Hello Rich - just reading through your last post when you are describing this strange rhythm you have been having.  I've been experiencing a very similar thing - I have been having pvcs/pacs for a few years now - and like you they have been isolated in nature, albeit sometimes they can be as much as a few a minute.  But over the past say, 6 weeks I have been getting these sort of irregular rhythms much as you have desribed gettings - they start with a sort of skipped beat feeling and then seem totally irregular really before finally going into a very fast tachycardia (which I don't think you had).  I have gone back to my cardiologist and he has given me an event monitor to catch exactly what is happening -he said it could just be a bunch of ectopics with some normal beats in between before then going into svt but obviously can't be 100% certain so has said let's see what we catch.   I have had the monitor a week now and only managed to catch a few seconds of something - you know I really want to experience the funky rhythms I've had before so I know for sure what is going on, but by the same token, I don't ever want to have one again because they are so scary.  Anyway I will let you all know what happens!

Take care everyone
Helen x

Hi RLR,

Thanks again for yet another reassuring post.  I am very grateful for your replies and your enormous understanding of the phenomena that a lot of us on here experience.  Believe it or not I am a very logical, rational person with a sound scientific mind.  If you knew my profession I think you would be surprised that I can be so irrational when it comes to affairs of the heart (so to speak!)

I have suffered the frightening feelings of my heart missing beats, thumping, racing and beating irregular, like many others have, over the years and have read so much about why it happens.  I know full well that it is related to anxiety, although it never seems to happen directly when I am in an anxious state but will come on as if for no reason at some other later date.  Again I know this happens to so many other people too.  What I didn't know until I read your posts is that it is related to the Vagal nerve and this explains a lot, especially as I used to suffer from IBS many years ago.  

Also I see a pattern emerging when reading posts on here and on similar forums.  People who experience frequent benign ectopics nearly always have some form of anxiety problem or experience gastric activity or IBS, sometimes they have all three!  I sometimes wonder was it the chicken or the egg or rather does the onset of asymptomatic ectopic beats predispose someone to develop an over anxious nature related to their heart or do only already anxious people happen to feel their heart and worry over every single irregular beat!!

I know that I have always been prone to some irrational anxiety when I was a kid and now in my adult life I am just a bit of a worrier.  I am fully aware of the results of the tests that have already been carried out and the excellent prognosis I have been given but the 'change' in the type of rhythm and ectopic beat is what has led me to worry once again.  The odd isolated ectopic here and there doesn't bother me in the slightest anymore.  But I do understand when you say that the weird rhythm is still simply benign ectopics and they have just taken another form.  

I am also very aware that since they started almost 3 years ago I have totally given up all forms of exercise for fear of 1000's of ectopics for hours after. Which is what I was experiencing after running three miles three times a week at work?  This led me to seek out my cardiologist once again and put me off running totally.  I have also taken beta blockers for those 3 years, I have put on weight and I am three years older!!  I'm going to be 43 this year.  So I do realise that the body changes and that this is probably yet another change but I find this run of beats much more difficult to get past because it feels so very different to what I am used to, hence the alarm that something has changed.  

When I get the odd skip here and there it's no problem but when I get a run of them every day, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day I can't seem to relax about them.  To me they are getting much more frequent and when it happens I don't know when it will go back into normal rhythm.  Also you can't miss them happening.  I feel sure that even I miss the odd ectopic now and again; I don't even notice them, even though they are still happening.  But even if you miss the first couple of beats with this rhythm you'll darn well notice all the others!

I have an appointment with my cardiologist on March 16th and he is arranging an event monitor just to identify what I am experiencing.  In his letter he tells me that I have an excellent prognosis, being that they have more cardiac data on me than most people in the population!  He says the mitral valve leak is so minimal I could probably live to 180!  He's got a good sense of humour as you can see!  Anyway I will let you know the outcome of my consultation and the holter monitor results.  

Since writing on this forum and corresponding with you I have been able to relax more about these runs that I am experiencing.  I am not so morbid about them and if anything just getting a bit annoyed with them.  I guess there isn't really anything anyone can do.  They will hopefully subside in due course once I stop focussing on them.  I still think it's very strange in the way they have developed and how they have increased in frequency.

I guess I'll never really get to the bottom of it and I don't think there is a suitable answer.  The trouble is my analytical mind always tries to find the logical answer and I don't think there is one.  The bottom line is my heart is structurally sound and providing this rhythm is just another benign one then I will have to forget about it and try as hard as possible to ignore them!  I know that’s going to be easier said than done!  

Anyway thanks again for you valuable support, I am very grateful for your advice.

Best wishes

Richard