ectopic beats and i'm alone

[pi_panic]

hey there ..

I'll just dive right in:

I've suffered from panic attacks for the last 21 years, they've gotten better as I've gotten older (now 34) and a daily dose of magnesium has all but cured me.. but now my stupid old brain is focused on my palpitations.

I've always had them - usually not so many - maybe 1 or 2 a day (that I could feel) or maybe just once a week. Last year (going through a stressful time) I had 30 or so a day and was pretty much disabled (sleeping in bed for 5 days at a time) unable to work..

Since then I've made some positive and radical changes to relieve the stress. I still go through 'cycles' as I'm sure many of you do as well. Sometimes I'm just more sensitive and 'fragile' than others..

Lately though my single 'skipped' beats have shown a rather nasty face - I've had three or four 'multiple' skipped beats.

Normally they're when I'm just hanging out at a bar, or sitting at home surfing the net. Maybe lasts about 5 seconds - long enough for me to say 'o sh*t' stand up and head for the door (I guess heading for the hospital).. It feels not like a skipped beat but like my heart is sort of gone crazy for a few seconds - I cough hard as I've read that can calm it down..

After 3 - 5 seconds it returns to normal - not sure if it's the coughing, the adrenaline dump or something else.

It is WAY WAY WAY scary though, and it really ruins my life - like I said; this is my fourth one - but I know for the next week I'll be living in fear of another one, won't be able to have any fun, and be waiting to drop dead.

20 years ago i wore a halter monitor and the doc said i had mild ventricular fib - but nothing (at that time) to worry about...

The problem is about 2 weeks ago I saw a show on TV where young people were keeling over dead because their heart got stuck in a jumbled mess of electrical signals and they couldn't stop it.. Since then you can believe I've been going nuts with anxiety and helplessness.

I don't have these while working out on the elliptical (I can do 45 min at a time), I do have them when my body seems to 'reset' itself - after strenuous sex, or excitement - when i start to calm down I'll have a palp or two..

But it's these new multiple (3 or 4 in a row) that really scare the hell out of me.. anyone who has the same I would love to hear your stories..

I'm alone tonight and crazy nervous..

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pi_panic]

and let me add that i never have slow or fast beats, and these don't make me dizzy or light-headed, just that the rhythm get's out of control.

I'm not in an area of the world to get to easy medical care - it would take me a 4 hour plane ride (and two hour taxi) to get somewhere with good care..

So I can't really just 'go get checked'
;)

[BeltaineInchy]

As you'll see from the postings on here, nearly all of us get ectopic heart beats. From the way you have said it, it's not clear whether your multiple ectopics are just that (sort of beat-beat, skip, beat, beat-beat,skip,beat-beat, skip) which are just multiple ectopics or a flutter where the beats are very rapid and shallow, the latter is fibrulation.
I've had one fibrulation which lasted about 5 seconds and the doc didn't care particularly so I gather it wasn't serious. I have had grouped ectopics quite a few times. My record is about a dozen ectopics in a minute, but from what I've read on here that's just my personal best, others have had a lot higher so must have been skipping every beat or every other beat.
Fibrulation isn't even that serious I don't think, although my former boss had his heart reset using a defibrulator a couple of times when he had episodes that lasted over 15 minutes. Incidentally he retired and stopped getting episodes - they were purely down to the stress of work.
I know you said that it isn't easy to get a medical check-out but you probably should try if it is fibrulation you are getting.

I know you're not going to like it but alcohol does not help, at all, so the fact you get them in the bar isn't suprising I'm afraid. Main thing to remember is that ectopics don't hurt, they don't kill or disable, they're just an annoyance. I'm trying at the moment to simply ignore them. They happen, I notice them and then get on with what I'm doing. I'm not saying it's easy, or that I'm being as successful as I'd like, but certainly I am less stressed by them.

Hope this helps a bit

Inchy
...
/|\

[Amy2Crazy]

Hi pi panic!

I am also 34 (today!) and I got my first ectopic a few months ago, and that is what started this whole mess of panic for me. A few weeks after that first one, I was at work and started getting this weird feeling of beat, breathless, hard beat, and it lasted for about half an hour, then went away. Later that evening, it started again. Several hours later I went to the ER. They said that they were PVCs (premature ventricular contractions) and told me that they were harmless. They were still showing on the ECG when they discharged me 4 hours later, and were still going when I went to bed that night. They were gone when I woke up the next morning, and I've only had one other episode like that, where they went for hours and hours. My doctor says they are almost always harmless, and every medical professional I have spoken with seems to agree. I do have a friend who is a RN, and she also has ectopics. She told me that even one alcoholic drink can trigger them, so I have completely quit drinking. I will likely never ingest alcohol again, because I am always so scared that they are going to start up again. Just know that you are definitely not alone in this, and try not to watch or read stuff like that, as it will only serve to scare you worse!

Hope this helps,
Always,
Amy

[yanksforever]

I understand your feelings. I had 3 straight flutters and I felt like there was no hope in life for me. I also get about 1-2 skipped beats when it does happen.

