[poohbear2026]

Hi again,

I hate to keep bothering you but this has been a bad week for my beats(PACs and PVCs) Even though my husband has warned me not to read about it on the internet, I keep doing so. NSVT seems like such a bad thing, especially since I get a little dizzy and hot feeling when it happens. I know it only seems to happen once every few months but I seem to always be expecting it. Duke has told me not to worry about it since I have no scar tissue on my MRI, but I have a hard time believing them. The things I read say if NSVT is symptomatic then it is worse. I do get dizzy but I have not passed out when it happens. Just scared again.

Thanks,
Anita

[Jeff]

I think that probably one of the hardest things for a person to do is to discern, right in the middle of an arrhythmia, if the symptoms are being caused by the arrhythmia or by your reaction to the arrhythmia.

Some people pass out when they have a surprise party thrown for them, and it's just a matter of the complex, involuntary reactions of the body (including the vagus nerve) that reduce blood pressure so low that consciousness can't be maintained.

If your NSVT is only lasting a second or two, 4-5 beats as you've said, it's not enough to cause loss of consciousness due to lack of blood flow to the brain. What's more, if any symptoms persist beyond that initial NSVT event, those symptoms aren't caused by the lack of blood flow, because the blood flow has been restored.

I've had those hot flashes before. Feels kind of like a rush of heat and weirdness into your brain. It's not your heart doing that. It's your brain and the rest of your body doing that.

Can you send an email to your doctor? Maybe s/he could help you to feel at ease without the trouble of an office visit.

And I should tell your husband - NOT going on the web to investigate is damn-near impossible. Ask him to gently drag you to a McDonalds or a kid's play place or something when you're forced to be mentally engaged in some way other than worry. It might help. But just sitting home, the computer mere feet away, it's impossible not to Google all the ways this thing is going to kill you.

It's NOT going to kill you.

But your husband might.

[jkfrench]

Hi poohbear
The hot flases and dizzyness have to be a reaction to the NSVT (fear). The reason I say this is because that is the same feeling I get when I get those surges of fast beats for a few seconds. Sometimes I even get weak in my legs. Jeff is right (of course when is Jeff ever wrong)! Try to remember that you have been checked out at Duke and you have even had an MRI. You should feel very safe that your heart will not let you down. It is strong and sound. Those few extra beats and such cannot harm it. Call your doctor for a little reassurance so that you can begin to heal your mind a little. That will help with the skips.
Jodie

[Jeff]

Heh - maybe you shouldn't go to a McDonalds, Anita - we just got home (I'm eating a salad, btw Jodie), and our daughter spilled her chocolate milk all over the floor and her pants, then sent some of her burger to the floor, then our son was goofing around with the swivel chairs and hit himself in the face, then when opening his happy meal toy he accidently hit my wife in the mouth.

So uh, maybe McDonalds isn't the best place to go to de-stress.

[poohbear2026]

Thanks guys! I feel a little better, especially with Jeff's humor. I cannot email my dr, but I have my 6 mo check with him in a couple weeks. McDonalds does sound dangerous. My little boy likes Chik Fila better....of course they have a play place too but they also have Wi Fi for my laptop...lol.

[Jeff]

Funny you mention that - I just bought myself a new laptop recently (old one was 12 years old), and it automatically detects wifi (I'm sure you knew this already but it's quite a discovery for me) and now I check everywhere I go to see if they have wifi.

[jkfrench]

umm, would that be a McDonalds salad Jeff? Because those don't count.
Jodie

[Jeff]

Nope. Salad from home. I did eat a hamburger there, though. Had the salad when I got home.

The salad was the ultimate girl repellent: lettuce, an entire clove of minced garlic, onions, peperoncini, a little cheese and some ranch dressing. I can only imagine what my breath smells like right now.

[jkfrench]

okay, but you need to add a few more veggies and switch to oil and vinegar dressing. I love garlic, onions and peperoncinis!

[Jeff]

Yeah, usually I eat a ton of veggies at dinner, either raw or steamed. Usually 2-3 cups on my plate (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, green beans, something like that) and I eat that before I eat anything else.

We have some store-bought raspberry vinaigrette dressing that I use sometimes, too. That's kinda the same, right?