I’ve been having daily sporadic episodes (for the past few days, many times a day) of bigeminy. I try not to think about them but I can *feel* them, & they don’t resolve quickly. I’ve tried mostly all the intervention strategies (except getting into a cold shower) but no luck.
Why am I getting so many of these?
Are they hurting my heart? My electrophysiologist is unavailable right now, with no one covering for him —but he always pushes ablations.
I. Am. Frightened. … & feel I am NOT a good candidate for ablation & my EP respects that.
I don’t have coffee or tea or soda or or artificial sweeteners or alcohol, I don’t smoke or use “street drugs” etc. My daily meds are a blood thinner, Flecainide, metoprolol, a statin & a pill for blood pressure. I’m 74 & been diagnosed with obesity.
Please I need some handholding. Please help me with kind words. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of info about this from people who are walking the same path I’m walking..
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I think that you may already know this, but losing some weight would make you feel so much better. I lost a stone (14lbs) in weight through illness and my goodness I can tell you I rarely suffer with AF these days. I then kept my weight down by cutting out eating too many biscuits, cakes and sweets. When I'm eating a meal and know that I'm full, I stop no matter how lovely what I'm eating is. My stomach capacity has shrunk now and I couldn't eat a large meal if I wanted to.
I also have to add that I've never really been overweight, but I didn't like what my bathroom scales were telling me.
Are you getting any exercise? If not start by doing some short walks and gradually build up to doing more.
Wishing you well, it will be interesting to see what other people recommend.
Ectopics like this are common and largely benign though I know they don't feel like it. Weight loss is the best medicine really but beware diets don't work. only life style does. Do try the slow deep breathing, using diaphragm and slow to less than six breaths a minute for five minutes or longer.
How do you know it’s bigeminy and what kind if premature beat is it - ventricular or atrial?
Ectopic beats are not deadly, even if coming in patterns of bigeminy, or trigeminy, even less so if atrial. Triplets and couplets of ventricular origin are a little worse and can make you feel breathless but they’re still not an emergency.
To help ease your mind, I can have over 10,000 ectopic beats a day and I’m fine. Perhaps reach out to your doctor if they continue. You’ll be ok. I definitely understand how they feel but I don’t stress too much as I know my heart isn’t going to stop beating because of them.
Although you are in the USA you may find the answer I gave to a recent post helpful. As we have the NHS EPs are less likely to push ablations that are unlikely to work as there are eligibility rules for the procedure. Ectopics are very uncomfortable but ‘better’ than AF. Think of this as a kickstart to lose weight. Big big hug 🤗
Thank you everyone, for your very kind replies and encouragement and suggestions. I very much appreciate this website and the kindness of people on it. if you can spare a prayer for me, or more than just one, I truly appreciate it.
I am 62 years of age and have had ectopic beats for 10 years. Mine are often as atrial bigeminy sometimes 1000s a day. As others have said, relax, do some deep breathing and try not to concentrate on them. They are often caused or increased by eating too much, too quickly or moving around straight afterwards.
My cardiologist isn’t concerned about them and even though they can be unnerving at times, try not to stress over them. Just keep in your mind that they aren’t doing you damage.
Go onto YouTube and look for Dr Sanjay Gupta or York cardiology. He will definitely help with the anxiety. He’s brilliant.
hi, I suffer from bigeminy when my adrenaline is high, I’m quite symptomatic with it, I end up dizzy and like I could faint. Initially I was given metoprolol as a pill in the pocket before things like public speaking where I know my adrenaline kicks in. I have now semi retired and so manage without taking any tablets. PVCs don’t bother me although I can feel them but bigeminy certainly does. If you are symptomatic then medication may be an option.
I have the same reasonably frequently and much more. No - you are safe from harm. These originate from the upper part of the heart and the effect on the ventricles, whilst not pleasant, is harmless to the heart and to life. I am awaiting an ablation for my AF and the ectopic beats, however, and have been told to be hopeful of success. They are unpleasant to put up with and you have my full sympathy.
Below is a recent ECG that shows the ectopic beats well. They feel little different from AF to me. Having been reassured about them, however, and had a recent MRI to confirm all is well, I cope well enough with them. It comes and goes, as, I guess do yours?
