Repost: PVCs all day, every day
Posted , 2 users are following.
Hello,
I am a 63 year old male. This PVC started all of a sudden 2 years ago. At first, this only happened for 20 to 30 minutes where I would have a missed beat after every 2 or 3 or 4 beats, but then it would stop. But the frequency of missed beats gradually increased, and now I have PVCs all day every day. After every 2 beats I have a missed beat, and this happens day and night without stopping. Sometimes, it becomes less frequent after 5, 10, 20 beats, but it returns to the 2 beat pattern again. When this happens, I have a lot of pain in my chest and it feels like a stabbing pain, and sometimes when I have too much PVCs, I feel suffocation and light feeling of shortness of breath. Sometimes when I have pvcs, I feel light stabbing pain but not the shortness of breath. whenever I go to the doctor, they tell me I have PVCs in my ECG but the oxygen level is normal and that this is benign. My chest x-rays, blood tests, echos are all normal. I even had an angiography, and everything was clear. They say not to worry about the condition, and try to forget about it.
If anyone is able to share more of your experience with me, it will re-assure me that other people are experiencing the same thing as me and reduce my worry. Thank you.
0 likes, 1 reply
wikiJon feroz76105
Edited
My sympathies. You are not alone. I have been having frequent PVCs for over 2 years now, and I'm only in my early 40s. It worried me greatly as I have a terrible family history of heart problems, so I decided to get it checked out. I wore a 24-hour holter monitor which reported an ectopic burden of 13% of all beats. The cardiologist explained that <5% is green, 5-10% is amber and >10% was red, so my rate was excessive. However, I was not displaying any symptoms and the echocardiogram did not reveal any structural or functional issues apart from minor regurgitation. Based on that, my arrhythmia was deemed benign, however I was told that my excessive rate of PVCs could lead to heart damage in the long run if left untreated. We established that it wasn’t caused by alcohol or caffeine, so I was given the choice of medication or ablation, and I opted with meds as a first measure. I was initially prescribed Beta Blockers but they did not work, so I moved on to Flecainide which has improved my condition significantly. I still get PVCs but much less than I used to. So I'll be keeping an eye on it. Anyway from what I've been told, if your rate of PVCs is >10% then it needs seeing to, so I would try and get the docs to prescribe you medication or put you forward for ablation.