Anybody ever had PAIRED heart-beats??

[normofthenorth]

Last night or the night before, just after getting into bed, I stuck my fingers on my neck to check my pulse. Instead of going "beat, beat, beat, beat. . .", it was going "beat, beat, pause, beat, beat, pause. . ." consistently!

If you're a musician, it was like a piece in 3/4 time, with (quarter-) "note, note, rest" in every measure. If you're a ballroom dancer, it was a waltz with "step, step, hold" over and over again. The rhythm of the three "events" (beat, beat, NO beat) was completely even, and the pattern persisted for several minutes. I even fired up my BP-cuff and let my wife hear the pattern of "chirps", which was still that same pattern!

Once or twice, there were THREE beats in a row, then a pause, but all the rest were two.

My HR was relatively low -- maybe lower than 60 if you only count the actual beats, and maybe 80-ish or so if you count the skipped beats as beats.

I felt fine throughout -- OK, maybe a bit stressed, wondering what the @#$%& was going on with the ticker!

After I lay there for another couple of minutes, my HR & rhythm had returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.

ANYBODY??

For a month or so, I've had the feeling that my heart was still "finding its way" toward a "new normal", occasionally testing new low HR levels and occasionally still being higher than my "old normal" at rest, as it was for the first few months post-op. But while the RATE has been variable, and occasionally a smidge erratic and uneven, I've never before experienced this "regular irregularity". Has anybody else noticed it? (And should I worry?)

BTW, I'm continually returning to more-or-less full activity, including some pretty hard street cycling, though on relatively flat terrain. And generally feeling great when I do it. My cardiac rehab "prescription" is now 3 miles/d walk-jog (7:1), 5x/wk, with 2 weekly sessions of "resistance training", aka 10-rep weight lifting.

 

[RunMartin]

I have noticed recently that when I have been exercising and my heart rate starts to drop it will start to miss the odd beat (usually when it is around 90-70 bpm). After a while it returns to normal. I do not feel any different when this happens.

 

[LeakyUK]

I am still at the 'baby' stage for excercise, but have had several wobbles where my heart goes beat, beat, beat, pause after overdoing things. It recovers with rest. I was advised that the irregular beat was not a concern since I am on Warfarin. Metoprolol was stopped in the hospital, but may re-start at the 6 week review.

 

[epstns]

IMHO, irregular beat could be of concern - if it stops and does not restart. :eek2:

That's what mine was doing for the first several days post-op. It would be all over the place (bradycardia, tachycardia, afib), then it would simply stop for 15 to 20 seconds. That's why I ended up with the pacemaker. That was scary. . . the pacemaker is not.

 

[johnp]

Sure sounds to me like ventricular bigeminy. I've had it before, same as you, just after getting in bed. FWIW, I would typically get bigeminy whenever I was in the recovery phase of any exercise. It may resolve with further healing. Or they may put you on a higher dose of beta blocker. In my case, last year, once I started a dose of flecainide, the bigeminy stopped completely. But they will not give you something like Flecainide unless your beat problem is considered serious/life threatening.


Bigeminy (Latin: Bi-Two Gemini-twins) is a descriptor for a heart arrhythmia in which abnormal heart beats occur every other concurrent beat. A typical example is with bigeminal premature ventricular beats, also known as a premature ventricular contractions/complexes (PVC). Following the PVC there is a pause and then the normal beat returns - only to be followed by another PVC. The continuation of this pairing of beats is an example of bigeminy.

 

[kfay]

Yep, it sounds like you are having bigeminy pac's (atrial) or pvc's (ventricular), which is every other beat, or trigeminy, which is 2 normal and then one early beat (they aren't actually skipped beats, one just comes early and gives the perception that there was a skipped beat). Drs typically say that it is benign, however, if you have them very frequently, they may try and treat them. I was having around 25,000 of them every day for a year after surgery and after trying several meds to stop them, I finally had 2 ablations 3 months apart which helped with them somewhat.


Kim

 

[normofthenorth]

Thanks for the info, folks, and keep it coming if there's more! I haven't noticed a recurrence (yet), though I don't "monitor" very often.

 

[Jason]

Norm, I had the same thing about three weeks out from surgery, if I recall correctly. For me it was after I had the three episodes of A-flutter, and they had put me on amioderone. During the onboarding phase of the amioderone, every time I would lay down for either a nap or at night, my heart would do this. Over the next few weeks or so it lasted for less and less time, and eventually went away. I haven't had it happen for quite a long time now, and I was taken off of the amioderone as of six weeks ago. I don't think it is coming back, but I do remember the feelings that associated this anomoly. Not good! Hopefully yours will go away as well.

 

[normofthenorth]

Thanks, Jason. Mine didn't come with any "not good" feelings -- though I may have felt SOMETHING that got me to stick my fingers on my neck in the first place. And I've been off all the heart meds (except baby Aspirin) since early March.

 

[Jason]

Norm, I re-read my post and realized that I wasn't conveying my thoughts well. Physically, I didn't feel anything different, so the not good feelings were not meant as physical. However, since I can hear my heart (mechanical valve) and knew it was doing something odd that sounded like a regular, irregular heartbeat (if that makes sense) it didn't sit well psychologically. I wasn't sure if this was some new form of arrhythmia, etc. and it did scare me a bit. The not good feelings were more on the mental side, as opposed to anything physical.

As I said above,though,this went away for me in a matter of weeks. I hope the same holds true for you.

Jason

 

[normofthenorth]

Today at Cardiac Rehab class, I mentioned it to the nurse (RN?) who was guiding me through weight-lifting ("resistance training"), and she seemed concerned. Said she'd mention it to the RN who was in charge (in the temporary absence of the regular one). . .