PVC's driving me nuts !

[KevMil]

I am a 39 year old male (40 next week), I had been having the "fluttering" feeling in the chest and it pushed me over the top as it were one evening so I went to the ER.  ER doc said I may have SVT's and to follow up with primary next day.  Which I did, he did EKG, Cardiac Echo, Holter and Stress test.  He said that after all this he saw minor Mitral Valve Prolapse, and some PV'cs.  He said my heart was basically healthy and do not worry about it.  I still have the fluttering and can feel the PVC's regularly.  I can tell the difference between them and my GERD issues (they timed perfectly on the monitor with my feeling them for an hour). Do I just have to live with it or is there something I can do or take ?  

Signed,

Concerned

[Elli126]

Its a chicken or egg thing...I never know which comes first either. I think dealing with the anxiety 1st helps though.

[KevMil]

Thank you all for responding.  It is good to know I am not the only one going through this and that it can be controlled (mentally or through medication).  Please keep the comments coming.

As to going to a cardiologist, I agree but my primary is part of a group of internal medicine and cardiology.  I have a lot of faith in him and he came to my stress test personally and sat through it with me and talked about what he was seeing and his diagnosis.  He said he wanted to be thorough.

It does seem that I feel a great deal of anxiety come up at various times, I jsut do not know if it comes first or the PVC's do ??

I am under a little bit of stress-new child on the way, I travel a great deal for work, work is looking at layoffs in November, a financial issue that is coming to close, etc., etc., etc....

Thanks one and all !!

K

[cindy707]

My first thought is that i would get a referral to a heart doc.  They are the ones who are specialists of the heart and that is all they practice in.....they will give you a more thorough explanation and tell you what your options are.  I had a pretty tough case of SVT and yes there is actually alot that can be done for it...anything from lite meds to a non invasive type of surgery or maybe simply lifestyle changes...but a heart doc is the only way to go....

[Elli126]

I've been having PVCs and PACs for more than 20 years. Now the added fun of PSVT. Was in the ER amillion times convinced I was gonna die, well I haven't so far and after Rythmol, BETA blockers and tons of panic attacks I just had to convince myself I was gonna be ok. Had all the testing several times and although IHHS runs in my family I was told I had a basically healthy heart. I still get worried, thats why I came to this forum, it helps so much to read about the many, many other people going through the same thing. I'm 53 (tomorrow) and plan to be around alot longer...you should too!

[KevMil]

Thanks, just can;t believe these things just pop up and you have to live with it. Crazy !!

Thanks !

[yarrow]

Kev, there are tons and tons at this site regarding what you're experiencing.  The simple answer is that yes, you have to learn to live with it because nothing has absolutely been shown to prevent or stop benign PVCs and minor floppy valve symptoms.  That said, though, some things help some people and don't help others. There's no way around it but to (a) ask your doc a whole lot of questions, but (b) educate yourself.  Here's a place to start:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001100.htm

But the bottom line is that once you have been tested thoroughly and your heart has been declared healthy, if you can do your normal daily physical stuff without problems, you simply have to find a way to adjust to having strange heartbeats now and again, while believing--at your very core--that you are in no danger.  It's difficult, I grant you, and may require the help of a counselor or shrink if you get too anxious about it.