PACs are getting really annoying.

I understand they are supposed to be "harmful" but they do drain the energy out of me. This has gradually gotten worse again over the past two weeks. My EP has suggested Tykosyn to be the next thing to try. Anyone have any experience with it and PACs? I'm not fond of trying it, but I guess it is the only way to chase this down.

Are you deficient in vitamin D? Have you been tested lately?

I moved and didn’t unpack fully for 4 months. I stopped my vitamin D.because i was too lazy unpacking 238 boxes. I googled it contributed to my PVCs. I confirmed the trigger with my EP today. I did this to myself :-(

It’s an inexpensive lab test. I recommend it

Google if you like.
[pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
[nutritionj.biomedcentral.com]
[www.sciencedirect.com]
[omegaquant.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2024 08:27PM by susan.d.

I spent a few months on Tikosyn. It was effective and didn't come with undesirable side effects, but I'm just one person and everyone is different. The thing I noticed that others told me would happen is it becomes more effective the longer you've been on it. The 3-day hospital stay is a boring 3 days, but since you're not actually ill like most of the people in the unit you'll be in, the nurses won't be waking you up at night or bothering you much. Plus you'll be free to walk around as much as you want as long as you stay within range of the monitoring station. Luckily for me, the family room was within range and it had vending machines.

One thing I recommend is bringing a pair of sweat pants or similar so you don't have to walk around with your butt flapping around in those ridiculous hospital gowns that (don't) close in the rear.

Why is it men don’t tie the backs of their gowns? Nobody wants to see this.

I wasn't taking vitamin D in the past, but I do eat a fair amount of food that are fairly high in it. I will add that to my list of things to have checked with my next appointment. Hopefully will get that set up next week.

Carey, thank you. I am not sure, I want to go that way, but it seems like the next step in this evolution. I just want to find something to kick this mess down the road for more than a few months.

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susan.d
Why is it men don’t tie the backs of their gowns? Nobody wants to see this.

One can always ask for a second gown. Put the first gown on "tied in the front," and the second gown on "tied in the back."

The health care folks can still quickly and easily get to ... um ... whatever they need to get to.

I'm not sure every hospital will accommodate this request, but I have it on personal experience that at least some will.

I'd say 50% of the gowns I've been given can't be tied at all due to missing strings and the other 50% only tie at mid-chest level. Those gowns were designed by a drunk monkey and the design hasn't been changed in 100 years.

After my pacemaker, I had to wear a sling with strict instructions I couldn’t lift my arm a bit for a certain period without risking pulling out my leads. I only came in with a turtleneck shirt and skirt. The hospital thought it was wise to discharge me wearing a front and back gown. I picked two good ones with strings.

After that I was a yo-yo at the ER with flutter, spending as much as 5 admissions in November 2022 (23 out of 30 days). They couldn’t stop my 190hr flutter.

Each ER that month I expected an admission to either telemetry or ICU. I brought each time the gifted two laundered gowns with working strings and a mouth guard (54 ECV). My dentist was getting angry about repairing my front central chipped teeth from ECVs because each repair was covered by his 1 year warranty…so he gave me the type of mouth guard that football players wore.

As Carey mentioned, not all gowns have working strings nor the type of gown with the waistline slit to thread the string through and wrap up your behind.

After my AV node ablation and no more ERs nor admissions, I returned the gowns. They came in handy.

Where I live now, the gowns are superb. They come in sizes when available . They have strong snaps closely placed in the back and they come with a high neck matching bathrobe. ( I HATED the California gowns so “V” cut in front that for my small frame they plunge to my waist. They are into modesty here. Very soft thick cotton too. I am a veteran so I know where the laundry is located to grab a gown with matching bathrobe and matching pants.

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kliving
I understand they are supposed to be "harmful" but they do drain the energy out of me. This has gradually gotten worse again over the past two weeks. My EP has suggested Tykosyn to be the next thing to try. Anyone have any experience with it and PACs? I'm not fond of trying it, but I guess it is the only way to chase this down.

Several of my friends have had success with taurine at a level of 4g/day or more. In this post, there is a link to a paper from a member here in the mid 2000's by George Eby [www.afibbers.org]

There are other papers I've found and experimented with the protocols, but they are a little more "out there" so haven't posted on them.

I have tried taurine, and it did seem to help, but it did make me tired. After looking up interactions with it, it seems that it does have some with Diltiazem. So I stopped taking it, I need to follow up with my EP on it.

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kliving
I understand they are supposed to be "harmful" but they do drain the energy out of me. This has gradually gotten worse again over the past two weeks. My EP has suggested Tykosyn to be the next thing to try. Anyone have any experience with it and PACs? I'm not fond of trying it, but I guess it is the only way to chase this down.

I don't know if you already took note of this, but ectopics in regular pattern (bigeminal, trigeminal) may be related to calcium intake. It's my case, and other people have talk about that too.
For some, excess calcium may even lead to AFib. I think GeorgeN has mentioned that several times.

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Pompon
For some, excess calcium may even lead to AFib. I think GeorgeN has mentioned that several times.

In my case, excess calcium "lowers the bar for triggers." Meaning that situations that are never triggers can become triggers when my calcium intake is higher. As well "no trigger" afib, which almost never happens for me, can become common.

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GeorgeN

For some, excess calcium may even lead to AFib. I think GeorgeN has mentioned that several times.

In my case, excess calcium "lowers the bar for triggers." Meaning that situations that are never triggers can become triggers when my calcium intake is higher. As well "no trigger" afib, which almost never happens for me, can become common.

Yes I have noticed also that dietary Ca+ leads to increased probability of AFIB. 5 years ago, I cut out all foods like dairy that have high amounts of Ca+. Just last month, after maintaining NSR for 18 months, I got complacent and undisciplined, and started eating foods with moderate Ca+ levels for 2-3 weeks. Then an Steriod Epidural injection triggered my AFIB. It's a little hard to believe that just innocently eating a certain type of food can cause such a potentially harmful issue, but this certainly appears case for for me.

How is it going now? I Wanted to check in. After two years of PACs, I felt terrible and had some structural changes and changes to my ECG. After ablation, I cannot believe how terrible I felt for so long (as evidenced by the stark contrast to how I feel now). Hoping you find relief.

My heart beat is returning to normal today, finally. But my heart rate is jumping up/down even when just sitting still, and I am extremely dizzy. I do suffer from some vertigo, but the medication hasn't been working well. Which is leading me to think it might be related to something else. The goal tomorrow is to call tricare and over to the base to see if they can get me into an appointment and clear out more common things. Hopefully they can make a recommendation for some local doctors they use here. I recently moved and haven't gotten doctor's setup yet.

The ectopic beats might be able to get under control with a medication increase or a complete change. That is beyond my knowledge level, but I do have room to increase the propafenone. I have been dealing with this since Jan 2020 with AFIB that started as persistent. From what I/we can tell, the ablation I had in Sept 23 took care of that for now. The ectopic beats and a few other things they diagnosed in June become more noticeable after the ablation. Now I am going on about 14 months with that, and it is now wearing me out.

I was really happy when I made it 3 months with no major occurrences, and then it seems to have started all over again. I was hoping to make it until after the new year, before having to find new doctors here, but I guess it is time to start now.

It is good to hear that you are doing better now. Keep up the good fight and positive attitude.

taurine, & l-arginine and & l-citrulline in pac pvc reduction.
L-arginine and l-citrulline are nitric oxide boosters - see article on taurine

[pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]