I’ve got PACs man
I just came to the realization this week that I’ve got PACs and never realized it before. I always skipped over those conversations because I assumed I never had them, just Afib. I had an ablation in early 2026 and had a couple small Afib episodes last year but none in the last 9 months.
This week I was pretty stressed out one night and my heart felt kind of funny. I took my pulse in my neck like I normally do and could tell it wasn’t afib but I could feel skipped beats. In the past I always felt when I couldn’t “feel” a beat at a given moment it because I was at the end of my breath and I couldn’t feel that beat. I used my Kardia and confirmed no afib, but as I watched it I could see and tell when the PAC was firing the beat off early followed by the “missed beat”. That of course made me more anxious and stressed. It calmed down and the next day on the Kardia sometimes it was no PACs and sometimes 1 or 2 in the 30 seconds.
I then remembered when I saw my EP in December I looked at the notes on MyChart later and he said I had palpitations. I remember thinking he must have made a mistake as I didn’t and have and haven’t ever had any palpitations. I then looked through some earlier Kardia recordings this year and found PACs on some of them.
So I guess I’ve had PACs all along. I never really feel or notice them unless I’m actually checking my pulse or if I’m having frequent ones. I’m assuming / hoping it’s not a big deal since my EP didn’t even tell me he found palpitations/PACs, he just mentioned it in the notes. For those with PACs have your doctors been concerned about them?
(I’m 99% sure these are PACs and not PVCs because it looks identical on an EKG to a normal beat except it’s shortened up.)