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3885607 tn?1348508726

pvc's and other heart issues??

another run down/question.  im 35 years old 5'3 115 pounds white female. i started having pvc's and very little pac's when i was 19 after a long night being a teenager and partying. started feeling racing heart. ever since that night have had rythm problems. in 2002 i had my first ablation which ablations had only been around a short time by then in the us. at the time i was to young and didnt do any or care about research on ablations just knew i already had a child at the time and wanted a quick fix as the skipped beats were causing anxiety. So had a pvc hour long ablation. non successfull!!!!  soon after about a year later i went to a different cardiologist/ep and they gave me atenolol as i still had symptoms and had my second ablation with new dr's a year  later in 2004. still fairly new procdure back then which that one lasted 6 hours. he said he got the sinus tackacardia and everything else random he thought he could except the spot that was closes to my av node natural hearts own pace maker. was better for a few years and symptoms had lightened up. life just continued on and i suffered from anxiety from worry and fear from my heart. over years things would flare up get better then worse. i had a few more children took atenolol through all the pregnancys. always had follows ups every years and as symptoms would worsen. THEN out of the blue 2009 i was doing a lil jog up my horse pasture to grab something and BAMMMM my heart started racing like NEVER before and SUPER irregular, i thought i was going to die. i grabbed my cell phone and called 911. they came hooked me up and i was in full blown afib 180bpm and SOOOO irregular. went to er and they offered cardioversion shock or iv meds i wanted iv meds and it slowed the heart but stayed in irregular rythm for 6 hours until i fell asleep then when i woke. (IT WAS GONE) i was normal.. what the heck?? no more episodes thank gosh. here we are now 2012 a month ago i feel alot of skippes. so i go to dr wear a monitor and they see im having 20,000 30,000 pvc's in 24 hours. WOWWW i hate them and feel like i cant breath. its running my life and making me miserable. i cant live like this. having some bigeminy too which i have never had before. also some small runs of weird fast beats. i still taking my atenolol 25mg 3x daily, now from all the symptoms and pvc's they gave me flecainide 50mg 2x daily. i started it a week ago and DAMMNNN everything is GONE!!! i might feel a few very light flutters a day but THATS IT.. dr's have scheduled a stress test next week but suspect everything will turn out ok considering it always has in the past. i seen my ep yesterday talking about another ablation but hesaid just stay put for a while since everything is working and he wants me to do light excercise since i DO NONE because im afraid of it going into afib again ever since that one attack. also everytime i do anything exsersion my heart goes crazy, probably because i do not ever get my heart rate up. i feel backed up against the wall about should i or should i not start excersing and what do u guys think will happen if i do? and has anyone died from flacainide and why do i feel so great on it. it almost scares me and i know that seems dumb to say. and whats the long term effects? my ep also said my heart is  just super adrenaline sensative and atenolol is a adrenaline blocker too so when im trying to get nervous or work up my heart a normal woman my age heart should go up but mine is being surpressed and it almost become a adrenaline battle agains the beta blockers uhggg has anyone worked out of atenolol and or flecaine and whats there heart rate and how do you feel? why am i so scared of everything? :-/ any info would help. also ep said once i have started doing some light work outs and get my heart in shape maybe see about weaning down some meds but im scared of that too that i been on atenolol so 10 years  i may need it forever. i have 4 kids and a husband im not ready to die from suddend death. last question can afib lead to vfib and cause suddent death. gosh i sound crazy please help people. last thing my cardiologist says maybe my afib episode was just one isolated case and may or may not ever happen again. however i read once you have it you always have it and also having so many pvc's CAN cause future heart problems? but my doc's say not always true. i feel they dont have direct answers for this heart crap, just my opinion?? yours?
5 Responses
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4875226 tn?1360361686
There are several medications out there that have been known to cause irregular rhythms in the heart.

There are chemicals in the diet that can cause these irregular rhythms.

I had an ablation 9 months ago to remedy paroxysmal afib using the Hansen Robotic catheter system. I had been on Rhythmol 425mg 2 times a day for 5 years and it quit working.

The ablation fixed the afib but now my resting heart rate is 80-90/ bp is 126/74 and I have many PVCs or PACs.
Here- See for yourselves. I call them double taps. Can be very annoying when you are trying to go to sleep.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saweTYpNPEE


I saw my EP the other day and he was going to put me on Flecainide  100mg 2 times a day. First dose 100mg last night made me feel fatigued like I had the flu so I did not take one this morning. (will notify him Monday)

I think if I lose about 15 pounds, eat clean
Get me a good COQ10 and a Magnesium Potassium with Taurine supplement I can reduce about 90% of the symptoms.

