Hi Everyone,

Sorry I haven't posted for some time but I thought that you would all be fed up with my constant ramblings about the same subject of my weird rythmn, I know my wife is!

Anyway today was my appointment to see Dr Radvan my consultant cardiologist.  Last week I has a 24 hour moniter fitted which amazingly picked up two occasions during the day when my heart had runs of ectopics.  When I went to the consultant he said that he hadn't recieved the results yet!  Great start.  So he is going to write to me with the results.  He asked me what was happening and I told him about the rythmn and that I was experiencing at least once everyday.  He assured me I would be fine and that I would probably live to be 180, which is his standard saying to me!

However I had to take my shirt off and lay on the couch where he took my blood pressure from both arms.  He was concerned about my weight again.  (I'm 6ft but 15stone)  Since I gave up bodybuilding and any form of exercise over 3 years ago you can imagine how the fat has accumulated!  Then he told me that my blood pressure was quite high.  The last two times he has seen me over the past 5 years my blood pressure has been 140/80 but today he said it was high and he was quite concerned.

He wants me to exercise, he reccomended swimming 45 minutes 3 times a week.  I've told him why I stopped exercising because of the millions of ectopics I get after exercise and it still puts me off now!  He is aware of that but still says that I will be fine and I've GOT to exercise!  I've also got to get a blood pressure moniter and randomly check my BP at different times of the day for two weeks and write it down then send it in to him.

He then asked if I was claustrophobic, which I said I was and I wondered just how he knew that from my heart symptoms!!  But it was simply because he now has another idea.......  getting me in for a CT Scan!  His words were, I know how we can nail it, we can get a CT scan done!  But he has said he won't do this for definite but will study the 24 hour tape and make a decision then.  

I asked him about Atenolol as I have been off Bisoprolol, another BB for a couple of months now and he said he doesn't like Atenolol as it is not selective and he would be happier if I wasn't taking any drugs at all.  He then said you know that I can get rid of this for you and I said yes I know you can, you can burn some of my heart muscle away.  He said yes I was right but he doesn't want to do that because of the dangers involved.

So I am now left a bit confused and a little worried.  He doesn't seem to be bothered about these runs of ectopics that I experience now everyday but thinks I should have a CT scan?  I've had virtually every other heart test there is to have so I guess that's yet another one to add to the list.  Also he seems more concerned about my high BP than anything else which he says could be due to my lack of exercise for so long and slight over weight or it could be to do with this new rythmn.  I guess I must just wait for him to write to me about the 24 hour moniter results and see what he advises!

RLR what do you think?  Does a CT scan do a better job than a TEE?  Why do you think he would be thinking of doing a CT scan?  What other conclusion do you think that he could come to after analysing the 24 hour moniter, considering that it actually caught two episodes?  Finally why do you think I have got high BP when I have never suffered from this before in my life?  Could the high BP be connected to this new rythmn and also could it be sinister in some way?

I know I'm worrying again, but you know me!  

Thanks all of you for reading my post and I hope RLR or anyone else can give me some answers to my questions.

Best wishes to you all

Richard

Dear Dicky boy
Hope this helps but I have seen my cardiologist for the final results last night and after 7 day monitor, stress test and a heart ultrasound. he says yes that I am getting multiple ectopics frequently but that worrying increased them and keeps them coming. It's really hard not to, but that is what we all need to do.  And if it makes you feel better (it doesn't make me feel any better! - I don't get runs of ectopics just once or twice a day but every minute I have a run of ectopics. Not that this is a competition at all, but your symptoms sounds actually not too bad - i would be delighted if my ectopics were only once or twice a day. So if I am fine, then you definitely are!!
I can't imagine why he is doing a CT scan - is it of your neck / back. perhaps he is looking for an injury that may have caused inflammation  - I guess anything can have a knock-on effect?
best of luck

Thanks Kathryn, Beadbabe and Saab for replying to my post.

