PAC, PVC, PNC, PAT, Couplet, Triplet, Oh my!
Posted 08-24-2009 at 12:56 PM by Jeff
Last week I stopped into my cardiologist's office to pick up the EKGs from my event monitor back in February. I picked them up because Jsuter69 was stressing about some increases in her heart rate that I thought were due to vagus nerve activity, and I knew I had captured some of that during my monitoring. I wanted to show her to confirm for her that it was normal, and that it was OK.
Ambivalent is a good word to explain how I felt about picking up those records. I was happy to be able to help Julie, and I thought that being able to scan in and post some of the other arrhythmia I had on my EKGs would be great teaching tools on the site. That was all good. But kind of like how you don't want to know how they prepare the chicken at your local restaurant, I was pretty sure I didn't want to know how my cardiologist came to the conclusion that all was OK and my arrhtyhmias were benign.
Because I know me, and I know I would not be able to keep myself from looking over every tracing, going over every detail, and I knew I was going to find things I didn't want to find.
And I did. To this point I knew I'd had several million PVCs in my life, but never thought I'd experienced any PVC couplets or triplets. But apparently I have, as I found both in the 50 pages worth of EKGs. The good news is, I believe there was only one couplet and one triplet recorded over that entire month.
But there's also a new arrhythmia I'd never even heard of before: PNC. Premature Nodal Contraction occurs when the AV node fires before it receives the signal from the SA node to do so. This generates a wimpy QRS complex, a normal T wave, then back to the heart's regularly scheduled programming. I had a hard time evern finding any information about this type of premature contraction on the web - so hopefully that means it's also benign in nature.
So this morning I'm a little less confident in my ticker as I was just before I picked up those EKGs, and part of me wishes I hadn't even picked them up. But I'm trying to get back to that place where I was just a few days ago; trusting my cardiologist, knowing she got to see the worst that my heart has to offer, and her determining that what it was doing was not a cause for alarm.
And I know there's lots of people living with benign NSVT, and so far my heart hasn't produced that (that I know of), but I have to consider the possibility that down the road I'll be dealing with that extra acronym on my arrhythmia resumé. So I'll have to remember people like Mary, who has benign NSVT and is doing well, and Connie, who had NSVT for years before she had an ablation that more or less cured her.
And I'm getting there. Slowly.
Ambivalent is a good word to explain how I felt about picking up those records. I was happy to be able to help Julie, and I thought that being able to scan in and post some of the other arrhythmia I had on my EKGs would be great teaching tools on the site. That was all good. But kind of like how you don't want to know how they prepare the chicken at your local restaurant, I was pretty sure I didn't want to know how my cardiologist came to the conclusion that all was OK and my arrhtyhmias were benign.
Because I know me, and I know I would not be able to keep myself from looking over every tracing, going over every detail, and I knew I was going to find things I didn't want to find.
And I did. To this point I knew I'd had several million PVCs in my life, but never thought I'd experienced any PVC couplets or triplets. But apparently I have, as I found both in the 50 pages worth of EKGs. The good news is, I believe there was only one couplet and one triplet recorded over that entire month.
But there's also a new arrhythmia I'd never even heard of before: PNC. Premature Nodal Contraction occurs when the AV node fires before it receives the signal from the SA node to do so. This generates a wimpy QRS complex, a normal T wave, then back to the heart's regularly scheduled programming. I had a hard time evern finding any information about this type of premature contraction on the web - so hopefully that means it's also benign in nature.
So this morning I'm a little less confident in my ticker as I was just before I picked up those EKGs, and part of me wishes I hadn't even picked them up. But I'm trying to get back to that place where I was just a few days ago; trusting my cardiologist, knowing she got to see the worst that my heart has to offer, and her determining that what it was doing was not a cause for alarm.
And I know there's lots of people living with benign NSVT, and so far my heart hasn't produced that (that I know of), but I have to consider the possibility that down the road I'll be dealing with that extra acronym on my arrhythmia resumé. So I'll have to remember people like Mary, who has benign NSVT and is doing well, and Connie, who had NSVT for years before she had an ablation that more or less cured her.
And I'm getting there. Slowly.
Total Comments 4
Comments
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Boy can I ever relate to doing more research after you get the test results back, I am that way myself; especially when it comes to heart tests, I will analyze a thing to death only to make my symptoms worse and my worry level go off the chart. Sometimes I get myself in trouble being that way as I will "find" things that I think the doc missed or start worrying that the results were interpreted wrongly. I should leave well-enough alone, but nope, can't do that. I wish I could stop being like this, but, it must be my nature, I am a "researcher" by nature, and I guess now, subconsciously, I have grabbed onto my heart-health and am going over board.
One day, I had received some really good news about my echo test, well, my friend said, "I bet you are relieved now" well, I almost burst into tears as I had "found" something I thought was wrong and I was more scared than ever, however, I did not tell them that, I suffered alone; I later asked my doc and did more research and found it was nothing to worry about at all, but, it took a while, believe me. Dang, I hate being like this.
I let these fears and such ruin my happiness over good test results.
So, you are NOT alone, I would imagine there are others out there like us, but, they may be embarrassed to admit it.Posted 08-30-2009 at 02:20 PM by Susie
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I know what you mean Jeff.
I don't know what's stopping me from getting my written reports from my electrophysiologist, is it fear over knowing what really happened with me or fear that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was?
In the hospital I was having PAC's and didn't even feel them, continually, how could I not feel them? My fear now is about the same - the twinges I'm feeling are they really something or are they me being so over cautious about the PM/ICD and I'm hurting myself with anxiety.
The only comfort I have is knowing I have this "insurance policy" in my chest, but then that just brings up more questions...how will I know if something is wrong or going on with the device...sigh
I think I liked things alot better when I was clueless and thought there was nothing wrong with me
and hid my head in the sand 
Posted 09-17-2009 at 09:52 AM by Lisa33167
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Hey Jeff!
This is Julie, I have a question? Can you explain this Vagus Nerve? I've been really busy lately with work and my boyfriend(he's been having his own heart trouble, he has bundle branch block and Vtach)
But I am still having these stupid heartbeats, even at work...I swear I feel like I should just lay down and never get out of bed again....I just know my heart is worse than what my 3 docs tell me it is....
JuliePosted 12-17-2009 at 09:05 PM by jsuter69
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Hi Julie -
I'm sure your boyfriend is very happy, now that you're busy working him. Sorry to hear about his heart troubles - how bad is his block?
Anyway, the Vagus nerve. What is it you'd like to know? I can give you some basic highlights - it's big and very long (relative to the other nerve pairs) and has connections to vital organs pretty much from your neck to your junk (or my junk - what do they call "junk" for a girl?). With all those connections and all that information flowing to and from all those organs, you can see how interrelated the parts of your body are.
As it pertains to the heart, and this is something that I thought I understood but as I researched further the meaning is less clear to me, the Vagus nerve CAN'T make your heart speed up. It can only make your heart slow down. There are various triggers that the Vagus picks up on to make that happen, including regular respiration, but when it triggers, the only thing that nerve can do is slow things down.
So any big variations in heart rate during resting respiration, in my non-medical opinion, mean two things:
- You have a good Vagus nerve that's slowing down your heart with every exhale.
- You have something else going on that's trying to keep your heart rate higher whenever your Vagus isn't slowing it down.
If that doesn't answer your question, please let me know where you need things explained better.
JeffPosted 12-18-2009 at 08:33 AM by Jeff