I gather it's not something that is "triggered" by this or that as such, and as people seem to think (and reasonably so), but a weakening or disturbance of the cellular electrical mechanism (more specifically disturbance of the ion transport of sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphate... ... phew), often down to age, but can be from the atrium being "stretched" from hypertension, overweight, distension of the abdomen, hardening and calcification of arteries and the like.
If you are obese, you must lose weight. Eat smaller healthier meals and plenty of fruit and veg and do what exercise you can manage. I can’t manage any anymore but I have never been overweight because of healthy diet with no meat or dairy (and luck with genes!)
Are you under usual stress? I get them when my stress level is more than I can take which I have a hard time to control, as so much is out of our control. Currently our adult son had to move back home, Long story, but he is a ranter and a raver and he has a stressful job. I understand and I get it. Now my husband is a very quiet man and he can't stand it but complains to me which then I feel the stress from both ends. I have been holding up fairly well through all of this however, yesterday, trying to get some insurance issues straight I had to call into the company and got a person that was hard to understand and she kept telling me what I was trying to do was not the right thing to do and I knew that person was wrong. That added to the stress level. Customer service is not what is was when we were young. My husband is no help with computer websites and such so no help there but to ask questions that are meaningless. We finally got things straight but I felt like I was in battle for hours. Yep later when I tried to rest I felt a weird sensation and a bit of dizziness and I thought here we go. Surprisingly nothing more came of it. Did I mention we just swore in an idiot to run our country? Which he is already messing with our medication costs.
I said all that to say this: I have been reading up on deep breathing and meditation which I have a newer respect for. some of us are higher strung than others. We have to take the time for ourselves to unwind those tightly wound strings before they break.
Adding this— I live with two other family members also in their 70s, who have mild cognitive decline. If I don’t take care of things, they don’t get done and then there’s a bigger problem (stress!) for me putting things to right, that they’ve messed up in their attempts to help.
When I was first diagnosed with Afib and heart failure a 2+ years ago (75 yrs old), I too felt very lost, alone and scared. Had leg swelling and fatigue reactions to the metoprolol that caused discomfort and concern. I too was not a candidate for ablation for similar reasons you have. Also diabetic, low thyroid function, fatty liver.
The stress level was tremendous. Read everything I could get my hands on to learn what I could do to help myself. Had to make hard realistic choices and life changes. I could barely walk in my house with a walker without becoming weak and breathless. Sat in my chair most of the time. Was house bound for 10 years.
I found this site and read many accounts from kind hearted people that encouraged, educated, and helped me calm down. I saw what worked for many and learned from others mistakes. Helped me to make the needed changes and to stick with it when my “mind and body” tried sabotage me from doing what I needed to do. We can be our own worst enemy. People here are kind and understanding and want to help.
It sounds like you are doing good things already. I had too had to begin slow, to learn what changes I needed to make in food choices, to make myself move more, to gain the confidence that I could improve my health. Helped me calm down.
Long story short, 2 years+ later, my metoprolol and eliquis dose is half. Still have my health issues (and some extra beats here and there), but all are better. Off all diabetic meds, blood sugars in normal range, (monitor my food to keep it normal), I have lost 100+ lbs. I can now walk 3 or 4 days a week for 45min to an hour outside with my upright walker. I can do light housework, wash dishes, do some easy cooking, dress myself. Get out of my house to enjoy some life.
So be patient with yourself, learn what changes need to be addressed, then make those changes one at a time, learn from others here. (Their mistakes and successes) If I can be of any other encouragement, I would be glad to. You can successfully have a better life. (Not perfect, but definitely better) Cheering for you. You are not alone.
LadyLost, thank you so much for sharing your personal story and victories with me! It’s certainly motivating to have such kind replies from everyone, including you, who seem to walk the same path as I do in terms of age, weight, and infirmity.
Hi, I'm new to the boards and just posted about my bigeminy. Same boat, doctor says Im not a candidate for ablation as my pvc burden isnt high enough, I'm 6% of my daily beats in bigeminy. I can deal with the bigeminy its so uncomfortable though. When my heart tries to break out of it's rhythm it goes into some real funky beats sometimes, like its trying to get out of its bigemy pattern and goes haywire for a second. I guess I need to take comfort in knowing many others suffer from these horrible things. If the doctor suffered from them though I guarantee they'd be asking same thing we are, make them stop!
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