r/PVCs

I just can’t function. Lost everything to this.
For 6 year now. 6 wasted fucking years of frequent multifocal PVCs, PACs, interpolated ones, daily small SVTs, bigeminy and now more than likely NSVT.
I live in constant fear, constantly on guard. I have got dysautonomia, IBS and become mostly bedbound due to this. Which just makes it all the more worse. 2 years ago, I thought I had battled the fears, and felt alive for 1 year (2024) as I turned 30. They went from an average 2-8% burden to less than 1% on average. My stomach started getting better too. But then last year I started getting what I’m certain is NSVT. Cause it feels nothing like my other stuff. It feels like intense and fast PVCs in a row, with no pause. Only 5 felt ones last year, but this year I’ve felt 7 already; 3 of them in the same weak, and some of them last 10 seconds, and two came back to back - the latest went lile like PVC-PVC-PVC-PVC-PVC-pause-PVC-PVC-PVC-PVC-PVC-pause-flutter run (8 beat SVT)-pause-normal.. I used to only get the 3-5 beat ones. My longest counted was 15 beats, but may have been longer as I didn’t feel on my pulse instantly and the beats are fast/tumbling. I’ve also started getting more couplets and triplets. Often after my period, where my stomach is also messed up (very vagal reactive). My fascia is so stiff and glued together from constantly being tense and inactive, that it feels like it’s pulling my organs. It has completely knocked me down. I live in constant fear now after the NSVT runs started too, and don’t feel joy at all. On guard in anything I do. Not leaving the house. Scared of every single skip now, Just waiting for the next run, restricting what I eat, how I move and what I do; as they always came when I wasn’t on guard and made a wrong move, or felt a little hot, or ate a little too much, or massaged a wrong spot on my stomach.

I’ve tried therapy, but it isn’t working. Cardiologists don’t care as I have normal echo, and my NSVT runs never get recorded. Tried various doctors for help, reached out for 6 years. I don’t see any future or freedom again, it’s just battling through every day. And what for? More of the same, and the closer I get to menopause (despite only being 32 currently), the worse it will probably get. I have nothing. All my dreams lost. It’s not even the frequency anymore, the singular burden got lower, it’s the lost trust in my heart.
Severely depressed and very dark thoughts some days. These arrythmias makes me feel bipolar.
I would take SSRI, if it wasn’t for SSRI’s triggering all this heart hell to begin with.

I don’t even recognise myself anymore. I was such a happy and healthy person, full of dreams and potential. Now I’m.. this. Wasted life and stuck with no way out it seems. Only in my dreams. At least I sleep well. That’s the best time of the day.

Please see below my results for the 2 week ZIO heart monitor I wore for my symptoms which Included (fluttering / thump sensation) which sometimes would make me cough (not repetitively more like a clearing of throat or one little cough) occasional dizziness when standing up fast from sitting.

Health anxiety cripples me; like rn I’m currently been in and out of doctors office trying to feel some type of relief and clarification for what these results mean and what would cause the NSVT.

I also spoke to a customer of mine about like the fluttering, & mentioned lung cancer? Which immediately freaked me out, I did have a recent chest x ray about 8 months ago that was normal.

Anyway results can be seen:

2-week ZIO monitor reviewed.  Underlying rhythm was sinus with an average rate of 77.  HR ranged from 48-148.  There is a 12 beat ventricular salvo noted, which occurred at around 1:50 AM..  In addition, rare PACs, rare PVCs.Patient had a min HR of 48 bpm, max HR of 156 bpm, and avg HR of 77 bpm. Predominant underlying rhythm was Sinus Rhythm. 1 run of Ventricular Tachycardia occurred lasting 12 beats with a max rate of 156 bpm (avg 142 bpm). Isolated SVEs were rare (<1.0%), and no SVE Couplets or SVE Triplets were present. Isolated VEs were rare (<1.0%), and no VE Couplets or VE Triplets were present.

