PVCs for months

[Bedlington14]

What's the longest time any of you have had episodes of PVCs for? I've been having a flare-up for just over 2 months now, ever since I had an infection (unrelated to the heart). Seeing a Cardiologist on Wednesday. I'll be interested to hear your experiences, I need reassurance. Thanks.

[Bailey2004]

I’ve been having them as well as PACs on and off since my AF ablation in Apr 2022. I find them just as debilitating as the AF and have been making major lifestyle choices over the last year which has helped partly but stress of work is my major trigger now. I went for an ablation for PVCs in Jan 2023 which didn’t work. My EP said he could be chasing them continually so have opted to not go for further ablation and carrying on with Flecainide for now with plan to try reduce stress levels. Also lost 2stone in the last 8 months and now a healthy weight.

Hope you find resolution.

[Bedlington14 in reply to Bailey2004]

Hi, thanks for your reply. I've been taking Flecainide and Verapamil daily for 10 years and it's worked well, until recently. I'm beginning to wonder if these PVCs will ever stop . Glad to hear you're successfully changing your lifestyle.

[Autumn_Leaves]

A year or so ago I would have described myself as having “permanent ectopy” ie all day, every day. Earlier this year it settled down a lot. I had a 24h Holter and was surprised that it was showing 3000 a day because I thought it would be a lot less, so it’s all relative to your “normal” I suppose. Then I went down with Covid and that kicked off the ectopics and AF. There’s definitely a viral connection for me as that’s how it all started, years before AF happened. It makes sense as the immune system will mount an inflammatory response to infection, but for some that inflammation will provoke arrhythmias. I don’t know what the answer is. Cardiologists don’t really see ectopics as anything more than a “nuisance”.

[Bedlington14 in reply to Autumn_Leaves]

Hi, thanks for your reply. Since writing this post I've seen my Cardiologist and he's happy the ectopics are not sinister. He's convinced they were triggered by a virus I had earlier in the year - he said viruses irritate the heart cells, so you're right in what you say. Anyway, the ectopics have calmed down a bit now. Hopefully they'll stay that way. My 7 day holter showed 5000 ectopics, it seemed like a lot more. I hope yours settle down. Good luck.

[Evaluna]

Encouraging to know they can settle. I have had them for nearly 40 years but been worsening and the last year has been worst ever. Have had days when they have been in the thousands but most day probably hundreds. Its not the single ectopics , it 's the bigeminy and SVTs that really get to me. Bisoprolol seemed to help initially but not so much now so am trying to wean myself off. I understand they are benign but so difficult to carry on chatting, shopping or whatever when ones heart is leaping about like crazy. Just makes me nervous.

[Britomartis29]

Well, in 2014 I had a few but was told not to worry about it. So it can go on a long time. This past week--that is 9 years later, with them getting worse all the time but no one doing anything until I insisted aggressively on testing--- a Holter monitor showed 23,460 PVCs in 23-1/2 hours! With this comment:

2. Premature ventricular complexes were noted singly, paired, bigeminal pattern, trigeminal pattern, (112) runs all seen at 3 beats with the highest heart rate seen at 148 bpm, and in (4) runs of non-sustained VT 4-5 beats with the highest heart rate seen at 129 bpm. There were 23,640 PVCs recorded with a PVC burden of **17%**.

3. Premature supraventricular complexes were noted singly and paired. There were 8 PACs recorded with a PAC burden of less than 1%.

4. A total of 30 symptomatic events were noted, which included sinus and sinus tachycardia. Ventricular ectopy was noted in 29 events. The heart rate varied from 85 to 162 bpm.

What am I to make of all this? I can't be seen again by the cardiologist until 28 December. I am on no cardiac medicines, but I take plaquenil for lupus and standard thyroid medicines T4 and T3. (I'm slightly undermedicated so we've established it's not too much T3.)

What does it all mean? (other than my heart is bumping around rather a lot)

Does anyone have advice on what to do to calm it down, until I can get some medicines? Obviously no caffeine or alcohol. I was told I had myocarditis in early 2023 but this doesn't sound like that fits.

Any advice for me?

So yes, they can go on a long time.

[Bedlington14 in reply to Britomartis29]

Hi, that's a lot of PVCs. You ask what to do to calm them down, I've taken Flecainide together with Verapamil for 10 years. They seem to be effective. I hope your Cardiologist can shed some light on this. Have you ever been offered an ablation?

[Britomartis29 in reply to Bedlington14]

I am supposed to go back on 28 December so maybe something will be prescribed then(?). I'm glad to know that there are things that can be taken and/or done to make it better. All this bumping around and chest-shaking beating can be unsettling. I have not been offered anything yet, no meds or ablation, except a brief email saying that they need to investigate further with a cMRI on 28 Dec (my third now). Thank you for this!

[Jonp]

I have had pvcs for 15 years, usually 100s a day which does not bother me, sometimes days of 20,000+ which is unpleasant.I know for certain that there is a connection to air in my oesophagus, stomach and bowels.

Recently I have learnt that I have EHS, electrohypersensitivity, which has many symptoms including irregular heartbeats. We live in a soup of low level radiation from WiFi, phones, masts etc. This got worse when I spent months researching online to find out the cause of my stomach and pvc problems!!

Plenty of advice online for EHS but get a wired connection first! Most doctors here in UK haven't a clue about EHS.

[Britomartis29 in reply to Jonp]

That is fascinating. I have no digestive issues, but I have strong wi-fi, internet, and cellular phone service. I'll check that out, thank you.