PVC's?

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Long story short, I began to get some funky heartbeats a few years ago. Cut back my caffeine intake drastically and they went away immediately, so I can only assume they were benign premature ventricular contractions.

Now, they are back and I have no clue as to why. I suspect it may be stress-related but I really thought I was handling some pretty bad stuff right now fairly well. I'm not too fond of the idea of seeing a doctor over this because they're just going to do lots of tests and tell me to cut out the stress, alcohol, and caffeine.

So two questions:

Do I need to report them on my next medical? Since they weren't ever diagnosed and it's just my guess?

What can I do to get rid of them before my next medical? I have a childhood heart murmur listed in my history that AME's love to try to find (no one has heard it). They spend a lot of time listening to my heart so it's not something I can really just hope they miss.

I'm a 25 year old woman, and in good shape/health, just so you don't think I'm a 60 year old guy with preexisting heart problems.
 
Not a doc, but to me the 60 year old man would be less of a concern than a 25 year old woman with a worsening cardiac condition. I think your choice to avoid a doctor at this point may be unwise. The caffeine may have been exasperating early onset conditions which disappeared when you eliminated the caffeine until the condition worsened until the point where the symptoms reappeared without the use of stimulants.

If it were me, I'd see a cardiologist just to rule out potential major conditions that at your age need to be dealt with.
 
Unregistered said:
Do you know what PVC's are?
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Yes, I'm not saying panic, there's many reasons for them, some benign, some indicating more severe conditions, all I'm saying is that at 25 it would be wiser in the long run to rule out the bad things.
 
Dave Theisen said:
Are you certain that's what they are?
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Pretty sure, since they pop up when I'm stressed or when I was drinking 5-6 "cups" of coffee a day (college, you know). Not sure what other kind of arrhythmia would resolve from completely cutting out caffeine. But no, since I haven't been to the doctor for it, I'm not 100% certain.

I should clarify that the childhood murmur is gone, not just called innocent. I don't have other cardiac disease hanging out there. I only mentioned it because like the good little pilot I am, I declared it on my first exam, and it's been hanging around as "previously reported, no change" ever since and AME's do like to look for it.
 
If it was me and I'm not worried enough to go to the doctor for it, I'm not reporting it to the FAA either.
 
If you never went to a doctor and nothing was ever diagnosed and you're not a medical professional yourself, it seems to me that you really have no way of knowing for sure just what you've got, or even if you have any problem at all. In that case, it might be hard to say you "have reason to know" you have any specific condition requiring an FAA report, or even what to report if you think you really do have something wrong.

That said, if it were me, and it involved my heart, I'd probably go to my doc and get it checked out tout suite -- which of course would require reporting the visit regardless of the result. But where my heart is concerned, I'd rather take the risk of FAA Aeromedical issues than, say, dropping dead.
 
Ron Levy said:
But where my heart is concerned, I'd rather take the risk of FAA Aeromedical issues than, say, dropping dead.
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Especially since most cardiac conditions are issued routinely with just a bit of extra reporting from your physician required. Heart conditions seem to be the easiest to deal with at the FAA, they even issue First Class to people with a heart attack in their history.
 
Oh great- the all knowing Henning is playing doctor now.

The dude doesn't know any of the sciences and now he's giving medical advice?!
 
Unregistered said:
Long story short, I began to get some funky heartbeats a few years ago. Cut back my caffeine intake drastically and they went away immediately, so I can only assume they were benign premature ventricular contractions.
Now, they are back and I have no clue as to why. I suspect it may be stress-related but I really thought I was handling some pretty bad stuff right now fairly well. I'm not too fond of the idea of seeing a doctor over this because they're just going to do lots of tests and tell me to cut out the stress, alcohol, and caffeine.

So two questions:

Do I need to report them on my next medical? Since they weren't ever diagnosed and it's just my guess?

What can I do to get rid of them before my next medical? I have a childhood heart murmur listed in my history that AME's love to try to find (no one has heard it). They spend a lot of time listening to my heart so it's not something I can really just hope they miss.

I'm a 25 year old woman, and in good shape/health, just so you don't think I'm a 60 year old guy with preexisting heart problems.
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You feel something is different and it could be a number of things so an evaluation by a physician is important. In addition to PVCs there are PACs as well as a number of other heart rhythm issues. If your symptoms are frequent or easy to trigger with a particular activity it should be easy to diagnose. A resting ECG and possibly a 24 to 48 hour Holter recording are typically the first tests ordered. Depending on what is found some type of stress test and possibly cardiac imaging may be next. Hopefully it will not be serious. Don't wait and don't assume anything.
 
That's not what she was looking for, she was looking for someone to tell her not to report it. Threads done at post 7.
 
Cardiologists spend 8+ years trying to get a handle on arrhythmias and other heart problems. No way, no how are you going to figure it out reliably on your own, nor is anyone on a keyboard chatting with you half way across the country.

Wouldn't you love to hear the doc say, "Cut back on the dark chocolate, and energy drinks; you're fine"? Go; give him/her the chance to do that.

And if it turns out to be something like a pvcs, or transient vtach, or bigeminy, etc, etc, then you will know - and then you have a chance to get well and continue here with us for a while longer!
 
Oh for go_'s sakes.

This could be nothing,. It could be Wolff Parkinson White, in which case an ablation is the thing. The question I need to know, to answer this is, Is the OP a professional aviator?
 
So, a commercial license with a Class 2 medical operating "for hire" (flying your employees around for company meetings) would be a significantly stricter standard?