Doctors note was ; ZIO monitor was done and did show a 12 beat WCT salvo at 1:50 AM. Otherwise, fairly benign. However, given the rhythm disturbance as well as the primary complaint I will run it by EP for their thoughts. I will also go ahead and get an echo looking for structural heart disease..

Some of us are no longer scared of PVCs/PACs being dangerous. It’s the sudden strong sensation in the chest that catches your breath and throws you off. People say “ignore them and move on,” but that’s easier said than done when they hit hard.

It’s like hiccups. Most people know hiccups are harmless, but when they become strong and constant, people still try to stop them because they’re uncomfortable. Once they pass, there’s relief.

That’s how some of us feel about PVCs/PACs. It’s not always fear, sometimes it’s the sensation itself.

What do your skipped beats feel like? I get like a flutter and then a THUMP in my chest. It sometimes take my breath away. When I feel my pulse it will literally have a pause inbetween. I had an ecga few years ago, and was fine. I’ve also had 2 pregnancies in 5 years and had no issues. I have health anxiety so anythjnf to do with my heart is a huge trigger!! I don’t get any pressure in chest or anything, sometimes it’ll feel like a sharp feeling for a second after the THUMP. Just looking to hear other people’s experiences really, and any advice. They are also triggered by things like caffeine, cold weather, cold drinks, panic, gas (like I need to burp), talking too fast. Etc. TIA!

I have noticed when I have recurring episodes of PVCs I feel tired. It spikes my anxiety for sure, so that could be part of it. Im also pregnant so the PVCs have increased (my cardiologist says that’s normal). I wish these would just stop. I hate how much they make me worry. I want to be healthy for my baby.

How’s everyone feeling today?

I’ve had a long history of PVCs and other palpitations but luckily usually a very low % burden. But I don’t have much recent data on it because I don’t own a home monitor and the latest monitors from my doctor are from a few years ago.

Lately I’ve been waking up at night with a lot of anxiety, feeling like I’m having a ton of gentle PVCs. Since I’m half asleep (and don’t have a monitor device), it’s hard to know with any certainty what’s actually going on. When I intentionally feel my pulse with my fingers during this late night episodes, it actually does feel like I’m having frequent gentle PVCs, but again it’s hard to be sure when I’m half asleep and don’t have a monitor device.

I think it’s likely that the PVCs are harmless (even if maybe greatly increased in frequency during these episodes) but late at night it still creates this massive sense of anxiety, dread, and worry, which in turn disrupts my sleep for the rest of the night. And of course inadequate sleep messed up everything in life.

And I hate this uncertainty feeling of not knowing what’s real versus imaginary, what’s anxiety versus reality, what’s dangerous versus harmless. It’s making me want to run back to my cardiologist (who I’ve been trying not to bother) and run to a psychiatrist…

Anyone have insights or similar experiences?

Thanks.

(FWIW I’m 44m, lots of cardiac workup five years ago which didn’t find anything concerning, taking metoprolol anyway to keep things calm because of the variety of palpitations documented in my years-ago monitors despite low % burden).

Eating more fat seems to be stopping my PVCs. The change is dramatic: from PVCs almost all day—every 2 to 10 minutes—to only around 4 to 6 per day.

I've replicated this pattern multiple times. For example:

• 500 g of lean meat + 50 g of fat → PVCs throughout the day
• 500 g of lean meat + 200 g of fat → only a few PVCs per day

I've observed this at least three times now, and it usually kicks in the same day. The calm also carries over into the following day. Meaning that if my dinner is fatty enough, I won't have PVCs the next morning... or even until the afternoon, even with an empty stomach.

I personally believe PVCs are often related to underfueling, which keeps the body in a constant warning or stress state. I first suspected this because my PVCs seemed worse on days when I was hungrier.

Have any of you had a similar experience? Or suspect you're undereating?

Notes:

- I don't eat carbs, so my body mainly depends on fat for fuel.
- In my case, supplementing electrolytes barely makes any difference.
- I was also experiencing another noticeable symptom: waking up in the middle of the night.

