Skipped beats

[Kev707]

Posted on here few weeks ago with 2 bad spells of ectopic beats the longest being 3 hours, I since then went 2 weeks without any but they have since came back but worse, I'm currently on holiday and on Tuesday night they started again and I'm still getting them now maybe 2 or 3 every minute I'm am so scared and don't know what to do ? I was at the doctor last week about the last episode but she couldn't explain why this happened and put it down to something I must of had to eat or stress, but surely they shouldn't last this long? I'm worried I'm going to drop down dead

[trus75]

All I can tell you is that "2 or 3 every minute" is not something unusual. In most of cases, it means absolutely nothing because the ectopics are not a specific symptom of any disease. There are some conditions which will cause more ectopics, but if you have no heart issue they're not dangerous, just annoying. Not sure if I said this before, but some people live with 10, 20, 30 ectopics per minute for days, weeks, years and the ectopics don't kill them. On long term, they can cause damage to your heart, but only if they are VERY frequent (like 10,000+ a day). Anyway, I would suggest that you ask for a Holter to monitor your heart for 24 hours, so you can know exactly what kind of ectopics you have

---------- Post added at 10:35 ---------- Previous post was at 10:30 ----------

By the way (an this is just a personal opinion based on what I read), people who have ectopics caused by heart issues usually experience them in a more consistent and regular pattern. The fact that your ectopics come and go and you feel nothing for a few days is a good sign that they are caused by some external factors (stress, anxiety, food, gastric problems, etc etc)

[Kev707]

Thank u for taking time to reply it's just so scary as I've never experienced anything like this before and I'm 33 for it to start now is strange

[trus75]

Yes, I really understand you. They have to start some day. Mine started when I was 18 or so (I am 40 now), and I also get scared when my PVCs assume a new pattern, but I am getting "used" to them. Just one month ago, I've experienced a completely new symptom, PVCs in bigeminy with fast heart rate in stressful situations (every other beat a PVC, it means that if your HR is 140, you will have 70 PVCs in a minute). And just like you, I also panicked a little about it, I have repeated the tests and 2 cardiologists told me that I am perfectly fine and this new form of PVCs were most likely caused by anxiety and stress...

But I really understand what you feel, it's almost impossible to feel these weird things and accept that they are harmless.. That's the reason why I suggest that you ask for a Holter, so they can catch them and tell you that they are harmless indeed. I'm 99.99% sure that this is the case, but sometimes all we need is a doctor to look at our exams and tell us that we can be relaxed about it... (after I went to cardiologists, those episodes almost disappeared. I still feel them once in a while, but very rarely now)

[Kev707]

It must be horrible having them for all those years, I thought I had my anxiety at a manageable level as I was at the cardiologist 3 months ago and given clean bill of health then bang these things started! My heart rate isn't even fast when they happen 60-70 Bpm just hope they stop soon as it's ruining my holiday I'm scared to do or go anywhere, was close to King to hospital last night

[trus75]

Yes it's really bad, but after feeling these things for years, you start to accept that they are harmless. In certain periods of my life, I managed to even ignore the PVCs (I would feel them, but simply accept as normal). They were not making me anxious anymore. What scares me are the new patterns (for some reason, PVCs like to present themselves in several different ways over the years).

And I also understand when you say that you scared to go anywhere, it happened to me so many times. But just try to be positive, I know it's not easy, but it's possible. Taking some deep breathes for 5 minutes can help you to control the anxiety aswell