You have to understand that nothing is actually wrong with your heart and there are people who get these for hours upon hours and aren't dead. As I am saying this to you, I am worried about my own heart even though, like your's, mine has always been fine!

It takes a lot more than this to hurt a person. There are people out there living with heart disease and holes in their heart and very high cholesterol. When you get this, don't think about it for too long. That gets your body nerovus and anxious and then BAM- your heart starts doing various weird things and you begin to get the urge to google...and that gets you on the verge of insanity.

Just relax, you're fine.

[angiebaby]

I have been having 'missed/skipped beats, ectopic' whatever you want to call them for 13 years now. I used to get them after my second child was one year old and they never bothered me and came infrequently. Since then they have increased and i get them daily. The amount varies from 1 to lots and lots and they still get to me even now. I have had hundreds of ECG's all of which have been normal and have had a 3 day holter monitor which just showed sinus tacchycardia and sinus arrhythmia, both of which are normal too. I mostly get single ectopics beats, some light and some heavy enough to feel like someone has just kicked me in the chest! Some things can make them worse, i don't drink alcohol and stay away from fizzy drinks most of the time. Sprouts, mushy peas and beans i have noticed with myself, can aggrivate them, ?gastro/wind as i have been told that they are linked to the gut and vagus nerve. I can no longer have a bag of revels as they seem to aggrivate them, don't know why but they do, lol. I had a bag of bacon flavour wheeto crisps for the first time in ages the other night and paid for it big time, lol. I used to be chewing gum a lot, don't have much anymore. Strong mints can also make a difference. Tea, coffee and nicotine and also being tired makes a difference.
I have runs of multiple ectopics too which i agree are very scary indeed. I feel like my heart has suddenly gone completely out of sinc and is beating in a most irregular way and it takes my breath away and scared the hell out of me. I have coughed on many occasions, some help but most don't. I have had run's of these for quite a while and been terrified that my heart will never go back into rhythm again and this is it, my time is up! But it does flip back to normal and go away again.
I know what it is like and i know how scary it is. I wish i could find a cure or at least something that would take them away for a while so i could relax a bit more. There should be a control knob on Adrenaline, lol. Then we could control how much our bodies get and keep it at an acceptable level. Either that or have it removed, lol.
Feel free to PM me if you want to chat. I know what this is like to go through.xx

[Albert Couture]

I get the occasional heart palpitation. But this one night, when I was taking antibiotics for a skin infection, I had a solid minute of irregular heart beats! Up until that night I had only ever had 1 or 2 mistimed beats in a row. I can still remember running for the phone to say some last words to my parents!

A few years later, after my first panic attack, I got an echocardiogram done. Everything checked out fine, and this is what comforts me when I get another scare. It's still frightening when it happens, but you have to remember that people have survived a lot worse.

[pi_panic]

It's been a week, all your advice has helped, during the week I've had a few palps (skipped beats) per day - not many (2 or 3) usually when I'm 'coming down' - like after I do some house-work, have sex, or just relaxing.

I'm pretty cool with the palps - I've had them for 20 years I have to learn to live with them.

I've been feeling REALLY run down lately, I drink way too much alcohol and live a sedentary lifestyle - haven't gone to the gym in 8 months (I'm in early 30's - a little overweight - not obese) I took a slow swim in the pool tonight and was just generally anxious about the state of my health.

Finished my swim, no problems, came into the house, sat in front of the computer, totally normal heart rhythem - and then BOOM here it happens again - it's hard to describe, not just a normal palp (which feels like a missed or stalled beat) - but instead it feels like my heart races, or a series of quick thumps (a galloping horse?) it doesn't exactly feel 'fast' just a series of hard thumps like my heart has lost any kind of ryhthem and is going wild.

It lasted just as long as the one last week (and the one 6 months ago) long enough for me to stand up, cough a few times (I heard this helps) pound my chest, and head for the door (presumably to go to the hospital) maybe 5 - 8 seconds and then it's normal again.

like i said, i'm not concerned with palps - but this new 'run of palps' or 'heart gone crazy' does concern me. I have no faintness, flushing, pain associated with it - just scares the heck out of me.

it could be do to my alcohol intake, general anxiety, lack of healthy lifestyle.. but my real fear is that it just wont stop and i'll drop dead or have a stroke.. any help?

[Leroy]

Wow I could only wish to get them less often, I have ventricular eptopic beats and the dr put my a beta blocker, cause I had them so regular and I could actually make self go into veb just by slowing my heart rate down. The dr says is nothing to worry about, but if I miss one tablet or if I ran out, what happens is my breathing becomes laboured, I fight for every breath and my words don't come out right, I have take more time to say things and I fins that I yawn a lot, which I heard was your heart not getting enough oxygen
?? I am not sure that is just normal, as I should not have trouble breathing, also in bed when I get veb really bad, it makes me shaky and I feel twitchy and jerky movements. And a lot of time I get random beats that are not meant to be there, like I feel a beat in my chest, that feels like i have been beat from behind in the back, I get these a fair bit, in my chest, in my throat, I read here that these beats are fine, but I do not think I should be going through this much as all of you seem to have minor problems associated with veb ???