Every other beat for 4 hours, when is it in need of medical assistance?

Posted , 8 users are following.

I was used to Ventricular Tachycardia, "cured with an ablation last year, but my ectopic beats are getting more and more frequent, though the cardiologists say at least its not forming VT. But this evening, for four hours now, every other beat. They are strong enough to make me feel as if my back is rocking, and little explosions sending shockwaves each side of my groin. (Click on picture to see ECG I just took).

0 likes, 26 replies

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  • Posted

    If you are the peter who can’t take beta blockers then my previous mail is no good! As they caused your trouble I remember . Hope you can get it sorted , if you are in uk what about contacting York cardiology, dr Gupta seems to specialise in arrhythmia 
  • Posted

    Hi Peter I had 2 ablations last year for ectopics with limited success I also had them every other beat for almost 2 years I was put on 50 Flecainide x2 a day and Nebivolol 2.5 once a day in December and they have gone! I am back to work now but thought my life was over anything is worth a try for quality of life.

    Good luck Ingrid

  • Posted

    I had very bad ectopics when I was on bisoprolol for Svt, I came off it 6 weeks ago and feel much better, I still get odd ectopics.  I decided not to have an ablation because I have only had 3 bad attacks needing adenisone in a year and because I am 71 I don,t want my heart messed with unless they get worse.

     

  • Posted

    So I wore my record-able Oximeter last night to see what my heart was doing whilst asleep. The blue graph is heart beat. You can see how it is up and down all night long, what I discovered happens, is the device doesn't measure ectopics, so if my heart beat is 80, and every other beat is a PVC, it will record heart beat as 40, so my heart beat was probably fairly constant, but the night long ectopics confused my machine.

    I have a Reveal Linq implanted loop monitor in my chest which tells the hospital what is going on. I shall receive a call from them asking how I felt, (sickeningly ill), they will pass the information on to my cardiologist who will do nothing. I see her again in June, its every six months, we will have a chat and then she will give me an appointment for another six months!.

    • Posted

      Peter get a private appointment with a Electrophysiologist they will be able to give you more information a Cardiologist is not keen on ablation in my experience.

      Best wishes Ingrid

    • Posted

      Cheers Ingrid, I am actually under the care of two hospitals, St Thomas' for heart failure, and St Georges for my Ventricular Tachycardia I had, the St Georges Cardiologist is a Electrophysiologist who successfully stopped my VT with an ablation. I am not sure what is happening now though, I see both Hospitals once every six months whilst they see I am worsening and not a lot more it seems?. It was my pushing that got one of them to refer me to a Neurologist who confirmed I had Autonomic Instability thanks to the beta blockers I was on a year ago!

    • Posted

      Hi Peter.

      Sounds terrible what you've had to go through.

      I took bisoprolol for one week(5mg). 12 weeks later I'm still feeling withdrawal symptoms. I had 7 weeks of severe headaches and chronic fatigue. After about 8 weeks I had a fast heartbeat of 100bpm. This was followed feeling chronic anxiety(constant), palpitations and adrenaline rushes.

      These have calmed down in the last few days but I still don't feel right. I went to a cardiologist after about 7 weeks who said the problems were a result of bisoprolol and that I would get better, but I'm still feeling it. I'm also at St George's.

      What makes me angry is that doctors have told me the dosage my GP gave me was too high. I also went in after the first day with problems and my GP didn't take me off them. Then when I went in last week my GP said the symptoms I was feeling was because of stress! Even though I've never felt this way before and the symptoms only started when I started taking the pills.

      I have improved in the 12 weeks since I stopped though. So hopefully things will get better. I may need the details of your neurologist at some point though. I will see how improve over the next couple of months before I pursue things further.

      I've been in to hospital a number of times feeling terrible and with a rapid heartbeat. The doctors(including my GP) haven't been much help. My cardiologist and one other doctor said it was bisoprolol. Two other doctors and my GP have not. Doctors don't know the effects of the drugs they are handing out. Scary.

      Any thoughts or advice are most welcome.

    • Posted

      Hi Steve, is your cardiologist at St Georges Dr Sohal? When I saw him a couple of weeks back he told me that he spoke to another patient about me who was also having the same Bisoprolol induced symptoms, I wonder if that's you, if not it means there are three of us at least just at St Georges.

      Dr Sohal is one of those rare doctors who will actually listen to you and consider you a sentient being who knows their own body, One of my GPs said to me "you wont find a doctor in the country who will say Bisoprolol is to blame", even though I since found an American medical equipment manufacturing company for the diagnosis of Autonomic Neuropathy that states one of the things that cause i is beta blockers. 

      One of my cardiologists at St Thomas' was quite aggressive in his defense of Bisoprolol, saying its pure co-incidence my symptoms arrived on the same day, he suggested the feeling of breathlessness was that maybe I had lung cancer!

      Hopefully your symptoms will subside, one guy here said it took him 9 months to get over Bisoprolol, I think I am overtly sensitive to them, St Thomas' did state that after I had been on them a couple of months I had an anaphylactic shock allergic reaction to them.

      If you do find yourself in the longterm position of I, you can certainly quote or even contact me for confirmation of what might be behind your symptoms. When you seem to be the only person to have ever suffered so, they like to think there is something mentally wrong with you, saves them money arranging tests if they can blame it on your anxiety.

      I even had one guy write to my GP claiming I had hypochondria, I think if that was the case I would have been ringing for an ambulance every single day when I was going into Ventricular Tachycardia which I knew can kill you, and they insisted I call an ambulance when it happened, but I just ignored it and  would carry on working on my car all day, thinking it will stop when I go to bed.    

       

    • Posted

      Hi Peter. It is Dr Sohal. I found him to be very good and he said my symptoms were a result of bisoprolol.

      I did go to A&E at St Thomas's once after about three weeks after I stopped it. I didn't find them helpful. They said it couldn't possibly be the bisoprolol. So disheartening when it clearly is the cause. 

      It's very worrying that doctors behave this way by ignoring the facts. It's clear a lot of them don't actually know what they are doing and just making it up as they go along.

      I keep trying to point out that all of these symptoms started on exactly the same day I started taking it, so how can it be coincidence? 

      You're more than welcome to get in contact with me if you need me to back you up.

      I've been through hell. I feel seriously let down by our health system.

      Good luck with everything Peter.

       

  • Posted

    This is a bigeminy , bear in mind tat the ectopic beat is unlikely to facilitate an effective contraction. Also the interval between some of the complexes is fairly narrow. If this is a new rhythm for you or you are symptomatic (ie shortness of breath, lightheaded/fainting or chest pain) seek immediate advice at hospital. 
    • Posted

      Bigeminy is a new rhythm for me, previously these were every third or fourth beat since my ablation for VT, and I never had the feeling something was shaking my back for me either. I did get a call from St Thomas' hospital about it as I have an implantable loop monitor. They will pass the info to my cardiologist, and maybe the June appointment will be brought forward but I doubt it.

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