Okay, I've read your posting and welcome to the forum.

I think it's a good idea for you to spend time perusing through the various postings by members here to gain some insight into the general perspective about how people respond to palpitations of the type being discussed here. Indeed, they can induce lifestyle changes that are sometimes very restrictive in nature.

I am aware of a number of cases in the literature concerning the onset of PVST following childbirth but it is not common. I am of the opinion that it is invariably tied to an event of childbirth that causes an upregulation of sympathetic stimulation of the heart or the restriction of necessary parasympathetic threshold. Think of the sympathetic nervous tract as the gas pedal and the parasympathetic nervous tract as the brakes. It requires a proper balance of these opposing nervous system functions to create cycles of normalcy in the human body in physiological response to changes.

There are also cases of persons experiencing this same complex following surgery of the heart, abdomen, gall bladder, etc. and even reports of palpitations or PVST following trauma. It stands to reason that a common characteristic in all of these examples has to do with rather acute or abrupt changes or damage to the physical structure that is proximal to the parasympathetic and parasympathetic nerve tracts. In other words, the same result can potentially occur from over-stimulation of the sympathetic tract or under-stimulation by the parasympathetic tract.

As for the ablation technique to disrupt it, I'm becoming more convinced that in some cases it represents treatment of the symptom and not the underlying cause. While it is scientifically evident that anomolies such as re-entrant nodes are developed within the heart that cause PVST to occur, it is far less likely that this could develop as a consequence of childbirth. It is, however, highly likely that the parasympathetic tract can suffer damage of some type during any of the above-named scenarios due to the fact that the parasympathetic tract innervates areas of the entire abdominal cavity and organs within, so it's proximity to the source is far more relevant.

What I will tell you is that your condition will not cause your heart to stop functioning for any reason. It's not on that order of magnitude and the normal pacer of the heart is, by diagnostic definition, quite healthy. So I would use this medical fact as a basis to undermine your fears that you may suddenly and unexpectedly experience a catastrophic event related to your heart. While the prospect of exercise may need time to develop more confidence, the basic nature of your problem is not life-threatening. You must employ logic to incorporate this into your daily life and realize that you are not among those with heart disease of any kind and the tests support this fact.

As for taking steps to reduce the frequency of palpitations, some basics are recommended; If you're a smoker, then the only advice that will work here is to stop completely to avoid certain risk. If you drink caffeinated products or eat products containing caffeine, they have a trememdous effect as a central nervous system stimulant and will work against any reduction efforts concerning the palpitations. If you are also experiencing any type of GI discomfort, ie constipation, IBS, etc, then getting these factors under control will demonstrate a corresponding decrease in the frequency of palpitations. Make certain to get quality sleep, at least 6 hours and preferably 8, the absence of which is directly associated with an increase in the frequency of palpitation events.

You're going to be just fine. We'll talk more and thank you for a very interesting post.

Best regards and Good Health

Welcome DBranden.  I am glad you found this site.  It is extremely helpful in understanding why we get these pvc's, where they originate from, etc.   Before I came here I had no idea WHY I got these.  I was told "You'll be fine, don't worry, you heart looks great."  BUT I still continued to get them, and we as humans get symptoms and want to know WHY, and automatically think they will harm us as we relate physical symptoms to disease.  And that is simply all we are taught.  Doesn't help those with anxiety disorders does it!

We are not usually taught WHY we get them and that is why RLR is here, to help us understand the "WHY'S."  

I like his analogy of calling the wrong phone number.  We call a number not thinking twice if we dialed the wrong number.  The signal goes across the phone lines and the wrong person answers the phone because we dialed the wrong phone number.  Well, we wouldn't think twice if we damaged the phone lines in regard to dialing the wrong phone number would we?  Absolutely no harm was done.  The same holds true for our hearts.  We gets pvc's as a result of parsympathetic and sympathetic nerve stimulation, which results in irritation to the vagus nerve, hence our pvc's.  (I hope I said this right RLR, but this is how I understand it).  And when this stimulation happens, we feel the extra beats, the strong thuds, etc and its variations are all over the place.   Whether we feel 10 or thousands no harm is done to our hearts.  It all comes from the same reasoning.  

What we must do as the folks feeling them is not let them get th best of us.  Try and focus on the underlying issues which is moreso the anxiety in our lives and how we cope with that!  Once we can get our anxiety under control, we can and will feel a lot better!

We are here for a reason on this forum.  We have been checked out by our physicians and told "we are fine."  If we did not worry even more about an underlying cause, we would not be here, right now on this forum.  But we are because we are worried even further about something being "missed or overlooked."  

Nothing is being overlooked.  Tests are based on a algorhythm scale.  This means it looks for certain criteria for disease and if none is present the test is truly negative (as RLR says).  We are fine, it's out anxieties over physical diseases that is contuining on with this cycle and telling our brains we are in "danger" hence turning on our fight/flight response.

We are not in any danger.  We all really will be okay, it's just a matter of telling ourselves that and truly believing in it.  

I hope this helps and a lot of what I am saying, I am quoting RLR, and I apologize RLR if I am not saying exactly as you would, I am trying to explain it as I understand it.  

Best wishes to you dBranden.  Coming here is the best thing you could have done as you work to better understand your condition.

Steff