Am I over exercising my heart?

What the &^%$$%$%$...

by donr - 2016-08-16 22:11:03

...is a "Double take"? 

Read this little comment I wrote a few days ago - does this describe it better?

"Could it be...

by donr - 2016-08-12 10:07:53 Edit

...a thing called a PVC?  That's what it sounds like to me.

PVC = Premature Ventricular Contraction.  This is a situation where the heart's ventricles contrct before they should in normal timing cycle.  Here's what you REALLY feel happening: ...thump, thump, thump, thump, pause, THUMP, thump, thump... WHERE thump = normal heart beat; thump = a wimpy, EARLY heart beat; pause = a delay before THUMP, which is a very hard, noticable heart beat that surprises you for two reasons - the delay before it & the unusual strength of it.

You may not even sense the wimpy thump because it is so wimpy, making you think the pause is longer than it really is.  The wimpy beat is wimpy because the ventricles do not have time to completely fill w/ blood before they contract.  The THUMP beat is so hard because the ventricles fill more than normal because of the pause. The ventricles pump out a larger mass of bood, so they work harder doing it - consequently you feel it more. 

These PVC's come at random times, totally unpredictably.

As to the cough - try this for a possible explanatiion:  The heart is ritght behind the entrance of the windpipe's connection to the lungs.  The heavy beat stimulates the body into thinking that something is amiss at that poin, perhaps something clogging the airway, & a natural reaction is to cough, so you do.  makes sense to me as a plausible explanation.

Donr"

If so, it's no big thing.  PVC's happen all the time to nice people (as well as bad ones).   They are benign, but if you'ver never had one they scare the crap out of you.  Feels just like your heart just completely skipped a beat - but it didn't.

To answer your questioon - you are no way over exercising your heart.  That takes something foolish - like signing up to run the hundred mile Sierra crest run in CA.  fencing will not do that to you - unless someone takes the littl rubber tip off the foil & it rus you through.

Cheers!

Donr

Thanks

by GigiT - 2016-08-16 23:04:22

Thanks so much for all your help! I did check in with my cardiologist, and he said that it was a PVC. Scared the heck out of me though!

~Gigi

Great advice

by Kat20 - 2016-08-17 04:16:47

this happens to me sometimes as well , great explanation . Thanks 

Na-Na-Na-Na-Nana...

by donr - 2016-08-17 07:57:12

...Told you so!

That first PVC you feel when you are not expecting it or know what it is - is about as scary as they come.  They can be so dramatic that you never forget the first one.

Mine came at 9:20 PM, 15 March, 1977while I was standing in a kitchen I shared w/ another officer at Aberdeen Proing Ground, MD drinking a can of Coke.  I thought my heart had stopped!

I went on till January 2003 suffering them at random times, never knowing what they were.  Then I started having runs of them that made me feel like garbage & they found I was suffrering SSS - Bradycardia & got the PM implanted.  Didn't stop the PVC's, but did stop the brady.  Felt like a new persn overnight!  It was three months later that my Cardio explained what they were. I have not sensed a single PVC in many years - but I have sensed runs of them.  Still have one about every 2/3 of a minute.  No big deal.

To quote my Cardio (& may others) "Don, they won't kill you - unless you have lots of long runs of them."

Donr

pvc's

by tammyjk1021 - 2016-08-23 00:43:39

Some people are really sensitive to them...like me.  Yes they scare the daylights out of you at first.  I have had them since day one of my pm and they drive me crazy at times.  To be fair, I probably had them before the pm but didnt notice them.  Now, I notice everything.  Caffeine is a big trigger as is eating a large meal.  At times, being tired can trigger them too.  I also found that I was very very low on Vit. D and since I started taking a multi-vitamin and script for vit D they seem to have calmed down.  For the days when they just wont stop my doctor prescribed xanax.  I take the smallest dose and cut that in half.  It is just enough to stop me from thinking about them I guess.  Seems the more you think about them, the more you get them LOL.