Hi all, RLR,
I am sure I have proabably mentioned this before and have seen other people writing about very similar sensations....
But in just over a week I have experienced 3 occurances of this scary episode, 2 of them taking place since Friday and I don;t remember ever having it so often. It usually happened every now and then, about once a month or less.
I experienced this at least twice since staring betablockers in december last year ( I was on 200 mg matoprolol tartrate).
A few weeks ago I had to have my Betablockers dose reduced to 50 mg twice a day and it seemed to control the PVCs the same as it did on a higher dose.
About a week and a half ago, I got very upset by smth my son did ( he is going through a difficult stage at the moment - not listening, etc) I didn;t have the mental energy to shout at him or tell him off, I just felt like all the energy had been drained, so i went upstairs and just cried, and couldn;t stop. I don;t usually cry very often at all and I was a bit surprised by my reaction this time. After about 15 min a skipped beat, then another, and another, they were at the same intervals, and only stopped when i took a few deep breaths and ran downstairs.
A few days later I got another run of them, this time while just walking with a friend, a deep breath seemed to help again.
The most unpleasant and pronounced episide happened just under an hour ago and prompted me to write this post. I had just eaten a small amount, and was sitting on the sofa stressed out bu the kids fighting and a little bent over the laptop, when one ectopic (which felt like a PVC - radiating through the lungs and chest type) somewhat triggered a subsequesnt run of slightly different ones, more fluttering in nature, and on top of that at the same time my heart made a "trrrrrrr" sound, as if hit by an electric shock or as if it was a wooden brick flipping very fast and hard inside a container. I am sorry for such a lengthy post, but these things are hard to describe accurately....
I am trying to look for possible triggers but so far nothing comes to mind. I have had some trouble with my gastritis lately and wondering if this might be one of the triggers. I have also had back pain (from lifting my daughter and chest pain from her accidently kicking me in the ribs repeatedly while sleeping - she's been a bit under the weather lately and sleeping with me). My ribs are quite tender to the touch in places but i can't see how it would coause the ectopics to increase. I am a bit sleep-deprived at the moment and could easily fall asleep at any given moment of the day if allowed.
RLR, are these "runs" of tachycardia", or flutter or whatever they are also caused by the Vagus nerve? Or does the fact that a single ectopic caused by the vagus nerve triggers this run mean there is something more sinister going on with the heart itself?
Are deep breaths just a coincidence or is there a connection or reason why they seem to stop the ongoing fluttering?
This latest episode today really scared me......
could this have been VT or accelerated idioventricular rhythm ?