Ectopic heartbeats post op and low heart rate

I am coming up to two years post open heart surgery for a large ASD and pulmonary vein redirection, cant quite believe its been two years whoooo!!!

Pre operation i cant say i ever experienced ectopic beats and if i did i must have carried on as normal and not been so sensitive about them. Post op i experienced them daily big ones for about a year afterwards and gradually they have got less and less but they still happen i would say once every few weeks well ones i can feel anyway they are very forceful feel like my heart stops then re starts ( they say we have ectopic beats everyday) soooo it leads on to my question...

Has anybody else experienced ectopic heartbeats post heart operation that they didnt have before the op and do you know a reason why? im thinking maybe im more sensitive from listening to my heart so much after my op and im in tune with it more some days which is when i feel them stronger thats could possibly be what it is but i would just like to ask as i find it really interesting to hear if anybody else is having them??

Also one last question... after my op i had a super high resting heart rate im talking 100-120bpm which is normal whilst the heart recovers. im now super active i walk everywhere i do exercise and my resting heart rate is on avg about 60-65bpm probably in the high 50's whilst im sleeping. Everyone says this is ok it means im young fit and healthy and my heart isnt under much stress but having had a heart 'issue' so to speak it does cross my mind as being bradycardia and it makes me worry and i just wondered if anyone else has experience of this fear? or has experienced such a huge decline in resting heart rate as they recover?

Izzi :)

Izzi,

Hi! I have had very similar ectopic beats, oftentimes turning to AFib. I am 4 years post-op. My resting heart rate is in 50’s. Rate was around 110 for about 3 months post-op.
I have been back to hospital several times and docs finally decided I was low in potassium/magnesium: hypokalemic. I now take prescription strength potassium. It has helped alot. I still have issues in hot weather as doc days I’m probably dehydrated.
I am very active, otherwise good health.

Maybe you should get potassium level checked, as I was told it can be a problem for heart patients.

Wishing you the best. Congrats on being an ASD survivor!!!

Mickey

Hi Mickey, thanks for your reply.

Funnily enough my gut feeling last night was to go and have my potassium levels checked. After you had your levels checked and took extra caution to take a potassium supplement did you find any improvement in your heart rate or ectopic beats?

Congrats on 4 years post op :)

izzi

I just recently started getting short of breath, fatigue, dizziness but taking potassium/magnesium for the last year has slowed down the amount of arrhythmias. I will get a stress test and leg claudication test next week. Hope I don’t need another bypass or stent at this time. It’s been 4 1/2 years since OH surgery for ASD, one bypass to main coronary and Maze procedure for AFib.

I have Ectopic heartbeat too since my ASD closure in 2009. Now I am 33 years old. I went to see my cardio 2 days ago. I usually went to visit him every 2 years. He said ectopic heartbeat is not harmful and 15% of 20-year age and heatlthy people will have it, 40% with 40-year old man, 70% with 70-80 year old man. So no need to worry. No need medication if you have this problem.

epng, I am so happy to hear that you are well and strong!