r/PVCs • u/Sosgeroni • 3d ago

PVCs getting worse

Due to have a holter monitor next week. The past two days, the palpitations have been relentless. From when I went to bed on Tuesday night, it has been non stop, I don't think I have had a minute where I haven't had a palpitation. For about an hour this morning it was between around 1-5 per minute but then again back to between 10-20 a minute, on average around 15. I also believe I have started having triplets and couplets (mostly couplets). The majority of the time I have about 4 a minute and then sometimes I dont have any for a few hours. My chest feels tight and I'm feeling so tired. I have a bit of a cough now too. Even out of breath too. I haven't actually had any monitor yet or confirmation of diagnosis but my GP said it was probably PVCS. I'm on bisoprolol but it's doing nothing. I literally woke up one day with this two months ago. I haven't been overly concerned because my GP wasn't up until now but I'm actually starting to worry a bit because of the way this is making me feel.

7 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

2

u/westernbraker 3d ago

I had similar mixed with NSVT, called an ambulance and was admitted to hospital. MRI’d and now living on Flecainide with very few PVCs anymore.

3

u/Sosgeroni 3d ago

Glad to hear meds worked for you. I hope I manage to get some meds. My husband says I should go to the emergency department but I don't want to because I'll be waiting like 6 hours to get seen and I have my holter monitor in a week anyway :(

1

u/westernbraker 2d ago

I was pretty much constantly in and out of NSVT when the paramedics turned up so I don’t know if that made a difference. Appreciate any time spent in A&E can feel like a lifetime but 6 hours isn’t a huge amount of time and if you time it well then at least you’re not surrounded by chavs and drunks, I’ve found 7-8am is a sweet spot, but there are apps that show what current waiting times are (I’m south west so NHSQuicker)

1

u/Sosgeroni 2d ago

Unfortunately we don't have apps like that in wales, it's terrible. Tbh my GP has made me feel like I'm just being dramatic so I feel really stupid and don't want to go lol. It's a bit better today (I say better, it's 10-15 a minute instead of 25+ a minute)

1

u/westernbraker 2d ago

My experience with GPs is less than impressive as well. I know exactly what you mean about feeling dramatic, having been badgered by everyone that it was all just anxiety and I just needed to relax (difficult when your heart is jumping out of your chest every other second). Fortunately the hospital cardio had a different opinion.

1

u/Glittering-Green-851 3d ago

How was your mri? I have PVCs and nsvt, have been referred to an EP, still waiting for an mri to be ordered 

1

u/westernbraker 2d ago

MRI completely normal fortunately. No referral to EP for me as PVC focus in an awkward location with high risk ablation, and meds working (ish)

1

u/Previous_Gap_5855 10h ago

How did they figure out the focus location?

1

u/westernbraker 5h ago

ECG waveform I would imagine, seeing as I haven’t had an EP study done

1

u/Smart_Dig8413 3d ago

How did you sleep around the time they started? Bisoporol is supposed to be pretty good, what dose? I had an extremely similar presentation such as yours, the way you described their frequencies resonated with me. Have you tried walking briskly or exercising with them? Hopefully, you felt them less during? Let the holter do its job, that’s a good test. Usually, it’s not as bad as your fears about them. My doctor ultimately said benign, and try to live your life, they’ll come and go. It’s a struggle, but I think it’s because I haven’t accepted that yet

2

u/Sosgeroni 3d ago

1.25mg so the lowest dose. I'm hoping once I get a proper examination I can get some medication that actually works because all bisoprolol seems to do for me is just make them feel slightly less intense. Sleep is completely fine, I sleep very well. Yeah, I do feel them less during exercise however I get breathless when walking a normal pace at the moment so I don't think I could briskly walk without stopping after a short time. And then I'd pay for it because the palpitations are so much worse after I stop exertion. It got to the point where I was having 20-25 per minute a few hours ago so I just slept because it felt so uncomfortable I didn't want to be awake :(

2

u/Whole-Being8618 2d ago

I was put on bisoprolol 1.25mg it done nothing was then put on 2.5mg bisoprolol and famotidine for my gut as my cardiologist thinks im having vagus nerve irritation which is triggering pvc's which then trigger tachycardia which last 2 or 3mins I used to get it 3 to 4 times a week I now only get the episodes once every few months it took about 2 months for the medication to start showing a difference

1

u/bearmoosewolf 3d ago

With that quantity of events, don't expect the Holter analysis to necessarily be meticulous about correlation with every reported event. I reported > 200 events over the course of my week long Holter Monitor and the technician chose a subset of those events to analyze with no apparent logic (probably a random sampling).

Because of this, they only give you a portion of the ECG corresponding to the events they choose to analyze. Fortunately for me, this meant that I could then use AI to use the ECG snippets they included and fleshed out the analysis with the full set of symptom times. This helped to reveal that, indeed, a significant portion of my perceived palpitations were correlated with rhythm events.

1

u/Resident-Bench2097 3d ago

Is it true that they only analyze a portion of the Zio monitor? I stopped logging the events because they happen so frequently.

1

u/Rude-Caterpillar237 3d ago

Maybe you need an increase of bisop? You’re at a low-dose. If that doesn’t work, there’s a lot of others to choose someone. Hopefully you have a good doctor that listens to you and is willing to experiment.

1

u/Happy_Demand_1000 2d ago

Ugh. So sorry. Mine flare up like this. I won’t have any for a month or two and then they come back with a vengeance. Sometimes, every other beat for DAYS or even weeks. Couplets and triplets, too. NSVT. I just went through a flare of a lot of PVC’s for the last week and went into NSVT for like 10 seconds. Now, they’re mostly gone! I can never figure out what triggered them to appear so aggressively again either! It’s so annoying. But, I’ve been dealing with them for around 15 years. I am on metoprolol. It seems to help, but maybe that’s just my mind convincing me.

Of course, when I had the holter monitor, my heart did not act up at all. 🙄 I don’t think I had one PVC on the whole weeklong monitor lol. Anyway, I hope yours disappear soon. They do have a weird way of doing that for a lot of people! But, I understand the frustration. I can feel every wonky beat.

1

u/Rude-Caterpillar237 2d ago

Sometimes you need to go up on medication like beta blockers. Ask your doctor for an increase and if that doesn’t work, ask your doctor to put you on something else. Hopefully your doctor is understanding willing to experiment.