ventricular bigeminy

[hpuehler]

I had my surgery (AVR) on 1/4/06. Everything has been well and now I have started having some PVC's (palpitations). I had them so bad one night when I was away at my cottage that I called the cardiologist on call and he told me to eat a banana or drink Gatoraid. I had neither so I waited and they went away within 15 minutes. The next several days I had a few but nothing like the first night. I had a 24 hr holter ordered by my nurse practitioner that showed ventricular bigeminy. The cardio office called and told me to go to the ER if any more palps. The cardio said he was not severely alarmed since I have good LV function but if I did not then it would be a greater problem. I go to see the cardio on August 4, 2006. I went and had my BP taken this am when I had my PT drawn and it was 142/103. The nurse practitioner put me back on propranolol and told me to call the cardio and let him know that I would be taking it. I did. The nurse said fine. Now my BP 2 hrs later(1 hr. after med ) is 116/83. Go figure!

Anyway, now I'm all nerved up over this arhythmia thing!
Anyone with similair experience with the bigeminy?

Thanks,
Heather

 

[Ross]

You might want to take a look at this thread?:

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/cardio/messages/35854.html

 

[TikTak]

Hi, does not sound that bad. It is even considered still normal to find up to a few hundred PVC's in young heart healthy people.

I had them really bad though. Little over a month post-op I started to have bigeminy seconds after lying down flat on my back. If I moved around just a little in bed they stopped just to come back a few seconds later. This made me stay upright all day. Soon I started to have episodes also during the day, at this point I sought medical attention and was hospitalized for 1½ week. At its worst during the hospital stay I think I had bigeminy 1/3 of the time or half of my awake time since the nurses said I didn?t have it when I was sleeping. The doctors didn't seem to worry too much though, since they didn't find any possible fatal arrhythmias in the Holter records. Little over a week thereafter and within just within a couple of days the worst runs of bigeminy seemed to have stopped. And gradually I have had less PVC's altogether ever since. But there was several months during which any sudden mental/physical disturbance, however minor, seemed able to trigger them.

So I don't think you have any reason be too worried abot them!

 

[joanne6]

PVC's

PVC's

I have had multiple PVC's for 32 years. This started when I was pregnant with my second child. I often have bigemine. Saw my cardio 2 wks ago. I had several episodes during my echo. His words were that it was nothing to worry about. I feel the arrythmia much less since I had my valve repair. These days PVC's are rarely treated. Unless you have V tach with low ejection fraction I don't think they worry too much about it. I met a gal a few wks ago who had a 24 hr Holter monitor that showed 8,000 PVC's. The docs were not concerned.
I will check back to see what happens with you but don't worry too much.
Jo