Are PVC's Ever Serious?

Hello Friends ~
It has been since November 7, 2013 that I received my pm. I had the initial PVC's that I believe come on just after pm implantation (correct me if that is incorrect). PVC's started again yesterday and stopped after awhile and now I am having them again. It has been about an hour and a half...no pain, no shortness of breath. If this is not serious is it just that i will experience them from time to time? I had them before the pm but now I seem to have them more often. Please advise. Thanks!

3 Comments

Ditto

by Ck - 2014-03-17 06:03:11

I agree with Duke. PVCs are a major inconvenience, but typically that is all they are. People who don't feel them have no idea how disruptive they can be.
I'm assuming the doctor told you the things that can make them worse: fatigue, caffeine, stress.

Pay attention

by Duke999 - 2014-03-17 06:03:17

Pay attention if those episodes of PVC lead to Afib or not.
If not and you can live with them, then it is what it is.
However, if those PVC's lead to Afib or some kind of arrhythmia episodes, then seek help from your EP or cardiologist to do further investigation. I wish you well.

Duke

Are They ever serious? Depends

by donr - 2014-03-17 06:03:23

Everyone does NOT get PVC's. Yes, they are relatively common , but everyone doesn't get them.

They are fairly common for normal people before they get a PM & they are fairly common for people who NEVER get a PM in their entire life.

I am assuming that you know what a PVC feels like. Even further, that you know what a run of them feels like. A lot of people talk about them, think they have them, but cannot describe their sensation.

Stray singles are benign. I had them frequently (I thought) after I got my PM implanted. I got all excited about them & when I had my first checkup, looked at the report & saw a number of PVC's in the thousands for the report period. I freaked out - temporarily when my Cardio didn't even grunt when he saw the number. He asked me if I realized how many times my heart beat in a month. I guessed a Million, just to pull a number out of the air. He said in return - how about approx 3.5 MILLION. So I ran the numbers for a constant 60 BPM for a month & it's darned close to that number. Suddenly, a few thousand were meaningless, percentagewise. Then he said for the first time "Don, PVC's won't kill you." To which I responded with a disbelieveable "Oh," & went on to another subject. He & I continued this little pas de deux like a pair of ballerinas for several sessions, almost like we were following a script. Then I heard it from his head nurse & his EP associate. "Don, PVC's will NOT kill you." I'm still here & that was ELEVEN yrs ago, so I guess they won't kill me!

Now that I've finished my sermon, let's talk a few facts. They won't kill you - BUT - they will:

1) Scare the crap out of you when you do not know what they are. I can tell you to the minute when I had my first one & exactly where I was & what I was doing - it was that dramatic. (Standing in a shared kitchen in a Bachelor Officers Quarters at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD at 2120 hrs, 15 March 1977, drinking a can of Coke while BSing w/ my neighbor. I thought my heartr had stopped.)

2) Make you feel like they will kill you if their frequency is high enough. Just before getting my PM, I had a run of Bigeminy PVC's that lasted several hours. (Bigeminy is a HR pattern where a couplet of any two beats is repeated. It can be a NSR beat followed by a PVC - mine was that.) It made me feel so drowsy that I almost did a faceplant into a bowl of Pasta at a restaurant. I felt more lousy than I ever have. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but you get the point. After I had my PM for a number of yrs, I had an increase of them that made me feel so bad that I could not walk further than a hundred yds w/o stopping to rest. SOB was common for me at that point. Never felt like I was going to pass out, just drowsy.

3) Significant numbers of frequent long runs can lead to further Ventricular High Rate events. A fancy term for V-Tach & V-Fib. Unfortunately, My Cardio has never further defined how many PVC runs that is or how long they have to be. I'll leave that for someone else to answer.

I think that the source of the PVC's has a big influence on their significance for creating further VHR events.

In conclusion: If all you are having is a bunch of singles, don't sweat it.

I have found that before they become an influence, they have to exceed 33% of your HR over a reasonable length of time. Others may suffer them differently & feel severely affected when they reach 25%.

No way to predict when they will occur - with reliability. Try when you are tired, stressed out for starters.

But to quote my Cardio "They won't kill you!"

Donr

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