Heart Rhythm Conditions – Welcome to the group

Hi my name is Tom. I’m a seventy year old white male. I have recently been diagnosed with PVCs. They came on like a thief in the night with the principal symptom being inability to draw breath (fluid in left lung). My PCP, refered me to a Pulmonologist who in turn sent me to a Cardiologist. ECG disclosed the PVCs. Echo cardiogram showed really bad efficiency. Cardiac MRI to look for damage (still waiting for interpretation), and ablation scheduled in two weeks. Currently taking metropololol and a diureticbut the condition is barely controlled. I would love to know a couple of things like: what did I do to cause these? I’ve always been a competitive or amateur swimmer and distance runner. Heart never had a problem before.

Hello, sorry to hear about your suffering. I also have PVCs but they were originally classified as rare 2 yrs ago. They now seem to be ramping up as I have had several episodes in just the last month.
I am told that my symptoms are unusual, so if anyone else has the same symptoms please let me know.
Episodes start with elevated BP, 200/90 ish, my heart is pounding 100+, I get diarrhea pretty fast after it all starts, then sometimes I throw up or just feel nauseous. The episodes last anywhere from 1-5 hours. I’m told that these symptoms are not typical.
I have a Doc appointment tomorrow to discuss next steps.
BTW, I have the Kardia app, it doesn’t have the capability to report PVCs, so now I’m not sure why my Doc told me to get it!? Any heart rate data over 100 doesn’t get captured and shows as “unclassified”, so not real helpful.

Sorry to hear of your problems. This is rarely a medical condition with a quick fix. PVCs can often be thought of in oversimplifjed terms as an electrical signal bouncing off a zone of bad tissue. The signal can often be rerouted by destroying the related path, but only if a specific location giving rise to the pvc can be observed. This is often done by observing the number and types of pvcs recorded on a 24 hour test, or when mapping during a study when an ablation is to be attempted.

Then there are meds

Doctors will almost always start with safe medicines that might not be as strong. They can often rotate through medicines, or combinations, to see which work and what you can tolerate. It’s always about balancing the risk of the PVCs vs the side effects of the meds. In some cases they will not start a new med unless you are in the hospital hooked up so that you can be observed

Sorry to hear of your problems. This is rarely a medical condition with a quick fix. PVCs can often be thought of in oversimplifjed terms as an electrical signal bouncing off a zone of bad tissue. The signal can often be rerouted by destroying the related path, but only if a specific location giving rise to the pvc can be observed. This is often done by observing the number and types of pvcs recorded on a 24 hour test, or when mapping during a study when an ablation is to be attempted.

Then there are meds

Doctors will almost always start with safe medicines that might not be as strong. They can often rotate through medicines, or combinations, to see which work and what you can tolerate. It’s always about balancing the risk of the PVCs vs the side effects of the meds. In some cases they will not start a new med unless you are in the hospital hooked up so that you can be observed

Hi my name is Tom. I’m a seventy year old white male. I have recently been diagnosed with PVCs. They came on like a thief in the night with the principal symptom being inability to draw breath (fluid in left lung). My PCP, refered me to a Pulmonologist who in turn sent me to a Cardiologist. ECG disclosed the PVCs. Echo cardiogram showed really bad efficiency. Cardiac MRI to look for damage (still waiting for interpretation), and ablation scheduled in two weeks. Currently taking metropololol and a diureticbut the condition is barely controlled. I would love to know a couple of things like: what did I do to cause these? I’ve always been a competitive or amateur swimmer and distance runner. Heart never had a problem before.

Hi my name is Tom. I’m a seventy year old white male. I have recently been diagnosed with PVCs. They came on like a thief in the night with the principal symptom being inability to draw breath (fluid in left lung). My PCP, refered me to a Pulmonologist who in turn sent me to a Cardiologist. ECG disclosed the PVCs. Echo cardiogram showed really bad efficiency. Cardiac MRI to look for damage (still waiting for interpretation), and ablation scheduled in two weeks. Currently taking metropololol and a diureticbut the condition is barely controlled. I would love to know a couple of things like: what did I do to cause these? I’ve always been a competitive or amateur swimmer and distance runner. Heart never had a problem before.

What are "vagal maneuvers"? Have you tried meds to keep the heart in rhythm?

I am 60 y/o with 3 grown children and 3 grandchildren. I’m also the 8th of 12 children. I had my first Tachycardia episode in my 20’s. I saw a cardiologist who gave me vagal maneuvers to bring me back to normal rhythm which worked on the rare occasion I needed them until last year. Last year my episodes increased and the vagal maneuvers quit working. Each episode lasted 20-30 minutes and normal rhythm returned on its own. Despite extensive investigation in the past year and having an event monitor for 2 months, I hadn’t been able to record an episode so doctors could evaluate effectively. Last week, I got to ER immediately and now have a better understanding. It’s SVT, which likely will need ablation to correct. I’m looking forward to a solution.