I have very few PVCs per day, but I feel every single one of them very intensely. When they happen, I completely lose focus and automatically check my pulse.

I feel both the extra beat and the pause very strongly. Is anyone else like this, having only a few PVCs, but feeling them very noticeably and intensely?

I have had hormonal and anxiety induced PVC’s for years. My doctor says they are benign, never had a proper test for them. However I had on a monitor a couple years back in an ambulance during a traumatic experience. The PVC’s made me call 911, they of course were not recorded.

Anyway, I don’t get them a lot. “Just one” is too many for my liking. They show up the week before my cycle like clockwork and I’ll get literally a couple here and there throughout the other weeks of the month. So I assume my burden is not high (please be kind I know others have it worse as stated in my title)

I recently got a promotion at work. My previous job duties had me walking 10k+ steps a shift 10 hour days and maybe had one hard PVC or so a week at work. Even just one still JOLTS me as they’re very uncomfortable but I’m used to them. For a month or so now I’m barely hitting a couple thousand steps because I sit the majority of my new position.

I ordered a treadmill to maintain my weight, I am a female, 5’6 ranging 135-140 pounds. So it’s literally just to maintain and my body is USED to walking. After walking on my treadmill today for 55 min not even realizing it was that long because I enjoy walking, didn’t over exert myself, hours later I had a cluster that lasted seconds and it scared me. Thoughts? Please and thank you for any insight.

Hello 👋

In March 2026 I was diagnosed with PVC burden of 20%. Had heart echocardiogram, blood test, 2 holter monitors everything can back normal except for 20% PVC. Waiting to get heart stress test tomorrow.

I recently found out I am pregnant and I am so scared and terrified that I am going to have heart failure, weakening of heart muscle etc. 😢

I was shocked when cardiologist told me I have 20% burden because I barely had any symptoms. Just slightly out of breath.

Before finding out I was pregnant, EP prescribed metoprolol which barely reduced PVCs and upon stopping (as per EP) I started having worse symptoms which lasted 3 days. But I am better now.

I am not drinking any caffeine, I am eating clean. And I started taking magnesium taurate.

I am terrified of ablation or any other anti arrhythmia drugs.

I am so so scared to the point I cry every day 😞

I guess just posting out of frustration. I finally got a holter monitor after years of ER visits and doctor visits due to PVCs and have a small burden (5%) which feels fucking insanely huge for me.

What i dont get is that ive had such a heavy increase over the past month and its now documented and all the doctors say is "if you have a sudden increase come back" which is literally what just happened.

Why do no doctors ever want to help you find the cause? Or what this might be a symptom of? Its genuinely not normal for this to just occur and get worse and worse as nobody ive ever spoken to in real life knows what a pvc feels like.

Rant over sorry idk

Hello, it’s currently 03:37 here and I just had a very scary episode and I can’t sleep. Normally, I would have small occasional PVCs during the day and I had gotten used to them, but just now while I was sleeping, my heart started beating very fast and forcefully for 5–6 beats in a row. I thought I was dreaming, then I became short of breath and woke up. Right now I’m still getting occasional single thumps, and I’m lying in bed crying. What is going wrong? Are my PVCs getting much worse, and will they continue to get worse? I’m going to start working shifts soon because I have to. Is everything going to get worse? I don’t want to quit my job.

PS: I have seen cardiologist before this incident and he told me there was nothing to worry. I just have first degree AV block.

Hey guys,

I am writing this post, because what I just experienced 10 minutes ago.

I normally have only a few PVCs per day, mostly when I wake up and start walking or exercising, but literally any time a day. They are usually single PVCs.

What just happened is: I was just resting on my couch, then I had 1 PVC. After 2-3 beats, another one (it was already scary, but I said myself “okay it is the last one), then after 2-3 beats another one, and another, and another………..

I think it was a triplet. I didnt really feel any beat in between, maybe only 1? I am not sure, but currently I am shaking because I got scared so much.

