Painful heart beats

[mrfox]

Hi everyone, hope you're all very well.

I'm two weeks post op now and at home with my pets and family, everything generally good or getting better and it's largely a positive experience.

Something that is worrying me right now is the fairly frequent occurrence of heavy, painful thudding heart beats. These occur as individual beats, perhaps a few times an hour.

Before the op I experienced ectopic beats, or whatever I believe is more commonly referred to here as PVCs. They were uncomfortable but not generally painful. These ones are causing pain when they occur, and are more frequent by a considerable degree. It's shaking Mr confidence in walking and moving around post surgery so I'd like to get some info to either comfort me or push me to seek some further tests.

Any thoughts? As a potential contributing factor I was told at my last blood test that my iron levels were low and I'm aware this can cause palpitations or noticeable heartbeats. The doctor suggested eating iron rich foods and left it at that.

Thanks in advance for any comments!

 

[pellicle]

Heavy beats, yes, irregular beats yes, but painful no.

Explain painful if you can and where is the pain and at what sort of level are we talking?

 

[mrfox]

The pain is in my chest and the level of pain varies from a 1/10 to perhaps 5. It is a sharp pain that lasts the duration of the heavier beat.

On previously mentioning it off hand to a doctor on the ward he suggested the pain was the sternum being disturbed. I do not know how to evaluate whether the pain comes from the sternum or not.

 

[pellicle]

Sounds weird to me, of course one person's screaming agony is another's discomfort;' so it's hard to know for sure.

I would make notes and then be able to refer to them if questioned later.

I'd also raise this at the earliest meeting with your doctor and be clear about describing it (doctors and mechanics alike work better with descriptions that are clear).

I've never had anything like that and it sounds like it needs investigating.

 

[mrfox]

A nurse at the hospital where I had the surgery asked the ward doctor for me. He had no answers and recommended going to a&e so that's where I am now. 5 hour wait to see a doctor bbu they have triaged me quickly so whether or not it takes that long depends on how whoever looks at my bloods and ECG views things I guess.

 

[honeybunny]

Hopefully you will get some definitive answers and a quick resolution. I have not experienced any pain such as you describe. Please keep us posted.

 

[mrfox]

Well, I'm back home and the consensus was that everything is fine. They took a couple of ECGs and some blood, then compared results with the docs at the hospital where I had my operation.

They are happy with all the results and the pain and ectopics are apparently the valve 'seating' itself - so similar to the various weird rhythms and beats many people seem to get during this time. The pain remains unexplained I suppose.

I don't know if I'm totally convinced, but I also don't have any alternative explanation to work with so I guess I'll just try to put it out of mind. The pain is very short lived so apart from being disconcerting it's not a major inconvenience.

 

[Warrick]

Glad everything is ok!!

 

[pellicle]

Hi

Well, I'm back home and the consensus was that everything is fine. They took a couple of ECGs and some blood, then compared results with the docs at the hospital where I had my operation.

They are happy with all the results and the pain and ectopics are apparently the valve 'seating' itself - so similar to the various weird rhythms and beats many people seem to get during this time. The pain remains unexplained I suppose.

well its good that you get results which are major indicators that "all is good" ... if it persists keep curious and keep writing down notes (because memory is flawed).

I don't know if I'm totally convinced, but I also don't have any alternative explanation to work with so I guess I'll just try to put it out of mind. The pain is very short lived so apart from being disconcerting it's not a major inconvenience.

it can be as simple as "because its all different" and it can be just that you're noticing things more now. I know that when I start to read something about maintenance on my motorbike I start to wonder if "I can hear the valves ticking more" ... but I figure that if it gets worse I'll notice it when it goes from "maybe" to "definitely"

glad to hear your home.

Don't let this put you off exersize, but everything in moderation. Exersize with an eye on your HR and if you can write that down too (I bought a garmin instead, which writes it down for me) so you can track your progress.

Best Wishes

 

[mrfox]

No exercise is very much still the goal! In what way did you monitor your HR pellicle ?

 

[pellicle]

Hi

... In what way did you monitor your HR pellicle ?

I bought a Garmin Vivo Fit ... its a base model but for a few bucks extra you can get a Heart Rate strap. The pair then gives you exersize time as well as HR during the exersize. Starting the strap (by wearing it) tells the watch that "this is an event" as long as it goes for more than 10minutes.

This is then synced to my "Connect" (**** name) via either my Laptop or my Phone and the Web interface gives details like this:

This was cycling (sothe speed is wrong as its not got a GPS in it, but none the less it helped me see where I was pushing and not.

The "dash board" also gives you your daily steps (summarised in 10 min intervals)

it was a great tool

 

[mrfox]

Thanks, what I meant more is: what were you looking for? Time in a certain range? Peaks and troughs?

 

[pellicle]

I was looking for stuff like:

• up this hill at this pace what is my MAX
• how far am I going and is my average getting better
• what is my recovery rate (like when I'm walking down a hill is it recovering faster
• keeping my HR in the "training zone" (120 ~ 140) and what it requires to do that (at first just dawdling up the hill, eventually cycling fast)

Monitoring and comparing over time ... basic fitness training stuff.

 

[mrfox]

A quick update here: five weeks post surgery now and I still have ectopic beats occasionally but no pain.

 

[pellicle]

A quick update here: five weeks post surgery now and I still have ectopic beats occasionally but no pain.

glad to hear there is positive development

small steps forward , no slides back from over cooking recovery and it'll all be in the rear view mirror soon enough. Applies equally to surgery and driving:

 

[mrfox]

Overall recovery is going well. Perhaps I'll write a separate post about the full picture. Today I walked for an hour solid up and down some decent hills. Pain is still present but significantly less, no longer requires managing with meds. There is an issue with the wound healing improperly but it's well in hand with the doctors. Not bad overall for five weeks.

 

[pellicle]

for 5 weeks out that's good progress IMO