Funny Heart beats

[Jenrc]

Yesterday I noticed my heart beating and it seemed to skip a beat or have one quick beat right after a regular one. I though maybe I was hearing or feeling things, but I used my iPhone voice memo recorder to record right next to the ticking in my chest and a few times have picked up the weirdness. I am 3.5 months post-surgery for an aortic valve replacement and mitral valve collar.

Is this normal for recovery or odd? I am going in to see my cardio tomorrow and will definitely mention it to her. Just wanted to know of other's experiences.

Thanks.

 

[pellicle]

Normal or otherwise I get that now n then too.

I suppose its easier to notice when you can suddenly hear your heart better?

 

[Jenrc]

The constant ticking does a nice job of saying, "hello! I'm here!"

 

[nngbwh]

To me it sounds like you're still in recovery mode but it's always better to ask your doctor questions like these if you are worried.

 

[ski girl]

Mine did exactly that for several months, in phases of one missed/quick beat every 100 or so beats. I ignored it (sick of being poked and prodded at!) and it went away.

However I am a big believer in the 'head in the sand' method of health care which is probably not the best.

 

[marc_kowal]

Every once in awhile since my surgery, I'll get a skipped beat, or a little flutter sensation and it would scare the hell out of me. I would wind up calling my cardiologists office and get all worked up over it. Testing showed there's nothing wrong, and my cardiologist said that what's happening is normal. Flutters can happen in healthy peopleand skipped beats happen in healthy people. They just don't realize it's happening.

Since I can hear my valve ticking away, and I can feel it beating more pronounced, I am more in tune with what's going on then the average Joe. The time to be concerned is if stuff like that happens over an extended period of time, or if other symptoms are also occuring ie: chest pain, dizziness.

 

[Oilman]

I can relate to the PVC action one experiences, I did feel this pre surgery, not often and they where not uncomfortable, very quick and back to sinus. I notice them a lot more now like others have said, being 8 weeks out now and with the mechanical aorta, hard to miss the noise, but its possible i had the same amount pre surgery. I had a stress test and echo with the my cardio yesterday, all is working good. I mentioned and he observed the PVC's while conducting the stress test. I asked if we should pack a 24 hr holster, his reply was that it is normal at this stage of recovery and the remodelling of the heart can go on for awhile and lots of people without heart conditions have these too. I calculated I am having a about 300 to 500 per day, his reply was, thats OK, if I experienced 1500 to 2000 per day, we would look at it closer, he feels we should see some improvement with time. So with any luck in the future yours will slow down to hardly noticeable, I'm hoping for the same.

 

[Jenrc]

Thanks everyone. I talked with my Doctor today and she didn't seem to think it was anything more than what it was. Obviously keep an eye on any other symptoms and call anytime if I'm worried (ha!). She said they could always do the 24-hour monitor thing if it came to it, but felt it wiser not to order another test as my EKG was fine and the two Doctors who listened to me didn't hear anything out of the ordinary.

For those of you in Boston, I am being followed by the BACH Team at Children's. Every Doctor on the team knows me (one even knew my pediatric cardiologist way back when) and my lengthy, involved story (see my story in the My Endocardiditis thread in Heart Talk). It's great to have people to easily get ahold of who really know you. I'm very thankful.

 

[Terry45]

Great thread and posts. I've been having the same feelings and issues and this makes me feel much better. will be 6 months post-op in Feb.

 

[JiFaire]

I really notice mine when I'm on the treadmill... The sensors in the handgrips don't know how to cope with extra or irregular beats, so my HR can suddenly jump from 90 to 180. LOL. Scared me the first time, until I sat down and listened/counted and was still at 90.

I'm going for EST with my new cardiologist on Monday, so I will ask for more info then.