Zarion
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Posts: 6
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A couple months ago, I had a significant run of what I would later learn to be ectopic beats. After noticing pronounced thumps and a very erratic pulse, with numerous missed beats, which carried on for several hours, I went to the hospital and was admitted into emergency. I was hooked up to cardiac monitors, had multiple EKGs, complete blood count, kidney, liver, heart enzyme, and thyroid profiles. I ended up spending the night there, actually. I was informed, afterwards, that I'd had ectopic beats, which were in and of themselves, harmless, but since (in the words of the Cardiologist) they were 'very rapid, and a LOT of them', I was put on 25mg of Metoprolol twice daily, and further tests were ordered. I was quite concerned about the echotopic beats for a long time, but that's mostly settled down in recent weeks, and I've grown to (somewhat) accept them as a normal, harmless thing. Although, I haven't had a serious episode since that time I was in the hospital, either. I might still find that quite alarming if that happened again. What could cause TWO (I had one earlier that I didn't go to the hospital for) major, pronounced ectopic incidents all of a sudden and then just 'go away'? Anything, it's now several months later and I've had a stress test (which came back fine) and an echocardiogram. I just got the results from the echo back earlier today. On the face of it, the results seem good. The doctor told me that everything looks fine, and that she's going to reduce my Metoprolol dosage. However, when she read out the full echo report, there was something I found a bit startling in it. She said that it showed mild mitral valve regurgitation, trivial something or other (I didn't hear exactly what, but it involved something cuspid-related), and an ejection fraction of either 64% or 67% (I can't remember which). It sounded fine at the time, but when I got home and did some research on mitral valve regurgitation (for my own scientific curiosity, and not because I thought it was dangerous), I discovered that it is alarmingly associated with heart degradation over time. It sounds a lot more serious than the doctor made it out to be (where it was a tossed-off remark) I HAVE noticed myself, over these last few months, feeling winded more quickly from physical exertion than I would expect. I can perspire after even a brief walk, and feel like flopping in the chair when I get home. Apparently, increased physical exhaustion is associated with problems with mitral valve regurgitation, and I HAD been concerned about my seeming increase in physical exhaustion even before these results were read to me. Is this something I should be concerned about? I realize I may be overreacting, but it is worrisome to be told that you indeed DO have something in your heart which can be of potential future concern... Also, a few other symptoms over the past few months that I've felt concerned about: I can often feel my heartbeat at night, when I'm lying on the bed, and for some periods of time I can feel 'fluttery' beats, where it feels as though several weak beats were happening within a split-second of each other. However, when I check my pulse, I observe no obvious irregularities during this. Also, sometimes my pulse appears to suddenly speed up, and then slow down. Something like jumping from 60 bpm to 85 or so nearly immediately, staying that way for 15 seconds, perhaps, and then returning to 60-ish just as suddenly. There are a few others, but I think I'll stop here. I look forward to a response.
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