nice visit with cardio today

Reviewed data from my event monitor last month. A couple times a week I get a very irregular pulse, sometimes for just a very short time, sometimes longer. The short times are easily ignored, the longer ones are quite unsettling. His conclusion was no evidence of underlying heart disease, a very normal sinus rhythm most of the time, and nothing life threatening. I average a little over 300 PVCs a day and usually don't know it unless they are clustered together in a "run". He gave me a script for Metoprolol and suggested taking a single dose if and only when I am having a run of skips and PVCs. Other than that just learn to live with the symptoms unless they were to become much more severe. He also said he gets them himself and knows what a lousy feeling it is, but there are no easy solutions. So I am gonna suck it up and keep on trucking full speed ahead > I may give up Pasa Dobles, Argentine Tango and Quick Step dancing for now (haha that was bs) and cut back on highly strenuous sexual activity (and ya that ain't happened in years either) but at least I'm still hitting the gym and feeling great for my age. No more Mister Whiiiinnneeerrr!!!

3 Comments

Bill - stay away from the meds...

by donr - 2014-01-04 01:01:18

...for 300 PVC's per day! That's about 12 of them per hour! That's Peanuts! (& I don't mean Jeff Dunham's Dummy!) One every 5 minutes. I have them at a rate of about 1 per minute or 3 every 2 minutes. Using Meds on your rate is like killing flies w/ a sledge hammer.

I take Meds, but that's because I'd be running at a rate of roughly 30 per minute.

Unless you have a lot of days w/ long runs, stay away from the meds, also. Those Meds do not build up to a therapeuticly useful value for several hours, & if IIRC, Metoprolol takes about 4 hrs for HALF of the dose to be metabolized by the Liver. So it takes about 8 hours for enough to be metabolized to drop its concentration below what it takes to help, This means that if yu take a single pill, it's at least an hour before it will help & another 8 hrs before you're rid of it Send Ohiolaura a Pvt Msg about her experience w/ Metoprolol & its side effects. They are nasty.

Bottom line - if you can tolerate them stay away from Meds at this point.

Don

Don't over react

by BillMFl - 2014-01-04 02:01:17

If you read what I said carefully the meds are specifically for the days when I am having significant runs. I said the daily average is insignificant. But mine tend to come in clusters of two or three days in a given month. And I have taken Beta blockers in the past for very high blood pressure without any bad side effects and my Cardio knew that. So thanks for your concern but if a single pill tamps them down for the several days a month they are a problem I will happily do so. What I would really like to know is what is triggering the runs on the bad days. I limit my caffeine, don't drink any alcohol and all my labs are normal. Stress is all I can think of as a trigger so please don't add to my stress level Don. :)

I will confirm that...

by donr - 2014-01-04 09:01:48

...stress can cause PVC's, Happens to me frequently. I have never drunk caffeine or alcohol to any extent, either, so can rule those out, also. Likewise, I only sense long runs, but only to remark to my wife that I'm having a run.

After reading what you said in your reply, all I can say is do not make searching for the cause of your runs into a "Quest for the Holy Grail." That, in my first person experience, will cause you the very stress you want to avoid.

If I stressed you out, I apologize. The way I read your OP, I sensed a man searching for a quick & dirty solution to a problem whose magnitude is "Nuisance," as opposed to "Debilitating." I've been to the "Debilitating" level of PVC's before (Defined as about 30% of my beats being PVC's for hours on end). Even for that the Meds solution is pretty miserable, but I had to find a balance between problem & solution.

Don

You know you're wired when...

Your ICD has a better memory than you.

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