skipped beats or ectopic

[twilightgecko]

my heart feels like it's skipping beats.. a pause in the normal beating.. not sure if this is ectopic..

i'm 53 and had them off and on all my life.. usually brought on by anxiety or fear.. lately they have increased.. i stopped all alcohol & caffeine a few weeks ago, not one skips for 5 days.. then increasingly getting worse.

yesterday & today, it's near constant.. perhaps a skip every 5 to 10 beats.. i've tried many relaxation techniques, tried stimulating the vagus nerve [this always worked in the past].. well, its so bad, i took 1/2 a xanax. thinking this would tell me if it's mental thing or a physical thing.. my brain feels relaxed, but my heart is skipping just as much.. i don't feel anxious..

my heart is NOT racing, my blood pressure is 130/90.. slightly high, but i'm worried.. i'm 5 foot tall, 100 lbs.. get regular exercise.. not feeling light headed or anything.. but this constant skipping is really starting to worry me..

3 years ago i did a nuclear stress test, got told my heart was healthy., they've never caught a skip on an ekg..

i don't feel it merits an ER visit, and GP is a month away.. so, if i go to the walk in clinic [none open tonight, have to be tmw].. what will they do for me?

what is my problem? does this sound like an arrhythmia? a friend with AFib said it seems different.. argh.. i'm exhausted..

also, i guess.. if this was some hidden anxiety, shouldn't a 1/2 xanax fix this???

thanks for any comments.. new here, new to this aggressive heart skipping..

[Ceelos81]

How you feeling today? I’m going through the same thing but mine all feel different. Could be a skip or a hard thud or like a flutter. I have so much anxiety over this

[twilightgecko in reply to Ceelos81]

Today it has lessened.. still skipping but it's softer and not nearly as much. I still don't know if it's some kind of anxiety. I took a Xanax last night.. slept well and refreshed and woke up feeling some better. It doesn't bother me if I can stay distracted.. I'm sorry you are dealing with this too.

[Ceelos81 in reply to twilightgecko]

Does yours feel different too? If so how? It seems as if mine come on at lower heart rates like when I’m laying down or sitting relaxed

[Contra21 in reply to Ceelos81]

Me too

[twilightgecko in reply to Contra21]

yes, always when i lay in bed at night to sleep.. i never get the racing heart.. at night, stimulating the vagus nerve helps.. like coughing hard, plugging nose and breathing hard, like trying to pop your ears..

my severe bout has ended.. it lasted 3 days.. with skips every couple beats to skips about every minute.. it was exhausting..

it's hard to tell when it's in my heard, or if it's something physically happening with the heart..

i did take a xanax, got super relaxed, slept hard and woke with it mostly gone.. so i gotta wonder how much anxiety i hold inside, without even knowing it..

hope you are feeling well

[Padayn01 in reply to twilightgecko]

I get skipped beats which is horrible but I have had an abalation 16 weeks ago

[Jfelder]

Sounds like PAC’/PVC’s. I am 48 and a long time endurance athlete. I have them on the order of the thousands everyday (stress or no stress). Have run every test in the book. Tried some weak calcium channel blockers...did nothing. I am told essentially I need to live with it. Though when my heart does it and I am aware of it (which is most all day every day) it can be terribly unnerving. Doctors all say they are benign if your heart is deemed structurally normal. But I have trouble believing I have 1000’s of them daily this is leading to a good place! Also having no recourse and having to live with the endless symptoms is tantamount to a death sentence. So far I have found zero solution.I feel your pain!

[twilightgecko in reply to Jfelder]

sorry.. the 3 days episode was like that, 1000's in those days.. hard to relax.. now i can still feel a few an hour, but they are faint.. and i quickly distract myself, as i think it must be anxiety driven..

i'm trying to eat a banana a day now since i read that potassium helps.. i am sitting on a vitamin pill of potassium/magnesium.. wonder if i should take that.. always paranoid to take new stuff..

question: you said you are an athlete.. how does strenuous activity effect it? i haven't run in a week, kind of scared to right now.. but when i was doing a few minutes of jogging, it seemed to stop while the heart was pumping harder.. then back in after i started to rest..

[twilightgecko in reply to twilightgecko]

i'm still trying to figure out what activity does to affect the episodes.. i want to be more physical, but as soon as i start, i think i get nervous and my heart skips a bit.. hmm.. body or all in my head?