Since the end of April, I have been having increasing PAC's. They are pretty much constant now. I will have any where from 1-4 a minute. I will also have shallow beats at times that no one can explain to me or tell me what they are.
I also have sinus arrhythmia that showed up on an EKG several months ago. This comes and goes as well but is pretty much constant. My heart will speed up and then slow down as you feel my pulse. Sometimes I will have a pulse over 100 and other times it will be in the 50's. It is all over the place.
I have had more EKG's than I can count and also just had another echo of my heart 2 weeks ago that showed normal heart size and function. I wore a 21 day heart monitor that I am awaiting the results of but all my cardiologist had to say so far was I was having extra beats.
The PAC's are just getting worse and worse. They would last a few days a month and now they are every day and every minute.
What is causing this??? I have always had normal sinus rhythm or sinus tachycardia. No weird beats or sinus arrhythmia.
I am so sick of worrying about my heart. My cardiologist told me to avoid caffeine, etc and could care less. He said my heart is structurally normal and to not worry. I cannot help but worry. I am so sick of it. I want a normal heart!
I really feel this is a problem with the electrical system in my heart or a deficiency in something. I am currently on a waiting list to see Dr. C and do not have an LLMD at the moment. My last LLMD did nothing for me and wanted me to have the ANSAR test and refused to treat me or do anything for me until I had that test done which my insurance will not cover.
Anyone have any advice or insight on this?? I am losing my mind over my heart. My other symptoms are manageable but my heart is mentally more than I can handle.
Babesia? Yeast? Lyme?? What is causing this??
Posted by zil (Member # 12048) on :
I was in your boat. They never could tell me why my heart was having all the irregular rhythms/beats but put me on atenolol and that takes care of it. No problems now. Take a deep breath. Treatment may take care of this problem. Stressing over it will make it worse. Avoid sudafed too. That'd kick off my irregular beats.
Posted by blinkie (Member # 14470) on :
I was having severe heart issues. I thought I was going to die.
I was on ttreatment for bartonella and I was feeling 99% well other than major, major heart issues.
I stopped taking my cortisol and my heart symptoms nearly completely resolved.
Have you changed abx tx recently? Could your adrenals be recovering and you are still taking cortisol and thyroid meds?
Just a possibility.
Posted by Pinelady (Member # 18524) on :
If you test reaction with a pinch of salt you can rule out electrolytes. I had that when I first started treatment. It felt awful but a pinch of salt would balance it out for a little while.
Posted by BlueCheetah (Member # 18626) on :
Thank you everyone.
I cannot take a beta-blocker due to low blood pressure so I am stuck with this mess.
My electrolytes are always within normal range on my labs so I have no idea what is going on. My former LLMD gave me a IM shot of magnesium back in April and all of this started the day after I was given a shot of mg. It has been getting worse since then.
My TSH was just checked again about a month ago and it was normal so apparently it is not my thyroid. I saw an endo who has no idea what to do with me so he is sending me to Hershey to see an endo to have my adrenals checked. I cannot get in there until November. Ugh!
I have not changed meds at all. The LLMD's I have seen have yet to really put me on ABX. Zith sent my heart over the edge so the only thing they have had me on are Mepron and Diflucan. Neither help this issue. Bactrim was also a no go for me because it appears I am allergic.
I did have about 4 good days a week or so ago before my period. The heart issues stopped. This was odd to me because the heart issues usually get worse before my period.
I want these heart issues to stop so badly. I just do not know what is causing them and my doctors just tell me I am fine and to not worry. It is hard NOT to worry when you are having PAC's every minute of every day. That is not fine or "normal" to me.
Posted by ott70 (Member # 18237) on :
I have both also. I also have intermittent chest pain and left side back pain and muscle spasms in my chest which I swear is my heart sometimes. And sometimes shortness of breath and an occasional sweating spell (which could be anxiety, but I'm not an anxious person).
My heart rate is usually 60-100 but I do have sinus arrythmmia. I take 25 mg of Atenolol as needed but I try to avoid taking it. It works iffy on me at best.
My PAC's have also increased but not sure if I'm at 1-4 a minute. I do feel that I'm having between 100-1000 a day, especially last week. Fortunately, the last few days have been less.
If you peruse the Internet for people discussing PAC's and PVC's, you'll find some people that have thousands of them a day and their cardiologists tell them they are fine. One lady was having 50,000+ a day (good grief!) and ended up getting an ablation.
I have gone through the whole cardiac workup and been given the clean bill of health on the heart, but it is difficult to accept. I just get told I'm one of those "lucky" people that just feels them.
I hate the PAC's also. Sometimes they are minor and I can function fine, but I get that occasional hard gallop in the chest that makes me pause and catch my breath. I think it's catch-22 on the stress issue because it's hard not to obsess about it.
I also believe it's an electrical issue or mineral/vitamin deficiency. Maybe hormonal because my hormones sometimes test out of range. Could be an infected/irritated vagus nerve also, but I have yet to tie in specific events to when I have PAC's.
An electrophysiology study might be something to look into. I have not had one myself, but people with a lot of PAC's and PVC's will be given this option sometimes.