I never got a cardiac MRI. They did blood tests, Holter and Echo. But I am always scared that there is some kind of scar and I will get a cardiac arrest. I am now super scared after this weird episode. Is this also benign? Cant believe if it is…..

Should I get a cardiac MRI this summer? It will cost me a lot, and I am a bit afraid of that reagent they use (gadolinium).

Thanks in advance! :/

I had afib February of '23. Had cardioversion which stopped the afib. Dr put me on flecainide 100mg twice a day, have been on it since, 7am and 7pm. Last year in May I started dealing with pvcs. Mainly when I get my heartrate up and get hot. They only stop after I cool off. It makes it hard to exercise or work or play outside. Sometimes when I get take a hot shower or drink hot cocoa. I get lightheaded and a little short of breath.

Lately I started thinking they may be starting after my dose of flecainide. Has anyone had that happen or heard of that?

Every so often I get one that feels like my heart is turning in on itself. I've come to terms with them and am mostly at peace with them. But every so often I get one that makes me say "damn, that's not normal"

31F PVCs started during first pregnancy and have had them since. Saw someone post that the PVCs were bullying them and someone commented back to “bully them back with potassium and light cardio”. And I can report it’s working. Running helps, have only had a handful today vs 100s I usually feel

I don’t even know if my heart issue is PVCs, my heart pauses, holter monitor and echocardiogram were both logged as normal and holter showed 1% burden but that was in late December, I didn’t have any pauses whilst on the monitor so how can I be sure the pauses aren’t soemthinf different, it’s the contrast dye which is terrifying me, I’ve read it can cause or worsen arrhythmias, I’m about to go in in probably about 30 minutes, help😢

I want to write today about some of the work I've been doing and the why behind it.

I've been lurking in this subreddit virtually from the day I was first admitted for PVC bigeminy. December 2016. I didn't know then that I was stepping into a ten-year experience that would include millions of skippies, seven scheduled procedures, five that actually got performed, and an eighth already on the horizon for a new issue.

I say those things not to glamorize them. I say them so you know - I can relate to how many of you feel.

I am not a man who sits idle when I know I can help. And it does not sit well with me that so many of you are feeling the things I have felt, without anyone doing much about it.

What happened after my Farapulse ablation

What four prior thermal ablations had failed to resolve was completely eliminated. The probability of that was not high. I knew what I was walking in with. I did not know what I was walking out with.

What I didn't expect was everything else that changed.

Sleep. My sleep quality had been terrible for years. I snored hard. I woke exhausted. This resolved after the procedure. I sleep like I'm 20 again - and I am 40.

Tinnitus. Bad. Constant. A feeling of aural fullness that became background noise I had stopped noticing because I had stopped believing it was unusual. Gone after this procedure. Completely.

Vestibular dysfunction. I had periods of dizziness severe enough to make me hesitate before walking through a doorframe because I genuinely wasn't sure I'd clear it. I walked into a lot of door frames over the years. That resolved.

Brain fog. Years of it. A clouded mind. The inability to hold threads. I could still function in the moment - I was high-functioning professionally through all of this. But recall became a struggle. My wife at the time would say "you seriously cannot remember that?" - and I couldn't. She said it was sad. She was right. The problem wasn't that I was losing my mind. The problem was that half of my cognitive bandwidth was being consumed by a nervous system interpreting my own heartbeat as a threat signal. That resolved. I have the mind I had at 20 again.

What I started wondering

None of those things - sleep, hearing, balance, cognition - were on my cardiology chart. They were never screened for. Never connected. When I asked about the tinnitus, I was referred to an audiologist. When I mentioned the brain fog, I was told it was stress. When the vestibular stuff got bad, there was no connecting thread offered. I was just a man with a heart condition experiencing a list of unrelated inconveniences.

I started wondering how many of you have the same list.

And I started wondering whether anyone had ever measured it.

So I measured it.

