Multiple Ectopics And Pauses

[tilly]

I have been having multiple ectopic for seven days now, they have become very frequent i measured 33 in three hour period they seem to be persisting, even getting them during the night, some are quite hard thuds and take your breath away , some seem to be joined together like doubles, some dizzyness .....

i have had ectopics before but randomly never lik this ...

i have been to the doctor today they are going to do an ECG, later this afternoon .. has anyone else experienced having so many ectopics over this time period , i do not know if they will stop of there own accord, they seemed to be triggered by an emotional upset last week, we had a berevment ...

please let me know if any of you have experienced this ... i have IST - pots,

thank you tilly x

[sj75]

I have these as well and get really long runs of them sometimes that make me feel really unwell and it can sometimes go on for a few days. My cardiologist has says just to try and take it easy while it is happening as they arent dangerous in themselves but if they make me feel like im going to pass pout or am short of breath then to seek medical attention. Mine sometimes turn into af which i find more unpleasant but also gives me the pausing thumping feeling so i would definitely get the ecg done if i were you just in case they are not ectopics.xx

[tilly]

To follow on from my earlier post this mornign, I have had an ecg done at the doctors surgery and as you would guess for the 30 seconds of the ecg i did not have an ectopic if ectopic are what they are ... so no real answers there !!!.. i am still very symptomatic with them coming every minuite or so ... any advise would be great anyone ???

[nmorgen]

Last year I was getting pvcs like this. It seemed almost constant and they were strong enough to knock the breath out of me. I was put on a monitor for a month. My cardiologist told me that they still weren't close enough to be ventricular tachycardia, thank God. I could have been put on a beta blocker, but they really mess with my asthma, so I didn't want that. I was also a little dehydrated, so that could be your problem. I still get them, but not all of the time. I also found that coughing helped to stop them when they started getting bad. If you are worried ask to be put on a monitor to find out how close they really are, and try to keep hydrated as that really made mine a lot worse. Good luck and I hope you feel better.

[flop]

Hi Tilly,

sorry to hear of your berevement and the horrid time you are having with the ectopics. I think that you are right about the link - any kind of emotional upset can mess up the autonomic nervous system more than usual. This also makes you more aware of things like ectopics that you may not have been aware of previously. Anyone remember their heart thumping and thudding before exams???

33 in 3 hours (one every 5 mins) is really quite normal just that most healthy folks wouldn't even notice them. Even one every minute wouldn't be considered abnormal by a cardiologist.

In healthy people the number of ectopics per minute will decrease on exercise. I know that you are severely limited in the activity that you can do but even pottering about the house may help reduce the frequency of the ectopics. Also distraction can help reduce the impact that they have on the rest of your body. It might be worth avoiding all caffine and seeing if that helps (if you haven't done this already for your IST). When lying down try lying on your right side rather than your left as that makes you less aware of ectopics.

I hope the symptoms settle soon, but in the mean time try not to worry about the unplesent thuds as they are not dangerous just horrid to experience.

Hugs,

Flop

[MomtoGiuliana]

I know it is very uncomfortable! I have had days at a time where I have these (or at least notice them) continuously. It is hard to believe it is normal and benign. Maybe try improving your hydration status. You may be a little low in electrolytes.

[tilly]

Thanks you all so much for you help, it's times like these when support from the forum is invaluable, ....

.... i still have then now they have not gone away, does anyone know if there is a difference between the pauses and the ectopics... becasue a lot of them feel like pauses, little hickups in the rhythm .....

it is thumping in my chest(palpitaions) and then it's broken up by a pause every minuite, somtime two three a minuite and them every couple of minuites ... some feel like they are lower below the breast bone and other have been higher just to the let of centre .... and does the lenghth of time it's been going on mean anything ? eight days now !!... Flop i will try to keep mobile and take my mind off it and hope they go away ..

i am just worried becasue they go on an on, they have been relentless for so long !!!!..

how would i know if it was due to electolytes ?.. do i need a blood test ? or is there something i can try myself...

any advice very welcome right now ....

thanks so much tilly x

[tilly]

I still have the ectopics nothing has changed i am trying to ignore them but i have so many ... what is the difference between ectopic beats pauses and missed beats does anyone know ? as they seem to feel the same in your chest ? when i feel my pulse i can feel the missed beat so is that ectopic beat ? i find it confusing ...

i am thinking i should go to get it checked out further ...

tilly

[comfortzone]

Hi ~

It sounds like you are having a lot of heart palpitations.... Off and on in life those can come on very frequently -- then you forget about them cause they just seems to quiet down. Stress etc. can increase them, medications, hydration status, your overall general health and nutrition status - my guess is that the reasons are myriad and changing - but as the others have said they are most always either normal or treatable.

When I was having a lot - I also had a tachy baseline as well...my cardiologist ordered a 24 hour holter monitor that showed the palpitations as isolated PVC's (one type of ectopic beat) - and some short runs of PAT (paroxysmal atrial tachycardia) and some PAC's as well. Nothing to treat really - but just confirms 'yep you are having heart palpitations'

I would think the only way to check them out would be on a 24 hour holter monitor - but even so - frustratingly it can come up negative if you suddenly have a 'good day' in there ... Yet if you are being bothered daily with them - I bet it would show what you are experiencing.

The sensations of these will feel just like you mention - thuds, pauses, etc. But the heart is smart and if you have a run of odd beats - it will have compensatory pauses perhaps after a beat before it initiates the normal one again I'd venture. I'm not sure but did your signature line of diagnosis say you had SVT? If that is the case then I'd get with your cardiologist and tell them you are experiencing rhythm disturbances - tell them what it feels like - and let them figure out if you have 'ectopic beats' or runs of ectopy -- like bouts with SVT ... or something else.... It's too hard to figure it all out yourself and drains you of energy. Good luck to you!

[momdi]

Hi Tilly,

I'll add my 2 cents as a nurse.

First, some people greatly notice their ectopic beats - while some people are totally unaware of them. If I am feeling someone's pulse, they sort of feel like a skipped beat, though a tiny bit different, so I imagine they'd feel that way to you too.

Second, given that this is a new symptom, you need a doctor to be a bit more aggressive in checking this out! A 30 second ECG (and it's actually quite a bit quicker than that) isn't very informative for ectopic beats! While many types of arrhythmias are fine, others are not.

Third, your thyroid can affect this as well, so if that's been unstable in the past, or it can certainly be affected by stress, that should be looked at. OTOH, you might be having thyroid symptoms under stress with the same thyroid test numbers with which you felt ok in the past (less stressful times). Hope that makes sense.

Fourth, a sinus pause is not the same as an ectopic beat. It is literally a skipped beat. In either case, an ectopic beat or a pause, it is not a normal beat, so therefore your heart (and body) is not getting the same circulation benefit that you would get from a normal beat. So if they are intermittent, usually not a biggy, but if they are frequent, then you'll feel lousy - because your heart is not doing its proper work.

Please press for a further workup - maybe a referral to a cardiologist and/or a holter monitor. You need someone to SEE what is actually going on before they can say "ok" or not.

Good luck,

Dianne

[Angeline]

Hi guys,

I have these as well and get really long runs of them sometimes that make me feel really scared and it can sometimes go on for a few days, then just stop for weeks. My cardiologist  says just to try and take it easy while it is happening they are not dangerous in themselves but if they make me feel like im going to pass out or am short of breath then to seek medical attention.  Otherwise just try to go about your life as the ectopic beats  themselves wont kill you.   I have been dealing with this for many years and never really got a diagnosis until a few months ago.