Hi everyone; I am a 33 year old female. I have been diagnosed with benign pac's and pvc's for 5 years now. I have had many EKG's, one holter moniter, and recently one Echocardiogram. The Echo reading said that I may have a probable mild MVP, but could not diagnose that, and other than that my heart was normal. My cardiologist said that he won't say I have MVP because a probable mild MVP doesn't mean anything to him, that many healthy hearts show a very mild MVP and you either you have it or you don't. Anyways, all these tests I've done show my heart normal with pac's and pvc's. One time recently I went in to the ER and my heart rate was 130 with the skips, but the Dr.'s all thought that I was having anxiety due to a stressful event that day. They had me hooked up to an EKG during that time. I know that hormones play a role, as well as stress and lack of sleep.
My question is this, should I have more tests or are these tests enough to know that these skipped beats aren't going to kill me? My Dr.'s don't think I need to do anymore testing, or take any meds, but these skips bother me and I'm worried there could be an underlying problem that they haven't found out. Thank you in advance for your inputs. Michelle

I find it very remarkable how many people come to this board talking about the same type of problem that you're listing Miche. I guess the reason for that is that the symptoms of what you're experiencing must be very distressing for you. In any case, a couple of things:

1. If your cardiologist said there is no heart pathology, then trust him/her...there is no pathology.

2. The most common problem with your condition is the stress and anxiety that goes along with it. As you can probably guess, those two things can make the symptoms worse.

3. The most common side condition noted with PACs and PVCs are panic attacks. The thing with panic attacks is that they are real physiological events which have objective, measurable changes in things like your heart rate. The thing with panic attacks is that they can make you feel like something bad's about to happen or that you're having a heart attack etc. etc. etc. The thing is, you can control these events by not becoming preoccupied with your symptoms.

4. I'm almost certain you have some degree of hypervigilance which is also VERY common with your condition. Do you check your pulse constantly? Are you always paying attention to your heart? This can actually cause a lot more problems than you might think. The two most common things that people are hypervigilant about are: heart things and testicular things (in guys). If I really thought about it right now, I'm probably having a PAC or a PVC here and there. But because I'm not really paying attention to it, it's not a big problem for me. You on the other hand are taking note of every little thing that's happening in your chest, and that is definitely making things worse. What you need to do is slowly start to "wean yourself off of your heart". If you check your pulse, stop checking your pulse. If you ever stop doing something and pay attention to your chest, keep yourself busy. Once you start doing this, you'll start feeling better (even though you may still feel your heart beating funny).

Michelle,
This sounds VERY much the same as something i went through last year.I was stressed beyond anything i'd ever went through for 2 months straight.One night i layed down to go to sleep,and i got my first feel of it,i thought i was going to die.It seemed to bother me the most at night when i was aware of it,because it was so quiet.I went to the dr,i had all the tests you did,he assured me it was PVCs from the stress,and gave me some pills,i am not a pill person,and didn't take them.Those beats made me crazy,and couldn't be ignored at all! that thumping is something i just could not ignore.
After 2 months,things were better in my life,and kept getting better,the stress was starting to dwindle,and they went away! I was falling alseep with headphones on just so i wouldn't be up all night,and aware of those beats.I trusted the dr,and he was right,he told me not to let any other dr put me through hell with stress tests etc. after the halter monitor,he told me he was almost positive it was the stress.He also told me i could take Magnessium.

Hope your doing better,Krissy :)

Hi Krissy,

I'm having the same symptoms the past few weeks. I went to the ER and they said it was PVCs, and also low potassium. I still have symptoms, but not as bad, and more at night when I am trying to get to sleep, like yours were. I also had a period of great stress. I wonder if the headphones will help me. I'm supposed to get the Holter monitor next week. I'm glad yours eventually went away. Did this affect your ability to work?

Deanna

Deanna, i could not work while this was going on,it was way too much for me.Feel Better,and the headphones on low,took my mind off of the thumping! it helped! Krissy

Thanks Krissy, I appreciate your comments. I guess when the PVC's bother me the most is when I have the hard skips, they literally take my breath away and make me take a gasp of air. Then my heart feels strange for a few minutes before it seems to almost "reset" itself. It just feels like after a PVC my heart doesn't feel like it is beating normally. It is hard to believe that they are normal. Michelle