Happiness is...

@immatthewj 

+1001

Thanks for the definitions, info, etc.

I just had dinner and now feeling like I need a nap. 

So, I’ll be brief now. But...

" lub-dub/lub-dub/lub-dub [abrupt pause] lub-dub/lub-dub. . . ."

That is a very good description of what my heart does. But after the pause there is often a rush of beats as if it’s trying to catch up! And when it’s bad, the rhythm doesn’t normalize for hours. 

I think my heart is in a more advanced stage of a-fibulation, or arrhythmia though.

Anyway, I hope you’re ok!!!

@unclewilbur , I am assuming that you are on medicare (I just started on it a year ago, and I still don't know all the ins and outs) but if you already have a cardiologist, I'd say try to schedule an ECG and have him interpret it.  I am going from memory on this (I can get the textbook out in a bit) but as I recall, if it is a PVC, that is another rhythm originating somewhere other than the SA node and what happens if I recall correctly is it is one signal for a heart beat from somewhere other than the SA node landing on top of the SA node signal (but I will look that up).  What I do remember for sure is that this is another generally benign rhythm unless you get too many directly in a row (I'll look up how many) because that can turn into v-tach.  As far as A-fib, that's a bit of a different animal, and my understanding is that strokes are one of the big risks as the atrium is fibrillating which is a recipe for potential clots to form.   I would also think that  fibrillating atria wouldn't be properly (completely) emptying into the ventricles that therefore the output (also known as cardiac output/CO) from the ventricles would be reduced and that this could result in certain physiological sensations and possibly an increased heart rate as maybe the response to  decreased CO.  I do know that when one's blood pressure drops (as in one of the early stages of shock) the heart rate elevates as a response to compensate.

But don't take anything I type very seriously--I am NOT at all qualified on this subject and the best thing to do is to get in to see a cardiologist.

Anyway, I hope you're ok!!!

Thank you for the good thoughts.  Generally I feel okay most of the time, but having seen what happens when someone's heart ceases to produce an adequate pulse has made the concept seem real to me, and in all honesty, I have not completely come to terms with it on a personal level.  Although sooner or later it is inevitable for all of us.

Best thoughts back at you, and talk to your PCP and or cardiologist.

Actually, @gano , when Something seems 'off spec' and you notice it....
And even if the exam notices Something, even if 'intriguing'...

It's good to have a grasp of wtf it is and what it's about.

I was born with an aortic valve with only 2 flaps...and started getting 'backflow'.
Rx cya'd for awhile, but a high 60 yr. valve job was called for.
Requested and granted a TAVR procedure. TransAorticValveReplacement.

Woke to feeling better Immediately.  Minimal Recovery Therapy, no pain other than a large bandaid inside right thigh for 2ish weeks.  On a stationary bike, the nurse noticed I'd skipped a beat or 3.....
Became the happy owner of a new Boston Scientific pacer with onboard defib, a 
small 3x2" 'heart shaped' disc on left chest beneath the collar bone.

Spouse Ev now demands I outlive her.
"We still don't have any real control of That.....and it's not a race. either...."

My latest CT of my lungs sez I'm cancer free...despite 'lifestyle' and tendencies.

"Place your bets...."  She's 5 younger, and has her own flock of Rx tubes.

We take drugs seriously in our home.... ;) Ciao, J

Some lighthearted and some serious stories.  Hope everyone is okay and staying healthy.  Thinking of this site and happiness, for me happiness is listening to my music wherever I am.  My happy place this time of year is the lake, so listening to music looking out at the sun sparkling on the water is happiness.  

That is interesting, @asvjerry , and similar to this:

going back to around when the tale I recounted started, a friend of mine who I had worked with from ’85 through ’87 called me to touch base, and to make a long story short, he had just got a stent put in the, from his description, I believe may have been the  left anterior descending coronary artery.  Unlike me, he eats good food and exercises, but he also drinks and smokes pot and there is a family history of coronary artery disease. Anyway, he said he had been feeling like something wasn’t right when he was riding his bike and his doc set him up with a stress test and they told him he had a major blockage going on and needed a stent asap.  So he got it and he said he felt great afterwards.

I frequently feel as if "something is not quite right" but I also know how a little knowledge can create a psycho somatic experience.  However, I got to thinking that my own sedentary lifestyle and eating habits may have caught up with me also, so therefore, during one of these spells where the left side of my chest was "feeling a little funny," I got the VA to do the cardiac stress test.  Which they said I passed with flying colors.  Which is not a true indicator of everything going on in there, but it did make me feel better at the time.

Then a couple of years later was when I started palpating and listening and hearing a skipped beat, and the more I listened and felt my pulse, the more frequent it seemed, and I also thought I was feeling mild palpations.  Which is about the time my neighbors 50 some year old wife, who appeared to be in great shape (but she did smoke cigarettes and I think there may have been a family history), went into cardiac arrest and died.  It was then I decided maybe I needed to have another check done which prompted the call to the VA where they put me on with a triage nurse who played 20 questions with me and decided to error on the side of better safe than sorry and hence, I went to the local ED.

This was the doc that told me to quit checking my pulse.  And for the most part I have quit checking my pulse, and when I do, I haven’t picked up the skipped beat.  So I am willing to concede that the mind is a funny but powerful thing that can have funny but powerful effects.  And as I also typed previously, I think having a tiny bit of knowledge on my part is not necessarily a good thing.

Oh well . . . ramble on. . . .