Fortunate to have spent the last 15 years of my career working in multiple capacities within the healthcare industry. People know me to be scary analytical. They know me well!

When I couldn't find the analysis I was looking for, I built it.

Using seven years of nationally representative U.S. survey data (MEPS, 2017–2023), I looked at whether U.S. adults with arrhythmia codes show elevated rates of hearing loss, sleep disorders, vestibular conditions, cognitive symptoms, and psychiatric diagnoses - and whether they carry measurable excess healthcare expenditure.

The short version:

• Arrhythmia patients carry $9,547–$11,126 in adjusted annual excess expenditure per person versus matched controls
• Sleep disorders were the most robust claims-visible downstream signal
• Psychiatric distress in arrhythmia patients is massively under-coded: 88.3% of arrhythmia clinic patients screen positive for anxiety with a validated instrument; MEPS captures fewer than 10%
• The hearing, vestibular, and cognitive signals attenuate after adjustment - not because they aren't real, but because the data system can't see them. Claims data captures diagnosis codes, not lived distress.

That analysis is currently under review for publication. It's the first step.

What I'm building

I've started OneRhythm - a patient-led platform for education, community, and open research for people who live with arrhythmia and the families and caregivers who stand beside them.

And I'm building Project MIRmade - an open-source AI initiative to detect psychological distress in arrhythmia populations before it becomes a crisis. ECG signals, wearables, clinical language patterns. The same tools that already exist, applied to a population that is being systematically missed.

The mission is simple: move the numbers in the opposite direction.

88.3% anxiety prevalence. 71.1% depression prevalence.. Less than 5% of EP clinics routinely screen for any of it.

I was the 88.3%. I know you may be too.

I'm not okay with that being a permanent state of affairs.

The current state

I am a firm believer that cardiovascular care, and particularly arrhythmia, simply demands more federal and private investment. In order to steer this, the data needs to exist to support it. The good news is that much of it already does. More doesn't hurt.

- I have taken all of my records and translated them into a case report. The intent is to be able to identify cross-domain healthcare expenditures over my 10 year journey
- The case report is not hypothesis-confirming. It is hypothesis-generating. Big difference.
- The MEPS analysis is also being prepared for publishing.

This work is bootstrapped. I am currently aligning institutional collaborators and compute time for model training.

Help that is needed

I will be forming a patient advisory council for OneRhythm soon. I am also a firm believer that peer-support solutions for patients should be designed by patients - and I am only one of them.

Beyond that - just keep supporting one another. As many of us know, dealing with arrhythmia is not fun. It is isolating.

Often, the best therapy for me was knowing that I wasn't alone in how I was feeling. Every time that I came to this subreddit - I knew I was not.

More funding is needed to support communities just like this one.

That isn't just my own opinion. It is what the data says is needed.

How can my heart be normal when it always feels off? Skipped beats, fast HR during standing, even when i stretch or even move around a bit it elevates for a bit, clusters, bit of an elevated HR after certain foods, i sometimes wake up with an HR of 80-90 yet my normal resting HR is usually 55-65 bpm, i even sometimes lightheadedness for a sec or feels like my breath gets caught after a skipped beat. The list goes on. I know some of my triggers such as late night eating, eating a really big meal, sleep deprived, etc. but even without those triggers i sometimes still have those weird heart sensations plus symptoms. Yes i have had 2 echos done before, multiple ekgs and bloodwork, chest xrays, holter monitor for a week, and everything was always normal but it still feels like why? Why is this happening to me yet i have 0 heart disease in the family, all tests are normal, im 21, supposed to be in the prime of my life yet it feels like im 60, i can handle excercise such as brisk walking, uphill walks, resistance training fairly well, so im like what can be so wrong with me to continue feeling these symptoms? Does anyone recommend a different specialist to speak to other than a cardiologist? Also i stopped taking magnesium don’t remember much if it helped so might get back on taurate aswell to see if it can improve some. I just want my old life back to where im not hyper aware of my heart 😒