Age: 71.0
Sex: M
Vaccine: COVID19-2, FLU4
Symptoms: Stress echocardiogram abnormal, Ventricular extrasystoles
Clinical narrative: The first one was on 12/18/2022 at about 11:30PM. I had mild to moderate pain 4-5 on the pain scale for about 15-20 minutes after I got into bed that night. I already had some issues with my heart. I was visiting family and I was out of town and everyone was already sleep. I brushed it off and it went away. I felt pain on the left side of my chest with palpitations for 15 to 20 minutes, then that went away. When I got back home a few days later, I reported that to my cardiologist. On 12/22, I went to see the cardiologist and he did an EKG and it was normal. He said I should get a stress echocardiogram, but that took some time to get that done. On 01/05/2023, I had a stress echo as a follow up to the symptoms I had noted to my cardiologist. The results noted that I had an abnormal EKG. It suggests heart disease, and arrhythmias were noted. I was on guard and much more sensitive to any sensations I was having. I do exercise a lot 5 to 6 days a week. I was continuing my normal life style then my next episode occurred on 01/10/2023. I was waiting in a parking lot waiting for my granddaughter to get out of school. I began to feel dizzy and fuzzy. It was something I had never felt before, especially just sitting in the car. I dropped her off at her house, and I ultimately decided to call my cardiologist office for guidance. The nurse said I needed to go to the ER. I went there on 01/10 and they immediately got me in. They did all kinds of tests and it came out as an abnormal EKG in the ER. The symptoms of dizziness lasted for another 3 to 4 hours. I was kept overnight at the hospital for observation. When they took the EKG, they showed significant number of premature ventricular contractions (PVCs). I had an appointment with my regular cardiologist and had a telehealth visit and talked things over. I had been wearing a wireless heart monitor and this was prescribed after the episode in December. That showed a significant increase in PVCs. At the time of my surgery back on August 2021, it was less than 1%. After wearing the for monitor for about a week, it was at 21%, which is considered a red flag. I was referred to an EP cardiologist and to get a cardiac function MRI. Those appointments weren't available for a while. I had seen this cardiologist on 03/09 and had the cardiac function MRI on 03/01. Before seeing the EP cardiologist, I went to travel at the end of January and that's when I had another episode. I had extreme fatigue and I felt like I was 150 years old. I was completely beat and when I got to my hotel room at 07:00PM, normally I would call my wife, but I was so tired, I decided to rest for a few minutes. It was 3 hours later when I was awoken by her trying to call me. I slept through that night and spent time with family the next day but I cut it short. I realized I had some devices to see how my PVCs were doing. I also have a KardiaMobile 6L. I used those and  it appeared to me that every other heart beat was followed by a PVCs, which is about 50% by the way I was reading it (unsure if that was actually correct at the time). This was on 01/29/2023. I called my son and asked him to take me to the ER. I went into the ER, the doctor looked at me and saw the real EKG data, and he confirmed it was about 50% PVCs. They kept me there overnight for observation. I got out the next day and traveled home. That was the third of the three episodes that I can associate with the cardiac issue. The doctors notated this as PVC burden. Right now I'm doing okay and I do my home EKG and blood pressure daily. They said this is not immediately life threatening, but they do want me to continue following up with this condition. The doctor had me wear another zio patch.  He wanted to see what my PVCs were dong. This was done on 03/10/2023. He told me to wear it for 3 days which I did. I got that, and the results showed I had less than 1% of PVCs again. I started doing something different, but it wasn't a recommendation from my doctors, but a recommendation from a family member. I started sleeping on a grounded pad back on 02/13/2023. I had 99% abnormal EKGs on my Cardia device consistently, until 3 days after I had started sleeping on that pad. Now I've noticed I've had less than 5% abnormal readings on my home devices (Cardia for PVCS, smart watch) which was a dramatic change. On 02/18/23, it was the first normal reading since 12/28. I had talked to my doctor about this, and we tested it out with the zio patch heart monitor and it showed drastic change. My cardiologist noted to keep doing what I'm doing and to follow up accordingly. I've also felt much better since making this change.