I have been having what doctors call palpitations every day

@kirbymaree Perfectly understandable to be in dread. I can only answer for me...I know me best. This guy, me, I hate operating from a position of no knowledge or poor understanding. I gotta know! So, despite having to read or watch videos explaining what all the bad stuff might be ahead, I have to begin chewing on possible alternative treatments or strategies. I can't do that honestly without knowing more than I understand at the moment, so I begin the laborious process, sometimes going down rabbit holes until the wee hours. Eventually, I can call it a day and fall asleep letting my mind mull over what I now understand.

I commend this orientation to your own health because it tends to be productive and it tends to keep you in the realm of power or potency. You get to question knowledgeably, not argue, but to ask why this and not that? If it must be this, you will at least have learned ahead of time that it might be the alternative your health provider wants to try first.

I developed atrial fibrillation (AF) near the tail end of a 10 km maintenance run. I lost steam suddenly, legs went heavy, and I began breathing much harder than I should have been. I sat on a curb, tried to let my heart calm, but I ended up in the local ER and soon learned I had a new diagnosis of paroxysmal AF. Paroxysmal means it comes and goes on its own, you don't need medical intervention, at least not in an ER. In your case, it might be AF, or it might just be PACs (premature atrial complexes, often a precursor to AF...you'll develop AF in time often, not certainly, but often you do go on to AF.

Whatever it is, shouldn't you know for your own sake? And wouldn't you like to know you have a specialist looking after you, who knows of you and your condition, and who offers you a way ahead....something to build optimism instead of dread?

@gloaming I am going to the doctor this morning with regards to this , thank you so much

@kirbymaree
Everyone who has this heart fluttering condition (I don’t make ‘ light’ of it, as I had it in my early 20’s, periodically, everyone must know at least a bit about general EXTRASYSTOLES.
Not a doctor, I think of them as rogue heartbeats. The “skip” is the beat AFTER the prior actual premature beat that expels less blood, necessitating the subsequent “beat” to pump out extra blood which is what one feels. But ask your physician; that was only how it basically was explained to me. So how does that help you? Yes. Your heart skips a beat and it’s scary!! Why? Because something going awry with it, we may associate with instant death! So we worry and likely make it worse. I’ve experienced a bad stomach cramp now and then, but never felt it might be a presage (harbinger) of impending death. And I too have been in the ER, monitored, oxygen, tachycardia.
Anyway, after I read about extrasystoles and had time to calmly consider what I’d read, it started my progress toward not fearing these errant beats. Still took time, Xanax and medical reassurance, but anything that helps, right? They gradually went away as my understanding of mind can really $&#% with those nerve transmitters. In hindsight, there were triggers: just married, brand new job, mother’s passing; eventual GAD diagnosis.

Consider Googling (w/o the quotes; and note WELL the spelling):

“cardiosecur.com extrasystoles”

If interested.
T
🛜

Hi everyone,so I went to the hospital today and they did thus ECG thing and according to that everything is fine but I'm still sitting with the same problem...any advice?

@kirbymaree If you went to the ER or acute care, they would normally only run a 15 second ECG which might show nothing. What you need, in my non-expert opinion (I have no medical training) is a monitor that you would wear for several days, say up to a week. A Holter monitor (that's the correct spelling) is bulky and annoying, although you do get used to it soon enough. You have six leads stuck to you, you wear a control unit on your waist, and you have to conscientiously record significant events through the day so they can see if something seems to set you off into PACs or AF reliably. There are some place dispensing ECG wireless cards that do much the same thing. The idea is to have a long enough sample that the probability of catching a run of the arrhythmia is high.

Hi everyone,so I went to the hospital today and they did thus ECG thing and according to that everything is fine but I'm still sitting with the same problem...any advice?

@kirbymaree If you went to the ER or acute care, they would normally only run a 15 second ECG which might show nothing. What you need, in my non-expert opinion (I have no medical training) is a monitor that you would wear for several days, say up to a week. A Holter monitor (that's the correct spelling) is bulky and annoying, although you do get used to it soon enough. You have six leads stuck to you, you wear a control unit on your waist, and you have to conscientiously record significant events through the day so they can see if something seems to set you off into PACs or AF reliably. There are some place dispensing ECG wireless cards that do much the same thing. The idea is to have a long enough sample that the probability of catching a run of the arrhythmia is high.

@gloaming My "Holter" monitor was tiny with zero wires, and nothing to wear but a small device on the chest. It paired with a phone. Very easy to use. I had a cardiac ablation for A-fib which the monitor shows no sign of now, BUT thousands of PACs and PVC's. Oiy

@judy3276 I don't know what to say, Judy, except I'm sorry you seem to have swapped one arrhythmia for another. PACs in high numbers, especially within weeks to months after an ablation, is usually not a great sign. If the numbers are falling over time, that's probably a good sign, but when you say thousands, and if that adds up to about a 3% burden in 24 hrs, meaning 3% of all heart beats during that period, then usually an EP will want to check you out and offer to perform another ablation, except this time not treating AF.

Are you still in touch with the EP, or are you searching for another, or a second opinion? If you have some financial means, and don't mind a recommendation and travel/commercial lodgings for a three day period or so, I can suggest two crackerjack EPs, one in Texas, one in Cleveland. They're at the top of their fields and perform well on complex cases, which it looks like you may be.