After months of silence, PACs have reared its ugly head again. Last night I had to sleep sitting up, with my feet on the floor. When I laid down, the PACs start - every 3rd beat or every 7th beat. But, once I sit up, with my feet on the ground, they are gone. I spent the night in the recliner. I tried to raise my feet but the ectopics would start again. As soon as my feet were on the floor, gone!! So weird! I am almost 15 months post my second ablation. I dealt with these, starting about two months after my second ablation and they continued for about 3 months. I spent those months in my recliner. Then they just disappeared and my heart has been quiet until this past week.

Today, I am hyper aware of my heart, which I hate. I am feeling every off beat. I am hoping it will quiet again. However, I am very thankful it is not Afib.

My question to this terrific group is:
1. Has anyone that has had an ablation dealt with these on an on-going basis?
2. If yes, what is your ectopic burden? How many per minute or hour?
3. Have these ectopics lead to a more serious arrhythmia?
4. Do you have any advice on how to just power on through them? I don’t want to start overthinking my heartbeat and keep me from living my full life.

Thanks

I noticed some eptopics a few weeks ago. I decided due to some shoulder pain to start sleeping on my left side. I would no sooner lie down and they would start. But would stop as soon as I would move so they were hard to capture on my cardio.

I'm now back to sleeping on my right side and they have gone away.

1. Before my first ablation, I had no ectopics. It was afib all of a sudden. Since then, I've to deal with ectopics. They appear at rest or after meal.
2. They're no fun but I'm used to them. I know when and how they're more likely to appear, so I try to avoid such situations. It's not always easy, because I can't eat as much as I want (and maybe not as much as I need - I'm really skinny). I'm pretty sure I would have ectopics when I'm tired. It seems the more tired I am when going to bed, the sooner in the night they may appear. Sometimes as soon as I lay down.
3. They're strongly position related. The main trouble is they can trigger afib. Happily, episodes are short, but quite frequent.
4. I've no advice to give you, I just suggest you take notes, it may help remembering facts and circumstances.

See Gill's posts on the topic. She was ablated in Bordeaux in 2003 (if memory serves). <[www.afibbers.org]