Fluttering heart

[Careful1]

I suffer from PVCS, PACS and sometimes SVT. The PVCS have gotten worse these last three months for some reason but I ignore them for the most part.

Last night I had an episode that scared the crap out of me. We have assigned parking and sometimes there is no extra parking so one of my family members have to park across the street. Last night it happened to be my son and he asked me to pick him up so he didn’t have to walk. As soon as I pulled up to let him in my heart started to flutter and beat very hard and I felt as though I couldn’t breath. The episode lasted for around 10ish seconds. It all happened so fast I’m not sure if I got light headed but I don’t think I did. This episode felt exactly how my PVCS feel even the feeling like I can’t breath only I have never ever had an episode that lasted that long. Normally it’s just one or two at a time.

I do have a loop recorder implanted going on two and a half years now and I rushed home to get the clicker to put a marker in the ECG. I then sent the information over to Medtronic and went to the ER. My EKG was normal, they put me on the monitor for thirty mins and didn’t really see anything abnormal there and took some blood that was mostly normal. They just so happened to have a Medtronic reader that can pull information from people’s pace maker so they decided to use it to pull the info from my loop recorder. They called Medtronic and the tech there said that there was an issue in that no rhythm was captured just my heart rate which is weird and angers me. He said he could see where I marked and went back a tad and saw where my heart rate was 90 and suddenly dropped to 60 for around 10 seconds and then shot back up to 90. I am guessing this is when the episode happened because my heart was not racing it was just fluttering and forceful. The hospital released me, I went home and went to bed. This morning I called my EP’s office and left a message for the assistant that takes care of the loop recorders to call me but he never did and we’ll today is Friday and so I’m really on edge now knowing I won’t be able to speak to someone until Monday and that’s if they even return my call.

I am literally terrified that it’s gonna happen again and that when it does it will kill me or something. I am worried because I have never had something like this happen and I to be honest I’m also a little worried about the increase in frequency of my PVCS lately as well now.

Anyone have a similar event happen? I need to talk to someone because I’m losing my mind.

[Thecyclist]

I can sympathise hugely as I also suffer terrible PVC's in the form of couplets and runs of beats which can be very disturbing. I would say based on some of your other comments re anxiety that it sounds like you had a run of ectopics which you really felt, but probably panicked. This in turn will have released adrenaline and cortisol which will have only heightened that anxiety and worry and make your heart really irritable.

If your ILR didn't record anything worrying and your ECG was fine in the ER then I would think that everything is more than likely all good. Ectopic's of any kind are really worrying to feel, the fact you have an ILR means it is being monitored and normally it sounds like you are fine. Personally my ectopics are also much more at the moment, I am putting this down to general heightened anxiety, in that we are now living in what may seem a very uncertain world and even though we may feel "OK" about everything, our unconscious mind thinks otherwise which in turn sends out l lots of hormones/chemicals in the form of adrenaline/cortisol which tends to make our hearts more irritable. So you feel every beat, bang and flutter, I take 7.5mg of Bisoprolol and I still get adrenaline surges under anxiety!

I would put this episode down to that, seeing as you have suffered or do suffer being anxious, please try not to worry (easy to say I know! speaking as an anxiety sufferer also), thinking and dwelling on it will only make it worse, I am sure you are just fine and the ILR is keeping an eye and anything worrying will be flagged and you will know. If you are able to focus on something else or do something else to take your mind away from thinking about it you should do and I am pretty sure you will soon feel fine! All the best!

[Careful1 in reply to Thecyclist]

Thank you kindly for your response.

The issue is that the loop recorder caught my heart rate but the rhythm did not transfer over so there is nothing on the ECG. There is supposed to be a strip that shows the rhythm but for some reason something went wrong and it did not transfer so all they could see was my heart rate and nothing more. There is no way to know what it was exactly but the fact that my heart rate was 90 and dropped down to 60 during the episode may be a clue. The episode lasted around 10 seconds and that’s exactly the length of time the tech said my heart rate dropped from 90 to 60 for 10 seconds and jumped back to 90. I did have start freaking out after about 4 seconds when the fluttering didn’t stop and you would expect to see my heart rate go up but it didn’t, it stayed at 60.

Something certainly was happening in those 10 seconds and it wasn’t anxiety. I have suffered with anxiety from time to time mostly when I’m going through something medical related and anxiety can certainly cause all kinds of crazy symptoms but this episode was not anxiety.

Thank you for talking with me. It’s lonely going through these types of things with no one to talk to, there aren’t people in everyday life like friends etc that can relate, in my case anyways.

