I would like to stay away from any medication if possible and learn to deal with it, but I'm wondering if there is a quick fix, like a little trick I can do, if I'm getting more than one in a row.  I can handle one PVC, but the moment I get 2 and 3 in a row, I'm afraid.  And I'm VERY worried after this baby is born because it was after my last baby was born is when I started getting severe attacks that made me go into anxiety attacks.  I just want to get through it without being medicated, but wondering if that is possible.

[WPWGuy]

I agree with this.  Exercise (in my case long/middle distance running) helps.  

On the physical side, my symptoms decrease with exercise, if done within reason --- I do know that my symptoms increase if I over-exercise, but the threshold for making that happen --- for me --- seems to grow as my conditioning improves. Completing longer distances (started by walking one mile at a time, then eventually running 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 miles at a time... over a period of months) with decreasing symptoms reduced any anxiety I might have had regarding the relatively small heart problem to practically nothing.  Not to diminish the importance of the symptoms --- those I still monitor, only with more disinterest, which in my case is probably a good thing.

Of course, it goes without saying that running/aerobic exercise is already well known to reduce stress --- a additional bonus.

I also found it worthwhile to eliminate caffeine and alcohol, which you may want to try.

[perfectlyamy]

thank you to all who responded like i said before this site and all of your comments are very helpful. i am going to seek therapy for underlying anxiety and see if this will help im going to continue at the gym and try to not fixate on them as scarry as they are.
you see this all started after i had my daughter 5 years ago and began worrying all the time about what would happen to her if i died so im sure that probably the majority of these palps are anxiety my mind starts racing when they happen i cant stand them .
i have no other symptoms otherwise i live a good life but these darn things will stop me in my tracks.
so i hope that all of us who deal with these find peace .
this will be my new focus . thank you again for all the kind words and for all the valuable information.

[ube]

hello, i am a 44 yr old female, with both PVCs and very rapid heart beats. Since I was young I have experienced the ocassional skipped heart beat followed by a thump. I thought everyone experienced it. After several miscarriages, I suffered from panic attacks for a whole year. It wasnt until I took paxil for a year, plus therapy that I finally learned to keep my anxiety under control and avoid panic attacks. Which is when I decided to try for another baby. It wasnt until I was 5 months pregnant with my third child, did I have my first really bad episode. I thought I was going to die for sure, and ended up in the emergency room. My heart was racing at 160-170 beats per minute, and by the time the rolled up the ekg cart, my heart just went back to normal. This whole episode lasted about 50 minutes non stop, and it started out of nowhere while I was sleeping. Right after I delivered, I had a specialist check me out, do the whole battery of test, ekg, echocardiogram, stress test etc. and he discovered a mitral valve prolapse, which he said was quite common and benign. He went on to explain that while pregnant, due to the increased blood volume it is common to get these episoded of racing heartbeats. He didnt prescribe any medication and I certainly did get better. During my last pregnancy, these episodes became more frequent, and also the PVCs. I ended up taking Inderal starting in my 4th month of pregnancy, whiich relieved me a bit of the symptoms. I did not enjoy my pregnancy at all, and prayed that I would deliver as soon as possible and get some relief.

SInce I had my baby, she is now 2 years old, I have had another battery of test done, like before, only to find out that my mitral valve prolapse has gone from mild to moderate. And this is the reason I get PVCs and rapid heart beat. He has put me on Corgard 20 mg, since it has a longer duration in your system that Inderal, and have found some relief. I do get the skip a beat several times a day, that I am aware of, but they do become worse at night, while sleeping. My doctor saids that I feel more of them because I am laying down and not moving around, but that I probable get them in the same variations throughout the day.

Are there any technichs that any of you might know of, that can stop them when they are really bad? Today I am having a bad day with the PVCs in the 1000s. Ive been told that since this is an electrical malfunction of the heart sometimes doing the following might put your heat back in the normal rythm such as, ice on your face? any other suggestions? I am desperate, and keep my husband up at night. thanks

[Gantua]

I am new to this forum and hopefully I am not posting in the wrong place. I've been suffering from PCV's for nearly 20 years now. Has anyone had these attacks ocurr for several days in a row? This last bout is really driving me nuts it's been going on for nearly a week now, it might calm down for a couple hours but thats about it.

[tickertock]

To: Gantua, I have never had a severe attack/episode of PVCs in going on 4 years only the odd thump now and then but i have had PVCs lasting from weeks to 6 months at a time in the 1000s daily. I am 40 years old and has them for  as long as I can remember even though the sustained episodes only took place over the last 15-20 years though i have always had the occasional thump. I would think that the 100mg of atenolol does the trick for me, for some it has no effect, plus mind over matter matter helps alot!!!

To: nymomof5, I know someone who has had up tp 15,000 PVCs daily that zoloft drastically reduced their symptoms, of course others has had an adverse reaction, my thinking would be whatever works for you go with it.