Happiness is...

to me, @immatthewj sounds like a hypochondriac :)

You’ve used a lot of terms and acronymacronyms that I don’t know. I’ll have to do some googling. I think you wrote that you were a nurse? So you’re a smarty pants with medical terms! 😁

I suppose that I am, @unclewilbur ; I used to take a perverse pride in writing my nursing notes in a form that only a nurse or doc could interpret.  I always figured maybe I’d throw the lawyers off in case I ever got sued.  But I guarantee you that this technique wouldn’t work.  Anyway, I’ll save you the google, NSR=normal sinus rhythm which is what we all want, v-tach is ventricular tachycardia which, if it devolves to pulseless v-tach, is a bad thing (lethal) and usually if not always devolves into v-fib which is ventricular fibrillation which is always lethal unless corrected (and v-tach and v-fib are the only two rhythms that the text books say are shockable, but since I’ve never been a glory nurse, I only know what the textbook says, so I do not know what they might actually try in the ED or CCU).  (But by the text books, flatline, aka asystole, is NOT shockable, contrary to what many of the shows on TV show.)  (And the battery operated AED will only let the user shock v-tach or v-fib, so if a doc was going to try to shock a flatline, it would have to be with the paddles.)  Anyway, premature ventricular contractions are PVCs and my understanding is that they show up on a rhythm strip as an upside down QRS complex and I had always THOUGHT that they came off as a skipped beat when listening with a steth, but maybe I was wrong, because the ED doc said I was perfect (which I do not believe).  SVTs are supra ventricular tachycardia which is a junctional rhythm meaning that it starts somewhere (I believe) above the ventricles and NOT in the sino-atrial node (SA node) which is the normal pacemaker for the heart. After typing all of this, keep in mind that I was never a glory nurse and I NEVER had a patient on a monitor (except in school) so basically this is, for me, all theoretical I am passing on.  Except for the few times I have administered CPR, and in those instances there was something going on that had resulted in cardiac arrest (a patient in pulseless v-tach is NOT theoretical nor in v-fib).   Anyway, if I left any of the acronyms I love to use out, let me know and I’ll elaborate on those as well.

to me, @immatthewj sounds like a hypochondriac :)

@gano , I think that’s what the ED doc was thinking, and maybe my VA doc also.  My VA doc would listen to my heart with his steth and tell me it sounded perfect.  I told him it was like "the dancing frog,"  which was that old cartoon about a guy that had a frog that would tap dance when they were alone, but when he brought it out in public to show off, it just sat there.  I may, in fact, be a hypochondriac, but it is honestly not that I want something to be wrong with my heart, I actually really and truly want my heart to operate within the parameters of a normal rhythm, and regardless of what the docs have told me, I know what " lub-dub/lub-dub/lub-dub [abrupt pause] lub-dub/lub-dub. . . ." sounds like.  But in all honesty, I’d rather be a hypochondriac than experiencing an arrythmia, so if it is the former, I can happily live with that.

. . . what I used to describe happiness as being was: firing up the charcoal grill and pounding a ice cold beer while the coals started burning down and then singeing a 2" thick slab of New York strip and washing down that blue-rare piece of beef with some more ice cold beers.  It has been at least a few years since I have done that.

@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.