Kath, I didn't look at it as a positive visit until I read your post!  Usually when I see him he just says I will live to be 180 and has all the tests right there in front of him and he just tells me it's benign and I've got to exercise.  I guess in a way he did just that yesterday but because he hadn't got the moniter results and now he's talking about a CT scan it makes you worry a little.  But as you say there cant be much wrong if he thinks I should go off exercising for 45mins 3 times a week!!

Thanks for the tip about BP moniter on Ebay, I'm quite an ebay fan and do lots of buying and selling on there but I never thought to look for a moniter.  However today I went to my local Lloyds pharmacy and they are doing a proper electronic arm cuff type for just £9.99!!  It should be £45.00!  so I bought one and have already checked my BP once and it was 128/77 with a Heart rate of 67 which I didn't think was too bad!  Anyway I will check it randomly over the next two weeks and record all the results.  Thanks for your help and advice.

Hi beadbabe, thanks for your post.  It must be really difficult to cope having so many multiple ectopics all day every minute of the day.  I really feel for you. I have had that happen to me a few years ago but fortunately it only lasted a few days and then I started taking beta blockers and it eventually subsided.  Flare ups like these have happened quite few times in the past where I have been getting 30 to 40 a minute continuously.  But this rythmn that I get seems different and it has been increasing in frequency over the last few years.  It seems now that I only get an odd isolated ectopic and then sometime during the day and sometimes two or three times my heart will pop an ectopic and then it will do a weird tiny beat like an atrial ectopic I guess then another then a normal beat then a few more and then maybe a ventricular ectopic until it finally goes back into a normal rythmn.  I've oftern wondered if this carried on continuously would it be any different to what you are experiencing?

I find it hard to accept that this is just worry or anxiety that makes it worse or increases the symptoms although I know that in some way it must be.  It's just such a depressing thing to have to put up with all the time and it must be even harder for you having continual multiple ectopics as you have been having.  Has it been happening for 8 months did you say in one of your posts because that seems such a long time to have them all the time, I don't know how you deal with them.  I wish we could all find something that would stop them once and for all.  

I think that the CT or Cat scan as they call it is to scan my heart because I've looked on the internet and that's one of the organs they scan with it.  It brings back some very detailed pictures but I don't know if you have to have die injected first.  Apparantly the CT scanner is like a big dognut and you lie very still inside it until they have taken all the pics.  I have had an MRI done on my brain some years ago, ( I needed my head testing!) It was for blurred vision, but this is done in a long tube and because I'm claustrophobic I was worried for weeks before hand but when I got there I managed to have it done because they put a cage thing on your head and special glasses that act like a periscope that lets you see out of the tube as if you head was tilted up so I managed to get through it.  I don't think the CT Scan will be quite so bad because it's bigger and not so deep!!!  He says until I get there and freak out!

Hi Saab

I'm now trying again to get my diet back to normal after having done a few detox diets and then going mad and eating everything that I could get my hands on!  I will try and get some exercise started as well!!  We've got a massive trampoline in the garden which we have had for years and I still haven't used it much with the kids!  I get on there and after 5 mins I'm shattered!!

Anyway best wishes to all of you I will keep you all updated

Thanks for your posts

Take Care

Rich

Hi Rich,

You got a good bargain!  ( I also like e-bay) I do not know if this will help, but my hubby is worried about his weight, and last year he run regulary short distances to start, he lost quite a bit, (don't know what happened, hasn't got good will power when it comes to things like that) I've said to him, I love to go for a run but my heart would hop skip and allsorts also I'm slightly asthmatic and I'd end up getting a taxi home!   But he has said he gets missed beats when running, he just doesn't take any notice! I said are you sure and explained what I get and he says yeah thats what he gets, just doesn't think about it, and when he gets home his heart is beating so fast and hard you can see it!  I think we just think far to much about it.  I made him leave out chips etc too.

Your BP was ok,  not sure if weight and height etc.. have much to do with individual BP's but I'm 5'5" and about 9 stone, and am 27 my BP has normally been about 120/70 or 110/60 and was last time I went I think.

Hope you and your family have a nice day tomorrow, wonder if I'll get to put my feet up all day!  I doubt it, but a nice thought, hopefully when the children are older the're understand mothers day a bit more!

Take care

Kath x