Wednesday, March 20, 2013

The ABC's of PVC's...

                            

Image from Wikipedia.


Everyone gets them at some point in their life.  That yucky flip-flop feeling in your chest.  I can only describe it as a sensation that your heart forgot to beat or maybe it decided to beat a little too hard.  It's uncomfortable and can take your breath away or make you cough.  If you're like me, it brings with it a little anxiety.  Either there's a fish flopping around in my chest or I'm possibly having a heart attack and about to die.

These are called Premature Ventricular Contractions or PVC's.  They occur when the lower portion of your heart begins to contract before it is completely filled with blood.  Normally, the sinus node in your heart sends an electrical signal to tell the heart when to contract, but sometimes those lower chambers get a little anxious and decide to contract on their own too early.  It's kind of like if the drummer in a band suddenly played a few beats really fast.  It would throw off the rhythm of the entire band.  The lower chambers contract too quickly and it disrupts the rhythm of the rest of the heart, causing the flip-flop sensation. 

I get these quite frequently and I've gotten more used to them.  Then I have days like Monday.  I had six of these nasty things in one day.  I'm sure there are people who've had more, but it started to make me rather panicky.  I can handle one or two a week, but six in a day is a bit much.  I was starting to get slightly worried that my "drummer" was really starting to act out and wanting to be a solo performer.  I'd much rather he just stick to the band.  He must have agreed because I haven't had one of these since.

On a side note, if you ever have six of these in one day you should probably go to the doctor.  I know I sound like a hypocrite now and I'm sure I'll get some grief for not going.  It was cold on Monday!  Who wants to go out in the cold?  OK, probably not funny but I am glad things seem to be back to normal now.  I should add that nearly everyone experiences a PVC at some point in their life.  For normal, healthy people they are nothing to worry about.  Not dangerous at all, just uncomfortable.  However, if you have a heart condition or experience flip-flops frequently, you should probably get it checked out.  No worries, I plan on mentioning this to Dr. Goodman when I go to Mayo!  Hopefully, my drummer behaves until then!

"When I am afraid, I will put my trust in Thee." Psalm 56:3

Amy     

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