Diagnosed with PSVT

[jyant]

I'm 55, weight 315 at the time I first started noticing the palps. It was about 1 yr. ago while I was losing weight and walking heavily daily, worked up to about 6 miles a day on average and then jogged at about 41 minute pace for a 5k @ 287 weight. Did the 24 hr. monitor, sonograms with intravenous dye during stress test. Heart all good, like a bull. But I could have 7000 palps a day, drove me nuts. Passed on ablation for now. Started taking verapamil(3 months ago) which helped, but I have been dead in the water for a year now. No exercise, booze, physical work or they would come on. I could also get them (rarely) doing nothing, it would usually take some elevation of heart rate. Ice Cold rags on face helped. Nothing has changed, I still smoke 1 1/2 packs a day, drink 4 cups of java, stress like most and now out of the blue, there gone? 10 Days nada, nothing, I'm walking again slowly to build up to jogging someday again.

I have racked my brain for a year trying to figure out why? Why did I get these things. Doctors really have no answer other than guesses, and I've seen some good ones here in So. Cal., Electrophysiology guru's.

I can only put my finger on two possibilities: Either I attempted to lose weight too fast and overworked my heart-Find hard to believe because I have been a contractor my entire life working physical jobs and have great blood and health or

And this is my basis for my question to the forum. I contracted Cellulitis in my leg due to a cut I didn't clean and these palps started slowly and progressing from that point. Doctors say no way. It took 20 days of antibiotics to kick it and then my skin was really susceptible to scratches and bleeding all over my body by just brushing up against a bush or something. This went on for a long time and just today I realize my skin is tough again.

Can anyone else point to a staph infection near the time they started getting heart palps?

Thank you and say a prayer for me please, I would love nothing better than to have had these dang things gone forever.

[jyant]

And on this ablation procedure. I say why rush if your not in any medical emergency. I maybe living proof..11 days and counting now, that PSVT/PVC's may just stop on their own accord.

And yes, I know first hand how debilitating they are to quality of life.

[jyant]

Good stuff, thank you. My palps for the most part are PVC's, I get an extra pump then a slight pause as the heart tries to re-regulate. It gets bad when I get them every 10 seconds or so. Just miserable as you know. My bouts to date with super rapid heart rate have only happened under extreme exercise. Problem then is it takes a drug like verapamil to restore normal beating. Other drugs did not work, so it must be something to do with the calcium blocking event.

I too as of the last few months have gotten the PVC's on/off days. I call them my good days and bad days. They would normally last 3 days then off 3 days or so, but I could trigger them with elevated heart rate.

The sleep apnea is a great point. Yes, neck 17 3/4 atm and have had some form of apnea for 25 yrs. First noticed back then when I awoke gasping for air, was a back sleeper. Last 25 yrs. I have slept on my side but wife does say some nights I snore badly(once every 2/3 months she might say something). Did the test 25 yrs ago but couldnt sleep with all those wires hooked up to me. Probably wouldn't try again. My cardio said give it a try but he doubted that was the problem, but could be slight chance. My heart is not damaged and probably should be from 25 yrs of the issue, to what degree (apnea) thats unclear today. This is something I will now have my wife log daily since she is such a lite sleeper, snoring. You have me curious.

They keep telling me what I have normally happens to younger folks who are athletes, more on the heretitary side. 55 go figure. IMO has to be a cause and effect.

Smoking, caffeine thats not going to happen, kind of like no ones going to put a lazer on the outside of my heart :)

Thanks

[tom_h]

By "palps", do you mean skipped beats or racing?  Perhaps if I describe my situation, your may be similar.

Beside my lifelong history of PSVT, I also have periods of PVC clusters.  These periods can last anywhere from several days to a couple of weeks.  One day they'll vanish, and I'll be free of them until the next round.

In an effort to minimize them, I've totally decaffeinated myself.  This has greatly cut down on the PVC clusters, but hasn't done much for the PSVT events.

One other thing that caused probably the most palps and PVCs was I snored very badly.  It was so bad my wife had to sleep in another bedroom; it was horrific snoring.  It turned out I had very severe sleep apnea.  In layman's terms, I guess my heart I guess was aggravated from spending hours at dangerously low oxygen levels  I was dead tired all of the time.  Once I was diagnosed, and put on a CPAP machine, my snoring stopped, I could sleep, and my palps stopped.  The reason I suggest you look into this is because at your weight and age, I can almost guarantee that you have some degree of sleep apnea.  I've read that if anyone has a size 18 neck, they'll have sleep apnea.  Have you ever been checked, or does your sleeping partner ever complain about you snoring?

Finally, regarding your infection.  I was extremely ill last fall with an upper respiratory infection; I couldn't shake it.  Around that time, I developed a period of frequent PVCs.  The infection went away after a month but the PVC's remained.  Then in January, I got another cold and infection; really bad this time.  I went to my GP, and he prescribed a Z-pak.  The antibiotic quickly killed the infection, but my PVCs vanished too.  When I went back for a followup, I questioned him about this.  He assured me that the fact they were gone was totally unrelated to the antibiotic, but I still wonder about that it becasue it was so coincidental.

I'd cut the caffeine out completely, and the smoking is a no brainer.  If you snore, I'd get a sleep study done.  Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a slow killer, and it frequently goes undiagnosed.