GP thinks it might be AFib, now I'm confused

Hello, new here. I'm a 48YO overweight female. I have suffered from cyclical ectopic beats for the past 18-20 years. They can come out of nowhere and last for weeks or months and then disappear just as quickly and can be gone for 6-12 months before returning. My doctor years ago told me that this was a benign condition, avoid triggers that will set you off and ignore them unless having accompanying symptoms. Prior to the flare up I developed 3 weeks ago, my flare-ups would usually consist of 5-15 ectopic beats in an hour and last for 1-4 weeks.

We are currently under the most stress we've ever experienced in our married life. We are in the process of a move across country. My husband got a job offer and they graciously agreed to wait 6 months for us to renovate our house so that we could sell easily and get top dollar. So for the past 6 months we have worked 40 hour-week jobs, followed by every evening and all day every weekend renovating. We have lived on take-out during this time and nutrition has been abysmal. I also developed a severe case of acid reflux (due to all the junk food) that lasted over 2 months and lived round the clock on tums and pepsid. At the same time, we are building a house in our new state and making all arrangements  long distance. My husband just transferred this week and has left me behind to sell and pack the house... AKA, HIGH STRESS for an extended period of time.

So it was no surprise 3 weeks ago when a new cycle of PVCs/PACs started up. These were the worst I've ever experienced with upwards of 6-8 per minute. Some days they would ease and I'd only have 15-25 in a day, other days were well over a 100 an hour. I immediately cut all caffeine, wheat, sugar and went back to a heart-healthy diet. I also started back up on a cocktail of supplements that have helped in the past (Magnesium, Potassium, COQ10, B-Complex, Taurine, Zinc). Not surprisingly, the reflux stopped immediately upon the healthy changes. I also started walking 30 mins a day before work (not that I really had the time to add more to my schedule). Also, I might add that I have a panic disorder, so I lean towards a lot of anxiety regardless. I am also on 40mg Benicar and 5mg of Amlodipine a day for high BP that is controlled with the meds.

Over the last 2 weeks, I have noticed that twice during this current cycle that I'm in that my heart did what I would call the jitter-bug and then raced at what I can only describe as a normal, but very shallow and fast rhythm. By jitterbug, I would say instead of Lub-Dub, Lub-Dub, Lub-Dub, it felt more like Dip-Dop-Dippity-Dippity-Dip-Dop for about 5 seconds (like it couldn't find a regular rhythm, then raced at about 150 beats a minute. This racing was not erratic, it was definitely rhythmic, just fast and to me it felt shallow (like maybe my heart was only contracting half as hard as it usually does). The first time I was able to stop it by holding my breath and bearing down. The second time I ignored it to see what would happen and it lasted about 4 minutes then I felt it release and go back to normal. Both times it happened I had been walking around a store at a fast pace for about 10 minutes prior. I have only ever experienced this same scenario once before about 6 months ago while putting on make-up before work, that time it lasted about a minute and stopped with a couple of hard coughs. At that time, I was NOT in a PVC/PAC cycle and that hit me out of the clear blue. However, the dip-dop-dippity-dop flip flop in my heart I have felt probably 3 or 4 times a year for decades now and it was never followed by any racing before now.

Of course, wouldn't you know, all my symptoms magically stopped last night (the night before my dr appt), so we decided to hold off on the holtor monitor for now due to having worn one 4 times prior during the past 15 years that has never once caught an episode of any kind of cardiac arrhythmic episode. If my cycle has ended, it will come back normal. I promised to come in and get hooked up if it starts back up. My EKG done in office was completely normal and my heart and lungs sounded good. I'm going for blood work up tomorrow morning.

My GP feels that I have been experiencing periods of AFib. Being on PVC/PAC forums in the past, many people have described having SupraVentrical Tachycardia (SVT) runs after PACs and have often said that if your runs feel like a regular rhythm, not erratic it's probably not AFib, it's probably SVT. I thought I would try over hear and see what I'm describing sounds like AFib to those of you who suffer from it. I doubt an event monitor will catch anything if my flare up have stopped for now since I have experienced these weird burst so infrequently over the years and they last for such a short time. I am going to make an appointment with a cardiologist for follow up regardless, but I just want some "insider" input in the meantime. Thanks so much in advance!

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