[Smileyian in reply to Careful1]

Careful1, I can totally relate and try to comfort you. I am 77 and have had these types of arrhythmia for more than 40 years - I would give a full response to you but consider the long reply from a previous poster has covered most of what I would have advised. It can be very scary indeed at times. Btw, my resting heart rate is between 48 bpm and 53 bpm hence imagine when I get a cluster of ectopics and then runs of up to 100 bpm. The differential is double the rate. As for rhythm , I have been on Amiodarone for over a decade. Have a look at the forum called ""Arrhythmia Alliance" which covers all your palps in detail. Good luck.

[Thecyclist in reply to Careful1]

Ah I see re the recorder, I thought it gave a reading like an ECG in graphical form. But all you got was the BPM reading.

Re the anxiety I didn't mean to infer that the anxiety caused the rhythm disturbance per se but I am sure you were scared when you felt it. This made you anxious and produced adrenaline as a response this would make it worse and as we all know us lot really "feel" our heartbeat! But also anxiety is a pernicious little beast, I didn't even know I had it for years. But yes for sure you had an event and it sounds like it wasn't recorded. You need to get that addressed also as there could be a fault on the ILR. But I wouldn't worry this weekend, it was an odd run of beats, I also get them now and again, and they are most likely benign like the others.

I can also sympathise having no one to talk to hence this forum and the AA forum are a god send. I tell people about my ectopics and they look at me in wonder, most have never even felt their heartbeat! How I envy them!

Feel free to reach out whenever, I am always happy to talk, it helps me also!

[Careful1 in reply to Thecyclist]

The loop recorder is supposed to give an ECG reading but it malfunctioned and so all the technician was able to see what my heart rate.

[istimewa in reply to Careful1]

I too have a ILR, but implanted 5 weeks ago only. So I know very well the troubles of ectopics, PVCs, AVCs, SVTs & even the more dangerous VTs. Some of my VTs are silent whilst some VTs I am aware of because I feel unwell when they appear.

I agree with you that the ILR ought to have produced the ECG over that 10 secs and not only give the heart rate reading of 60 bpm for the 10 secs. It did not work properly, when the prime purpose of any ILR is to capture the ECG including the rhythm pattern details of any symptomatic episode that you mark with the handheld activator. I hope that you do not experience anymore symptomatic episode over the weekend, until you get to speak to the EP's office at the beginning of the week about the ILR malfunction. Only because you had a symptomatic episode and asked to see the ECG captured for the 10sec episode, that uncovered the fact it did not record the ECG over the episode. What of any silent (asymptomatic) arrythmia episodes happening when you are unaware, and how many of those may go unrecorded too if the ILR isn't functioning as it ought to. You are therefore completely justified to pursue getting confirmation whether the ILR is/is not performing properly. You are not mistaken in this, so don't let anyone fob you off your questioning. Good luck, and be tenacious on this!

[Careful1 in reply to istimewa]

Thank you so much for your reply. How do you feel when you have a run of VT? Do you feel it in your chest? If so what does it feel like? And do you happen to know what your heart rate was during any of the VT episodes?

[Lauriem4]

Ive had this before for a few seconds felt horrible like a feeling of doom I know i do get ectopics so was probably those .

[Careful1]

just wanted to jump on and update everyone who kindly responded to my post.

I spoke with the guy who handles the loop recorder transmissions at the EPs office a little bit ago. He was able to pull up my transmissions and oddly enough he had the actual ECGS from the recording I made on Thursday. I am not sure why the Medtronic technician told the ER doctor that there was no rhythm strip because there definitely was. So basically it looks like an 8 second run of SVT, strange my SVT never really felt that way before but my episodes are normally extremely short and happen incredibly rarely and so maybe that’s why? He first said it looked like a string of PVCS but after speaking with my EPs nurse he came back and said it was atrial. He is having the girl that sets up appointments call me so I can go in and see the doctor but that’s all I really know for now.

I thought he might have seen something else because before he got to the rhythm strip for that day he asked me when the last time was that I had a stress test. I did circle back to that at the end of the call. I asked him if he saw anything else amiss that prompted that question but he said no he just thinks a stress test would be a good idea to look for blockages to make sure the frequency of my ectopics isn’t being caused by a blockage and then the longer run of SVT since it’s not normal for me. I hope they are right in that it is SVT. I don’t want an arrhythmia period but I think I would rather an atrial arrhythmia then a ventricular one, perhaps? Or maybe I mean I would rather it be SVT then NSVT etc

I have been having some strange chest pains and arm pains lately. I think the last echo I had was in 2018 and stress test not since 2017. I also suffer from shortness of breath but I thought it was because I was overweight and I smoke (I know and I am trying).