Was this afib? A Pac? A Pvc? An Ectopic?

For a while now I have been noticing occasional (every 2-3 days-ish?) skipped beats or double beats.. or something, but then by the time i check my pulse my heart is back to normal, or especially if i take a deep breath it seems to break it and reset my heart back to normal...

Just now I noticed one so decided to not take a breath and see if I can feel what it is... Its hard to describe, but it was faster, like fluttery, im not sure if it was irregular or not. For 1-2 seconds it continued, and then I felt the blood rush to my head, felt a hot flush and had to take a deep breath - this stopped it and my heart went back to normal straight away. My friend, sitting with me at the time noticed me go bright red for a couple of seconds then back to normal...

Can anyone tell me what this is? And if I should be worried about it? My doc frustratingly told me I was pretty normal and it is normal for your heart to go a little higher sometimes... this didn't feel very normal to me

(I made another post recently and I have had 2 heart ops, one when I was aged 2, and one a year ago. The one a year ago was for mitral valve repair, and I have been largely free from complications until this last year when I suffered irregular and fast heart rhythms since surgery). I am trying to figure this out and see what I can do about it..

Many thanks,
Dan

Hello, Dan. our old friend Marshall used to post that he was having pacs, pvcs, abcs, xyzs, and eieios. That still makes me laugh, and it is a good catchall for the various things your heart can be doing that is not NSR, but not quite afib. There are a lot of terms for this kind of minor misbehavior [not forgetting bigeminy, trigeminy, and maybe jiminy cricket could be in there too]. Your doctor shrugs them off more easily than you because [a] they have never happened to him and his textbook when he was in school said these events are harmless. He cannot tell you exactly what they are because by the time you get to him they are not happening for him to observe, and of course he cannot put any weight in what you say about them because you are just a patient and he has been taught to call your experiences anecdotes.
Welcome to afib, a very frustrating condition to have.
PeggyM

Wow, yes, I can really relate to that about the doctor not believing me or shrugging it off and saying I'm normal.... but.... so does this mean they wont develop into something else? Or they aren't a sign that if I start doing more psysical activity (even just naturally as part of every day life) that something worse will happen or theyll get stuck like this or send me into real palpitations?

Hi Dan,

I'm not a doctor or even close, but maybe I can help you with a couple ideas.

First I would make sure your getting all the nutrition that your body needs especially magnesium. There is a lot of good information on this web site about that and you can track what you are getting or not getting on www.fitday.com its a free sign up.

The other thought is if you really want to know whats going on, you can find a doctor that will get you a monitor to wear that will record every beat of your heart.

A little bit of good news, I know a couple ppl that have a few blips once in a while and they never got any worse... usually it was after a lot of caffine or a meal with a lot of msg or other chemicals, or during a lot of stress.

I'm sure a lot of others here can help you here with good advise and maybe other ideas.

Best of luck to you Dan and keep us posed from time to time,
James

Im currently upping my magnesium levels, im only 300mg a day now (just stepped it up to that today) I thought it was really helping my heart stabalise and stop being so varied until this incident today... maybe just a bit of good luck and placebo effect so far, but im going to keep building it and get on the potassium and then taurene too - slowly add them one at a time.

I am also really trying to sort my nutrition out, although I am a notoriously bad eater, but ive added peas, carrots, corn, green beans to my diet, as well as salmon and trout and egg, and also trying to cut out as much wheat and dairy as possible, but I used to live on cheese sandwiches, cereal, and toast so it's tough But it's working, I've lost over 20lbs in the last 3 months.

I've had a heart monitor, but it was on a good day and there were no weird happenings in my heart so my doc thinks I'm fine, although I have convinced her to let me do an exercise test so hopefully that will show something - think im having that sometime within the next week or 2.

Thanks again, I love this forum
Dan

Dan,

In my experience, PVC's feel like "skipped" beats in the radial pulse, because the PVC beat doesn't pump much blood (so is not felt), but for the next beat, the ventricles are over full, so it feels like a "hard" beat. PAC runs on the other hand can feel very fluttery or like a squirrel in a cage in your chest.

Per say, none are harmful. Some people have huge amounts of PAC's without afib. That being said, PAC runs can lead to afib.

Like James says, I would suggest optimizing your nutrition, electrolytes & etc. to try to minimize them.

Also see:
<[www.afibbers.org];

George

"does this mean they wont develop into something else?"
Another gray area. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't, and nobody is real sure which is what. But some doctors seem to find the words "i don' t know" real hard to say.The kind of doctor who will be best able to relate to all those ectopics is a cardiological specialty in aberrant heart rhythms, an electrophysiologist, called an EP for short. Could your doctor refer you to one? unless you live real deep in the tules like William and me do, your local yellow pages has a section in it under physicians that lists various specialties, and electrophysiology should be one of them. Also the local medical society has a referral service, and it is advertised in the yellow pages. Tell them what kind of specialist you need, and they will try to find ones reasonably close to where you live. in my case the nearest one is either in thre Portland area on the other side of the state, or else more likely in Boston, 3 states away. Where William would have to travel to find an ep, i just do not know. My Canada geography is completely faulty.
PeggyM

Dan, you had a heart monitor for one day, but if you can persuade somebody to leave one with you for a longer period you may get somewhere.look in the yellow pages for the number of the local medical society's referral service. Go see an EP.
PeggyM

I'm based in the UK, my cardiologist had a meeting with an EP on my behalf and they decided that right now they wouldnt want to do an ablation as my sympotms are not that bad - but then again she wont believe / listen to me about these mini episodes or that my HR is generally a bit higher at all times.

I think I will seek out another one, but probably in a little while - when ive either had more episodes / I've also given nutrition / supplements a good chance to make a change just so that I can tell them its been happening over a longer period or I can maybe pinpoint the cause a bit more, or see what helps.

I am doing an exercise test soon while hooked up to an EKG so this might show something, I think I will see what that shows and if nothing still then I might ask to wear a holter for a few days in a row.

Just frustrating, and a little scary