Hey Reddit!,
I’ve always had these “weird” feeling heartbeats that would often take my breathe away. I’ve been to doctors and cardiologists and they never happen (of course) when they do tests like EKGs and doctors always say I’m perfectly fine (even did a echocardiogram).
I finally was feeling them and I think I was able to capture it on my Apple Watch.
Is this what a PVC looks like? Again feel they uncomfortable and makes me short of breath when it happens.
I will definitely be showing it to my doctor as well.
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Make an appointment with a doc for checking the premature heart beat. Hope the best for you.
How often do they happen? They happened to me once last year and I was low on potassium. Maybe good to check blood for that.
I though I was going insane as I get those too. Feels like a sucker punch to my chest that takes all the breath out of me for a second. Was googling it and couldn’t find anyone having same weird heart skips. You ever got a possible diagnosis OP? I’ve seen multiple GPs and I’ve been ignored countless times.
Nah no diagnosis but this is extremely common apparently. I’m going to check in with my doctor and it most likely is just harmless
Yeah most likely they’re nothing to worry about, but they do feel very uncomfortable when they happen. I don’t suspect having any heart disease at 25, but I’d feel safer knowing if I’m predisposed to any or not. Frustratingly thought those PVCs could be warning signs of something serious OR they could be completely harmless. Wishing you all the best OP and finding a diagnosis!
That’s a PVC.
I always wonder how people’s ECG looks like this (with sharp QRS wave)
That is apparently common in young athletic males. Primarily genetics
an EKG only captures what it sees when you’re doing it. an echocardiogram basically checks the function/structure of your heart. doesn’t help with looking out for heart rhythm issues. you need a holter monitor for at least 48-72h (24h might be a bit too short).
the Apple Watch is not entirely unhelpful because you get to do a quick EKG almost immediately when you experience the symptom however as it is basically relying on your one finger and wrist, still take it with a pinch of salt but showing it to a doctor will be good too.
(had a relative who had similar issues, accompanied her for visits to the cardiologist who was very detailed in his explanation)
I had one in thee past and unluckily I didn’t have a PVC during the time period my doc gave it to me. Thank you for the advice though!
PVCs are totally harmless and normal btw unless you are getting them thousands of times a day. I feel them occasionally too, I’ve had ECGs and an echocardiogram in the past and all was fine
I have that- or at least it looks like a premature ventricular contraction. I spent 24 with a holter monitor upon which the doctor said I have PVCs 3% of my heart beats. That doesn’t seem like a lot but if you average a 100,000 beats per day then even a few percent can be disturbing I think.
If they cause pain or significant discomfort my doctor said they would offer medicine but said it was not a big issue- apparently once you hit the 10% threshold you should take medication to manage it.
I still think they’re somewhat uncomfortable and I also don’t always have them- some days more than others. I wish I knew the reason for it so perhaps I could manage to reduce the occurrence. I didn’t learn any such methods from the doctors however so if you learn more please do share.
Just warning you to not get your hopes up. Occasional single PVCs are not at all uncommon and most docs won’t work them up. If you are symptomatic, which you say you are, stress that. Feeling palpitations can be annoying, but in general, not harmful. More frequent PVCs that are strung together could be more of an issue. Some people have trigeminy or bigeminy etc which are PVCs at regular intervals of every 3 or 2 beats…and some have V Tach–basically all PVCs. Some have symptomatic and some asymptomatic, but don’t want to be in V Tach and that requires medication and or cardioversion. Broad strokes here, not medical advice.
You’ve been to cardiologists, per your post, and I assume you’ve been cleared. They can prescribe something called a ZioPatch which does a 2 week monitoring and you can press the event button if you feel any symptoms, so that they can correlate those to the rhythm at that moment. Check with insurance. Mine was covered.
I would advise you ask your question in r/medicaladvice for other opinions.
It’s probably an ectopic beat. Caught mine, too. I have an ILR above my heart to catch arrhythmias and when I had a “missed” beat I took an ECG on the watch, and phoned the cardiac nurse the next day. She confirmed the device had recorded it and that it was an ectopic/extra beat.
I was so scared when I had stress and pvc… it’s am unsettling feeling
Yes, definitely! Especially so when you have no idea what’s causing it!
Just FYI - a PVC is a type of ectopic beat.
I get one to five on most days and that’s normal. Everyday is still harmless, it’s how many a day that’s the issue. You need thousands a day for it yo be an issue.
Indeed. But it’s still not normal for us to be aware of them. There may be an underlying issue somewhere.
It’s possible, but very unlikely. If I’m monitoring my (admittedly very ill patients) I don’t think much of isolated PVCs until I start to get more than 5-10 per minute. Even then, they aren’t much to get excited about until they get strung together, are associated with hemodynamic issues, or start increasing (ie, my patient has 2-3/minute and a couple hours later 10/minute).
I would treat them as a general sign of cardiac irritability, but if you’re having a hard time catching them on your watch they’re not frequent enough to be terribly concerning unless you’re feeling symptoms with them like dizziness/lightheadedness.
I get this, isn’t that normal? 😟 every now and then I feel a change in my heart beat and slight discomfort, and usually causes me to take a deep breath almost like an automatic response
Not “normal” but not alarmingly abnormal. “Normal” is you don’t notice your heart pumping - it just chugs along doing its thing in the background. But doesn’t seem to be much of an issue if it’s irregularly (IANAD)
What you really need is to be put on a 36-48h ECG to get the full picture not a 2 min ECG.
Yep I’ve done those before but it never caught it. My PVCs come in episodes. Already did a holter
Ask a cardiologist, not Reddit.
If a doctor prescribes a Beta Blocker. Before you jump on that. I recommend a couple things unless it’s serious.
- Improve your diet.
- Light exercise and work your way up to cardio
- Get Vitamin K2 ASAP
- Add Magnesium, Potassium, and a low dose of Vitamin D3.
Get yourself lab tested.
Wait 3 months get tested again, monitor your symptoms
I was getting something similar but definitely different. Early beats. I was able to catch a few on my watch. I used to get them dozens of times a day. One cardiologist told me I need to be having these 10% of the time for it to be a concern. To this day I have no idea what was causing them, maybe stress, but I don’t think it was a very stressful time. I hardly, if ever, have them any more.