Long heart Beat

It is me yet again today. Apart from my fatigue and not sleeping I have developed over the last day a feeling that my heart misses a beat. It feels like it stops and then starts again one beat later.

Is this stress as well?

8 Comments

threshold check?

by heckboy - 2008-02-15 03:02:24

Hi Jules,

I wonder if this is your PM doing an auto threshold check. What you describe is what I felt... A slowing HB that seemed to skip and beat and then went back to normal. No one ever explained to me that my new PM would do this or what I might feel do it freaked me out a bit. I didn't know it was my PM, I thought it was me.

In regard to your other post, I'd love for you to borrow me for your trip to the UK, but I have to go away on business on Monday for a few weeks. ;) Love the UK, tho!

Hi,

by Gellia2 - 2008-02-15 04:02:54

That sounds similar to what I get at times. A skipped beat and then one particularly heard beat followed by a regular rhythm. My cardiologist feels they are benign PVC's (premature ventricular contractions). They seem to be more anxiety producing than anything else. I try taking a deep breath when I feel them and they seem to go away.
Best to you and hope this helps.
Gellia

skipped beats

by heckboy - 2008-02-15 06:02:17

You didn't mention what you were doing when your heart seemed to skip a beat.

I have an upper limit on my PM (165) that I reach quickly when I run. When that happens, the PM suppresses beats because a paced HR at 200 isn't as efficient as a natural one. It will go, BEAT... BEAT... --- BEAT... BEAT... -- until my HR falls back below the high limit, then it starts beating smoothly again.

Heart rate anxiety and misses beats

by petemanning - 2008-02-15 06:02:26

Hi Jules,
It sounds like all the Pacemaker stuff make makes you a bit uneasy and that its all a bit new to you.If it helps,I have had most of the questions and feelings that you have expresses at some time over the last 20 years too.
I am only 39.
I am not sure how you PM is configured but mine is set to deliberately let a missed beat pass then, beat, if I miss two beats in a row.It is a little off putting when you feel it miss but good to know the PM uis there to kick in if you need it.

I find that exersize,avoiding coffee and alcahol and eating well,all help to make my heart rythym more normal.
BTW 110 bpm walking up hill is fine.a rough guide to your maximum H.R is 220-(age) but this is only rough and people can have rates well above this with no problem.
Active relaxation is really good too .Hope all this helps
cheers
Pete

Irregular Heart Beat

by SMITTY - 2008-02-15 06:02:58

Jules,

I've been through what you are talking about and I can tell you what I have been told. Mine were a combination of PVC and skip beats to the point that it is downright uncomfortable. Of course I can't always identify a PVC but the skip beat is not problem when they are happening every third beat.

The low setting on my pacemaker is 70 and to me that meant my heart rate should always be at least that but when the skip beats and PVC are taking place I have seen an electronic blood pressure device show my heart rate in the low 40s. When these episodes lasted for more than just a few minutes, I would began to notice that I did not feel very well, and I contacted the pacemaker clinic where I got mine.

I gave them the information and asked why my heart rate could get so much lower than the low setting on my pacemaker. The answer I got was that my pacemaker was monitoring my heart beats and when it saw an electrical impulse from the heart's natural pacemaker, it would not send an impulse. So with both PVC and skip beats my heart was sending out an impulse albeit to weak to make my heart beat, it was strong enough to for the pacemaker to sense and do nothing. They went on to say there are adjustments on my pacemaker that permits them to increase the sensitivity and override the weak signals sent by my hearts natural pacemaker. However there are strict limits to using the sensitivity settings as they do not want the pacemaker sending impulses when the heart was ending one that would cause a heart beat. To do so gets things all screwed up and maybe dangerous, as the heart can be receiving duplicate signals. This is especially true when there are PVC and skip beats going at the same time because a PVC is usually an impulse or signal from the hearts natural pacemaker for the ventricle to contract at the wrong time in relation to when the atrium is contracting as the ventricle should contract a few milliseconds after the atrium contracts.

Now that I probably have you as confused as I was when I was being told this and again as I tried to put this on paper, I may as well stop. The only thing I fully understood from my several that conversations with them on this subject is that if episodes of PVC and skip beats continue for an extended time, or if I develop chest pain, I should call my doctor or go to the E.R.

Smitty

skipped beats

by busby - 2008-02-15 08:02:48

Jules,
Just wanted to say try not to worry too much over skipped beat feelings. I occasionally get little flutter skipped beat type feelings. I have had my PM for 4 1/2 years now so I just ignore it. Could be as said above PVCs or just your PM doing it's self check.
I can understand how you feel being in a foreign speaking country. I went to France last year for 6 weeks and was terrified about ending up in hospital and not being able to communicate well enough. My husband loves speaking in another language but I am too self conscious. All went well then but my husband now wants to go there for a year.
By the way I just read your profile and I am the same age as you (1951)
Hope all goes well with your next visit to the cardiologist.
Robin

Skipped beats

by ElectricFrank - 2008-02-16 01:02:18

Maybe I can shed some light on the PVC thing and why it can cause your heart rate to be lower than the PM's minimum rate.
A PVC occurs when irritated heart tissue initiates a contraction earlier than when it should occur. So as an example suppose your HR is 60BPM. There will be a beat once per second. Now along comes a PVC and initiates an early contraction . At this point there hasn't been an atrial contraction so the ventricle has very little blood to pump so this beat is a weak one as far as output and we don't feel it. This has messed up the whole complex timing cycle and the ventricles are not responsive to either a natural or pacemaker stimulus at the normal time so there is no pulse here. Then at 2 seconds from the last correct contraction the ventricle contracts. By now it has had time to fill quite full so this pulse is a real thumper.
Now if we get a run of PVC's we wind up only feeling every other pulse in our arteries so we think we have a pulse of 30 even though our pacer is set for 60. The reason that we don't pass out is because the pulses we do get pump much more blood each time and partly make up for the slow rate.
I have both an ECG and a finger tip pulse sensor so I can watch the whole show!
By the way we pacers aren't the only ones having PVC's. Young adults have them regularly, but don't notice.
Like Smitty, I wish there was a way to include diagrams here. Us engineers are used to thinking that way.
To give some idea of how frequent they can be my reports have averaged about 150-200PVC's/week since I got the pacer. Last Dec I was up to 2000/week when I had some sort of virus. Even at that rate the cardiologist wasn't concerned. I'm back down to normal again since early Jan.

frank

Thanks

by Jules - 2008-02-16 11:02:15

Big thank you to all. I promise I will try to stop worrying.

What would I do without this site.

Thank you all once again XXXXX

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I, too, am feeling tons better since my implant.