Just wondering!
 
bbchien said:
This could be nothing,. It could be Wolff Parkinson White, in which case an ablation is the thing. The question I need to know, to answer this is, Is the OP a professional aviator?
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Whether the OP is a professional aviator or not, don't you think s/he should have this evaluated by a qualified medical professional to determine just what it is? As you said, it could be nothing, or it could be serious, and whether someone is an aviator or not (regardless of professional status), it seems to me that while it might not be serious, it is also possible that it could be a serious medical situation requiring proper treatment in a timely manner. Or am I, in your professional medical opinion, being alarmist?
 
For the record, none of the unregistered posters were me past post 6.

We're talking class II. I'm a CFI, not airline pilot (since people have different definitions of "professional").

And I wasn't looking for someone to tell me not to report. For crying out loud...I reported a heart murmur that doesn't exist anymore because it was the right thing to do! I'm just honestly clueless about how to handle this.
 
Unregistered said:
Defending someone who gives incorrect information? Someone who's a known liar?
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I don't see him picking on people while hiding behind an "unregistered" shield.

And with that, I'm excusing myself from this thread. I wish the OP well.
 
Unregistered said:
For the record, none of the unregistered posters were me past post 6.

We're talking class II. I'm a CFI, not airline pilot (since people have different definitions of "professional").

And I wasn't looking for someone to tell me not to report. For crying out loud...I reported a heart murmur that doesn't exist anymore because it was the right thing to do! I'm just honestly clueless about how to handle this.
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The answer is "you see a cardiologist" that is the answer. You don't want to see a cardiologist so you have no idea of what you have. If you don't know what it is, didn't seek medical attention and weren't debilitated, what is there to report?

That you're a CFI and 'honestly clueless' about subject matter that you are supposed to be teaching your students is not boding well.
 
Henning said:
The answer is "you see a cardiologist" that is the answer. You don't want to see a cardiologist so you have no idea of what you have. If you don't know what it is, didn't seek medical attention and weren't debilitated, what is there to report?

That you're a CFI and 'honestly clueless' about subject matter that you are supposed to be teaching your students is not boding well.
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I have a feeling you're just contrary, but you're not reading my entire post.

I have a heart murmur reported to the FAA. AME's pay close attention to my heart. I wonder if I have another problem that they will pick up during the exam, and whether I can do anything about it or whether I need to mention it at all. THAT is the issue.

And I certainly don't need to take your slams about my knowledge. Not to be rude, but for all I know, you don't even have a certificate.
 
Unregistered said:
I have a feeling you're just contrary, but you're not reading my entire post.

I have a heart murmur reported to the FAA. AME's pay close attention to my heart. I wonder if I have another problem that they will pick up during the exam, and whether I can do anything about it or whether I need to mention it at all. THAT is the issue.

And I certainly don't need to take your slams about my knowledge. Not to be rude, but for all I know, you don't even have a certificate.
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If you already have a reported and monitored heart condition with the AME "paying close attention" I'm still not getting you asking this question here and not of your AME?

I'm not being contrarian, you just don't make sense.

As for my certificates, on display as with my name.
http://caphenning.com/henning
 
Unreg, no good is going to come of the discussion here. My email from this site works. Sigh. Read 67.213, which the FAA can show you have reason to know. Then send an email.
 
Don't put off a medical evaluation. Hopefully it is just some harmless PACs or PVCs. It could be something worse. A friend of mine put off getting some vague symptoms checked out until he got to the point where he needed bypass surgery.
 
Palmpilot said:
That's really uncalled for in a thread where she's discussing her own medical situation.
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It's all immaterial, I told her what she didn't want to hear so she got defensive, big deal, as for whomever else decided they needed to be anonymous as well, they are irrelevant and I believe to whom was being referenced there, not the OP.
 
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Sometimes I notice "skipped heartbeats." If they occur while the AME is listening to my heart, what kind of hoops am I going to have to jump through to renew my third class medical?
 
Unregistered; said:
I'm not too fond of the idea of seeing a doctor over this because they're just going to do lots of tests and tell me to cut out the stress, alcohol, and caffeine.

I'm a 25 year old woman, and in good shape/health, just so you don't think I'm a 60 year old guy with preexisting heart problems.
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If you did not see a doc about the condition, and the FAA does not know about it, why do you post about it?

Obviously you are concerned about your health.

Go see a doc, or if you don't want to deal with that plus the FAA, cut back on the stress, alcohol and caffeine on your own and see if that helps. If that does not work, definitely go see a doc!

I'm 25 and I can relate... take care of yourself!
 
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Unregistered said:
For crying out loud...I reported a heart murmur that doesn't exist anymore because it was the right thing to do! I'm just honestly clueless about how to handle this.
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Then I will suggest, my lack of medical qualifications notwithstanding, that the "right thing to do" first is to go to a qualified health professional and find out if you have a problem, and if so, what it is. I expect that once you really know what is/is not going on inside you, you'll have no trouble figuring out "the right thing to do" about it (which may be nothing other than reporting that visit which found nothing).
 
Henning said:
...as for whomever else decided they needed to be anonymous as well, they are irrelevant and I believe to whom was being referenced there, not the OP.
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Yeah, I wrote that before I found out it was a different unregistered poster.
 
Palmpilot said:
Yeah, I wrote that before I found out it was a different unregistered poster.
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That's always the problem with allowing anonymous posting, you have to filter through the different 'voices' to work out who is who. The benefit occasionally outweighs the detriment as with subject matter like this so one learns to ignore on the internet quite quickly. Usenet was much worse.
 
bbchien said:
It's the old yellow board, reborn! ...........sigh.
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There's always someone, the more people sign up, the more you get until you get yellow board conditions. Not the first time here either considering this is where the yellow board moved when it was closed.
 
It took less than a semester to get the diagnosing arrhythmias down as a paramedic. But still it's not something you can self-diagnose without a ECG.
 
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