heart skips a beat-long sorry!

Leah,

Hi! Welcome to the club! These things stink! I've had them for about five years. When they first started, I really freaked and would get the tachy heartrate which would last anywhere from 2-6 hours. I really don't get the fast rate anymore. (knock on wood) When it does ocassionally happen now, it only last 2-20minutes. I really think that is because I have learned biofeedback and relaxation techniques which help to short curcuit my episodes. I think my anxiety was making them last for so long.

I still get the skips. I use to try to rack my brain to figure out WHY????? Now after tons of reading, I don't think there is a  reason. They just seem to cycle. Sometimes I get TONS. Sometimes I get just a few. Sometimes I have none! If I think about them, I am sure to have more and More AND MORE!!!! If I ignore them and remain calm and keep busy doing something else, it seems like I get fewer of them. ????? If my heart is 'jumpy', anything and everything triggers them-caffeine, stress, being tired, angry, hot beverages, reflux.... If I am in a 'quiet period', only LOTS of chocolate and/or major stress triggers them. (Oh Yeah, my period seems to trigger them. I quess it is hormonal but what can I do about that?)

For the time being, I am handling them. However in January, I went thru a major period of them coming on every other beat to every 7th beat for days. I was a mess. I just wanted them to stop or for me to be at the doctor's hooked up to a monitor while screaming at the aforementioned doctor "YOU CALL THIS NORMAL!?!" -Only I couldn't do that because my doctor gets them also and knows what I am going thru. I actually was in his office once a year ago hooked up to an EKG monitor and  getting them every 7th beat. He came in, looked at the read out and said, "Oh Yeah, these are going to bother anyone at this frequency but your fine."  So I went home.

My only advice is stay busy and try to keep your mind off of them. Some kind of relaxation practiced every day can be helpful and I hope your heart decides to go thru a 'quiet period' real soon!

 

I have heart problems, i had ventricular tachacardia and they burnt my extra passage way shut. Without doing this it would send me into cardiac arrest eventually because my heart beat would get up to almost 300 beats per minute. Now that they burnt it shut it has been around 4 years and i am doing well. I do have irregular beats though. It may skip a beat sometimes also. I often feel light headed and dizy but i do not pass out either. Maybe we are relating to the same thing?

Gn*

Hi Leahbeans,

I dealt with an irregular beat for MANY years.  I remember experiencing these kooky beats from about the age of twelve.  My heart would skip beats and alternate between skipping and extra beats.  I mentioned this to Doctors that I had over the years and none seemed too concerned.  I have had EKGs performed but of course when they were ordered my heart beat normally.  This condition flared up sometimes once a month, sometimes once a week and other times once in a blue moon.  I went in for surgery on my cervical spine this past January and of course the pre-surgical tests all came back well.  During the surgery, my heart escalated to 160 bpm and the Neurosurgeon called in a Cardiologist who performed Cardioversion (electric shock) to get my heart rate down to normal.  For about 27 years I had been living with undiagnosed Atrial Fibrilation (a-fib).  I am now on meds (anticoagulant, antiarrythmic, beta blockers).  You may want to ask your doctor about this.  One of the nurses at my Cardiologists office also told me about a monitor called an Event Monitor which can be used to record cardiac events as they occur.  You may want to investigate that too.  Hope this helps!

Beth

Leahbeans,

Don't be ashamed to say that you have panic/anxiety attacks. I am 29 and have been dealing with these issues for the past 18 years or so. There are more people suffering from them out there than you know, myself included. A few summers ago I had a bad 3 months of severe PVC's and PAC's. Had a 30 day event monitor- caught a lot- all benign. I also suffer from PSVT, which is a sudden fast heart rate originating in the atrira. I went in on May 15 to have the extra pathways ablated, and since am dealing with a lot of PVCs and PACs while my heart recovers from the procedure. I am in the same boat as you- I just want these to stop forever. However, you are right when you say that the more you think about it, the more they occur. Also, the more nervous/anxious you become, the more they occur too. It's a vicious cycle. What other people have said on here is true- the more active you are, the better off you are. While relaxation techniques (biofeedback, yoga, etc) is great, so is exercise. It's been shown that both reduce PVC's and PAC's. If you're concerned, have your doc do a stress test with echo to make sure that the valves and heart itself is normal. If it is, you really don't have anything to worry about. I have also researched this area extensively, and can say that while they feel HORRIBLE, they are benign if your heart is structurally normal. Hope this helps, and stay happy. :)