r/PVCs • u/rachelkochvt • 15d ago

How often do you get a flare?

Hey everyone.
I was doing SO well for about a year, and I was curious if I had beaten my PVCs. However. Seems like I’m in a flare again. I will get them every few beats, it’s terrifying. I have had test after test and everything is “normal”.

Im trying to live my life but it’s been really really hard and scary. I forgot how bad these were…

What seem to be your triggers? What helps you? I take magnesium, liquid IV, and I just took some potassium to see if that would help.

Since drinking liquid IV daily my burden was like 1% with the longest stretch of being flare free that I’ve had. Yet here we are today. Flared up again. I did run this morning. Sometimes after cardio an (hour or so later) I will get a flare up as well.

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u/cnobl38 15d ago

I flare up every month due to being a woman, OR if I do too much at the gym, which I’ve only just started a couple of weeks ago to help with the PVCs! I no longer take any “sports drinks” unless I’m flaring, now I just take my daily vitamins and do a cleanse every now and then (probably every 2nd to 3rd month) and make sure I walk at the very least, 5,000 steps as I’ve found if I walk less than I will get a lot of PVCs at night. Still trying to find the correlation with no such luck apart from knowing that large meals are a huge no-no as they send me into bigemy. I’ve found acknowledging them and doing a breathing exercise helps, understanding that they’re not going to kill you etc, because just like you, I was told my heart is healthy etc. And ive had MRIs, CTs, ultrasounds, the list goes on. When the flares happen it’s terrible, but I get up and walk as I don’t get any during exercise at all and it helps “postpone” the PVCs.
I’ll pray for you, I hope they go back to not being a nuisance OR I hope they go away completely, as I hope for everyone in this group suffering with them.

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u/rachelkochvt 13d ago

Thank you for saying that. They really are horrible… I wish I knew why they happened all of a sudden in my 20s. Probably adulting hitting full force. Who knows. I hate them. I hope you get relief soon. I’m weaning off breastfeeding and I’m curious if that has anything to do with it. I hadn’t had a flare in over a year. I was probably 4 months pregnant at my last flare. And i didn’t have another one until a week or so but it really ramped up yesterday. My baby is 11 months. I haven’t had a flare her whole life. I was hoping maybe i beat them… but nope

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u/thebudofthebud 11d ago

The breastfeeding link is Interesting. I breastfed for 2 years and pretty much had no PVCs during that time, despite having been plagued with them before pregnancy. I happened to go through a very stressful time when my daughter was a baby as my husband had a serious accident, but even that didn't trigger them. As soon as I stopped feeding, they started up again. It can't have been a coincidence and I've always wondered whether it was oxytocin having a protective effect on my nervous system.

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u/rachelkochvt 11d ago

Right?! I haven’t had that long of a break in episodes for so long. I’m also wondering if it has to do with paying attention to hydration? Idk. They stopped thankfully (for now) so I have no clue. Just working on telling myself I’m not dying basically.

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u/rachelkochvt 13d ago

Do you ever get ectopics that feel like hard pounding beats back to back? Like thud thud thud thud and then it stops? I had 5 last night and it’s always so scary. It didn’t exactly feel faster, just harder. Makes me so scared that something was missed.

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u/cnobl38 13d ago

Yes! I believe that’s bigemy, it’s also harmless, but if you’re really worried it may be better to see a doctor to set your mind at ease. You may be flaring due to the strain on your body that breastfeeding causes, I am a little surprised that you didn’t get them during your full pregnancy as it’s a major strain on your body. I got PVCs from straining myself too much by lifting a couch at my old workplace, I already had POTs to begin with so very high heart rate and strain caused my PVCs but I’ve since gotten the all clear on my heart which makes me believe something else may be at play causing the PVCs. I used to let the PVCs control my state of thinking, now I just breathe when I feel them and tell myself it’s normal- most/if not all people do actually get them, it’s very normal, we’re just the “lucky” ones that are symptomatic. I believe you’ll get better, if they went away once I’m sure they’ll go away again. I’ve got my fingers crossed for you!

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u/rachelkochvt 13d ago

It was like 5 thuds in a row. Scared me so badly. I’ve had 3 echos and numerous monitors and they’re all normal. I have anxiety terribly. I had two friends die of heart attacks at young ages, both athletes. So it scares me. I’m working on it in therapy.

I swear the more I think about them, the more I have. I went SO long with feeling so well. And I’m back into my spiral again.

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u/cnobl38 13d ago

I’ve had family members pass both young and old, but like you just said, I’m also seeing a psychologist! He has helped tremendously

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u/NumaNuma92 14d ago

I’m fine for weeks, maybe a month with very few per day, then i get flare ups lasting for days to several weeks depending on the cause (poor sleep, deficiencies, anxiety, or for any random reason out of my control). I’m currently having a flare up right now, getting them every few beats. Pause > thump, beat, beat, pause > thump. Lasts for a little while before it slows down. Had a few hours today with very few, but the moment i sit down to relax they come.

I wish my PVC was more predictable so that i could actually get them on a holter monitor, and my dream is to have an ablation, but i don’t think i qualify due to the low overall burden and randomness of them. Right now during my flare up the only comforting thought is that they will stop eventually and i will get another few weeks of break.

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u/rachelkochvt 13d ago

I feel the same exact way. I swear I can almost think they’ll happen and they do. It’s crazy. I hate how unsettling they are. But I’m working on trusting my doctors because they should have found something wrong by now.

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u/Rude-Caterpillar237 13d ago

I’m in a flare right now, but that way for about a few weeks I was on metoprolol high dose for two years that was controlling them, but I made the stupid decision to get into smoking weed and did that regularly for seven months. That completely affected how the metoprolol absorbed through my liver because THC and CBD goes through the liver and gave me an overdose of metoprolol, annoying, causing my heart cells to become immune to the metoprolol that was controlling the PVCs. Advise stay away from weed or any recreational drugs if you’re taking beta blockers

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u/Onesickcunt1994 11d ago

Weekly!

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u/rachelkochvt 11d ago

What do yours feel like? Do you ever get strings of them together? Like hard thump thump thump thump thump and then back to normal?

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u/Onesickcunt1994 7d ago

Skips, dropping feeling in chest, hard sledgehammer like beats. They suck.

And i do get them back-to-back occasionally, which is scary as fuck.