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PVCs gone for 10 years came back with a vengeance been to the ER twice
I had PVCs years ago they stopped pretty much.In the last two months they came back with a vengeance. I’ve been to the ER twice both times throwing bi’s and tri’s today they’re horrible again. I’ve had all the tests everything comes back normal,My electrolytes were off a little bit at one point but they got that fixed. I’m beside myself and 70 years old two months ago I was out working in the garden,going fishing doing the things I love to do and now I don’t wanna get off the couch because the PVC is just hit me rapid fire… they had me on a 10 day holter during that 10 days I was only running about 2% the last three or four days I feel like I’m closer to 15 or 20% but I was just into the cardiologist and he said it looks great. Your EKG is perfect, the echo. They did also perfect 65% EF no defects no thickened walls. Everything looked good. I had a nuke last year in August and it came back perfect.I just don’t understand it’s making me crazy.
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I was 78 when I was diagnosed with A-fib; I had a "perfect" bill of health in August and by November I was a mess! I was cardioverted in December, was fine until May--then three episodes about a week apart; now I have been fine since I self-converted in the ED in early June. I gave a anti-arrhythmic a four week "trial" just this past month and hated it. I am not sure it did anything since I was fine before. I totally understand your frustration. I also have no significant "triggers" or lifestyle habits that should have caused this. I know exactly what you mean when you say, it is driving you crazy. Every "funny feeling" and I have to stop to take my pulse to see if it really something concerning. I try to "ignore" it but it just annoys me after a while. Hope you get an answer. Sounds like you are in great shape! Good luck.
Some patients haven't a clue they have an arrhythmia. Bliss! Others, like you and I, have horrible symptoms. A good electrophysiologist (EP) will take a look at your case, and if you make it clear that your symptoms make living a hell, he'll probably offer to do an ablation, or maybe insert a pacemaker.
PVCs and PACs are not dangerous until their burden rises above about 3% of the total beats in a 24 hour period. But, if they make waking up to face each day like that a nightmare, then it will eventually seriously erode your quality of life and your desire to live. And this is mostly what an EP will take not of; that you cannot live with a heart feeling like that. Too much anxiety, feeling terrible, sleep is worse, etc. Don't make it up, but do a good job explaining HOW it makes you feel, and what that does to your peace of mind. Then, the burden comes to the fore, and it might add up to, 'Yeah, let's get you in line for an ablation/pacemaker.'
The other thing is that the research does suggest that too many PVCs and PACs does affect the heart adversely, especially the mitral valve. It can affect heart pressure, which is hard on that valve, but it can also cause ventricular hypertrophy, which you don't want. You say you check out well, and that's good...so far.
So, if I could put it like this: like you, I'm a smart, well-read person, always wanting to be on top of things, in tune with my body, and darned if I can let this go....on and on with no real remedy or intervention. It just ain't RIGHT! So, we want it fixed. It might be drugs, it might be an ablation, or.....it might, for now, have to be a mind shift where you make your brain accept that it isn't dangerous, you won't die, and maybe a coupla drugs will hold you until an ablation makes (more) sense to a sympathetic cardiologist/EP. Sometimes you have to self-talk and just unlax a bit. It's not lethal. It won't be dangerous until that burden rises above 3%, and that means 2.5K beats each day that are PVCs!
PVC’s made me think that I had a fib. After dozens of monitors and tests over several years I was watching a morning show with a story about a young girl who was having similar symptoms as I was having. Another interesting part of her story was all the different doctors she was seeing and always being dismissed about her problem until she met this NYC Cardiologist who listened and fixed her PVC’s
Like here every doctor told me the same thing: “ most people don’t even know that they are having PVC’s and they are benign. Worrying about them makes them worse.
I called the doc that day and lucky for me he volunteered at the NYC VA medical center where he had access to all of my records.
He RX’d Meptopotol “ AS NEEDED “ which upset and annoyed every nurse and doctor who heard how I was taking that “ blood pressure “ medication. But the doc told me not to take the meds if I wasn’t experiencing PVC’s I had told him I knew when they were going to happen. So he instructed me to take a half of the extended release med while experiencing them or if I expected them but not to take the meds daily if I didn’t feel a PVC OR ONE COMING because taking them daily will create high BP!
He went on to say if I was still feeling them in a year he would schedule an ablation.
Guess what? There gone for the most part! Extreme anxiety might trigger a few but a half of pill makes them go away.
Perhaps the only strange consequence is my resting heartbeat which as an athlete was around 68 for years. Now my resting heartbeat is 48
Take magnesium. My cardiologist recommended it years ago. I have PVC'S also but with the magnesium I might have 2 or 3 a week. Sometimes not even that. Good luck. The mag citrate.