PACs and PVCs arent dangerous just annoying. The mind has a tendency to hyper-focus and obsess on the sensation making it worse. Try to relax and don't fight it
Helpful - 0
3232390 tn?1352004145
When I just read your post,you sound just like me! I also started with the pvc's/pac's then was having tachy. I progressed to svt and vt after a few years and had those ablated. After I had my ablation I also had one bad episode of afib for the first time and had to get iv of cardizem and it took 14 hours to convert back,but I was kept on cardizem since and was ok for about 6 years until the last 9 months. Everyday I suffer with fast rythums that come out of nowhere,like a rush of adreneline. I went into afib two times after a night of having a few beers with family,so I wont be doing that again anytime soon,but my main complaint lately besides the irregular beats and fast rythums is I constantly feel like my heart is being squeezed and pulled on. I feel like my hearts not getting enough blood flow or something ugh its been a really tough road of med changes trying to get my life back,but its a slow road indeed. I too have the bad aniexty over all this,its a complete fear feeling that your scared something bad will happen because of how horrible it makes you feel. Stay possitive and make sure to be stern with your doctors about how your feeling and make sure the listen!!!! If you ever need to talk about how your feeling or anything send me a message,it helps talking to other people that can relate to what your going through.
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3885607 tn?1348508726
Thank you ladies for replying. any heart talk helps :) i dont know why i just keep feeling like there has GOT to be something wrong or i wouldnt feel like this. Then again nothing bad has happened yet so im hoping it stays that way. however the pvc amount has gotten higher over the years. on another note  i did do some research on the first dr that did my ablation and found some scary stuff, research Dr. Michael Belz seattle wa... OMG scary he burned a whole in a patients heart. maybe he messed mine up uhgggg or maybe the 2nd ablation did, who knows!!! i just know it has gotten worse. i honestly dont want to be on flecainide forever. do you guys know anything about  QT and QCT numbers? before starting flecainide my BEFORE # QT369 QCT392 AFTER STARTING FLECAINIDE #QT438 QCT437 is that good/ok?
Helpful - 0
1807132 tn?1318743597
I can't speak about whether or not afib can lead to vfib.  From what I understand vfib generally only happens when there is some sort of cardiac disease of some sort.  If your heart is structurally fine then the odds are you will not fall into it.  The fact that you have storms of 30,000 pvcs a day and have not even falling into vtach yet or if you do it is short lived and not causing you to pass out or anything likely means your heart is structurally fine.  I would suggest getting the stress test just to make sure but I would suspect that it will come back fine.  I would also tend to agree with the doctor to try a light work out.  Start slow or it may aggravate your heart and cause it to act up a bit more but in general with my issues, though not as intense as your, I am able to tolerate my heart issues much better because I do cardio everyday.  It really will help strengthen the heart and in the minimum help you tolerate what is going on much better.  But take it slow and build up as you feel more confident in your heart.  And I might also suggest finding some stress release things you can do.  Meditation or yoga or simply zenning out to some good music while doing some deep breathing.  With all the stress of your heart issues and raising kids you may just need to destress a bit and some of your symptoms could actually ease up for you.  PVCs are highly stress/adrenaline and stomach induced for a lot of people.  If we can manage those things we usually find some relief from the ectopics.  You may never get rid of them totally but sometimes doing some simple lifestyle changes can have a really good impact on the severity of the issue.  Well take care.  I do hope you feel better soon.  Keep us posted on how you are doing.  We are always here if you need to talk.
Helpful - 0
967168 tn?1477584489
I would start keeping a journal of events with dates, times and symptoms so it may help you and your dr's pinpoint possible triggers or other problems.

I would get a copy of all the tests you've had and make notes of what you had and questions that your doctor can answer about each one - what they are; why you're having each one; what a cure or treatment is etc

I don't know much about AFib; it's the only arrhythmia I haven't experienced yet. Having said that a couple of things jump out at me hopefully someone with more knowledge can explain better.

Did they find anything structually wrong with your heart? I know 20 or 30,000 pvc's is alot to deal with; I've had them since I was 9 and just gotten used to the blasted things.  Back in 2007-2009 I stayed in bigeminy and had roughly 50,000+ but no meds or ablation took mine completely away so I'd be over the moon if Flecaniade (sp?) worked that well.

Each of us are different, sometimes meds work or ablation and then sometimes like with me, ablation and meds dont work so well but after abltion and finding Inderal works I'm down to 10,000 daily which I can live with vs going through another complicated ablation for me.

I would do as your dr suggests and start slow and listen to your body with exercise; there are some who do find their symptoms go away with exercise; keep your phone handy  in case you need to call someone and make sure you hydrate well with water before and during exercise.





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