Premature Ventricular Beats

[tigercub]

That's what it says on the ECG report my GP gave to me to give to the A&E.

Full story; Go to GP for something completely unrelated...he realises I have an irregular pulse...does ECG, asks me about family history (dad hasWPW syndrome, moxt of paternal side have heart disease of some type) sends me to hospital....they moniter me for a couple of hours , do ECG, blood test etc...4 more times (over 2 hours) my heart does something weird (the middle line would jump around a lot, and got up to 34...whatever that means) Anyway they said it's not serious yet (yet?!) just highly strange at my age (20) and finally let me go home

So...I learnt absolutely nothing There was something about palpitations...but no one really told me more. ARGH!

Anyone have anything like this themselves or can shed any light on this?

 

[pharmacistRx25]

Wow, WPW is extremely rare (and fun to treat). Your premature beats are ok as long as they don't happen 3 or 4 in a row or a noticable amount in an hour. That's usually the rule. Did they talk about you "throwing PVCs"? Anyone could be throwing a PVC at any time. It's just when they become regular that you start to treat and they didn't seem to think it was a problem. If they become regular they can lead to v-tach > v-fib > flat line.

 

[tigercub]

Fun to treat...lol. Tell that to my dad- he refuses treatment.

I had the 4 PVCs there (one that lasted for aaages, like over a minute) and got sent home and that was it. No more info was given...so no they didn't speak to me about 'throwing PVCs'

I had forgotten about this event til I got the reply notification

 

[plmarquette]

thank God ahead of time for healing you Isaiah 53.3 ; speak to this mountain Mark 11.23-4

have they put you on a monitor , done an ekg?

they did a "Milas procedure", burning the heart some how, during my open heart surgery to correct my atrial fib... irregular beat...

if there is still a problem there is a pace maker ....

 

[nucat78]

I've had PVCs for years.

Cardiologist said don't worry about them as mine go away with exercise (treadmill stress test). Even had them when I was sedated for an endoscopy.

They can be scary though, especially if you don't know what they are.

 

[LadyNRA]

I agree that they can be scarey and I did want to say that not all docs treat right away. I was getting them suddenly one night, every three beats. They had no trouble picking them up in the ER. Did all the usual tests. Usually the docs blame everything on my weight (I have a lot to lose) but this time they said that this just happens sometimes. I didn't have obvious heart issues, they did an EKG and an echocardiogram, blood tests, glucose test. They said that none of the usual causes appeared to be provoking these and that there are quite a few people that have them for no reason. Most people over 50 have them at one point or another. But even my levels of beats wasn't worrisome to them. At one point, about 2 months after diagnosis, they said i was up to 8,000 PVCs a day but aside from the weird feeling, it wasn't doing much to me. so no drugs. They said the drugs had too many side effects and they didn't want to start on them at that point. Usually around 16,000/day is when the docs reallly want to move on it is what I was told. Eventually they slowed down (after about 6 months) and I wasn't getting nearly as many. I still get them for sure, in fact Sept./Oct./Nov. each year seems to trigger something though I don't know what. Once a day I get a burst of what might be tachycardia (fast rate) for all of 5 seconds. But as I've said, the docs generally won't act until it becomes a problem. Yeah, it scares me now and then but most of the time I just keep on functioning. I have learned what not to do...talking about them like this seems to raise my stress levels a bit and I'm bound to feel it. Sitting kind of scrunched up does it at time. Standing and walking around seems to alleviate it (or makes it less noticable I suppose). Sleeping helps.

You just have to keep an eye on it, keep in touch with your docs, take any meds faithfully that they say you must take (they keep me on Toprol which I've used for a while simply for blood pressure), find out if anything triggers it or helps alleviate it, find others who can encourage and calm you, allay fears, and keep on truckin'.