Weird Chest Sensation

Hello, Lyme friends. Please help me to decipher this symptom. There have been threads about it before, but I am having trouble finding them with the search function, mostly because people characterize it in so many ways.... I hope someone knows what this is.

It is described as:
a flip-flop feeling
an esophageal spasm
a physical pang of anxiety
butterflies in the stomach, just for a second
a pang of panic feeling caused by posture or alignment issues
a heart arrhythmia
a feature of GERD
the sensation you get at the top of a roller coaster
the sensation you get when you drive over a speed bump or crest a steep hill going fast in a car
a diaphragm spasm
vagus nerve misbehavior

It's a quick pang in my lower chest, a thump I can feel from the outside if my hand happens to be in the right place. It happens most often when I am lying down, often in bed first things in the morning, and right before I eat or if I imagine eating, and then when I'm especially full. I have a few other symptoms flaring right now, and it's been a bad couple of weeks. I'm sure anxiety is related, as the world feels pretty horrible at the moment, but I also pushed myself really hard recently and crashed, so adrenal issues seem probable as well.

What do you all think this is? Does anyone actually know?

I'm inclined to try breathing exercises, attention to posture, stretching, and CBD. But I'd love to know what's actually happening.

I have a portable EKG at home, and everything is normal when the sensations happen. I have had many echocardiograms over the years, but not within the past year. The only thing ever found to be going on with my heart is POTS (which technically is neurological, not cardiac). My heart rate has been unusually slow for the past two weeks that I have been experiencing these sensations, but the portable EKG isn't picking up anything when the sensation occurs. Would a skipped beat show up on an EKG? Why would a skipped beat feel like a thump - does the beat that comes after it just feel stronger as a result, like making up for lost time? And why would they happen before I eat?

I am extremely reluctant to set foot in a medical facility right now!

Thanks for the reply, and glad to hear you have made peace with these feelings. Did the doctors who checked your heart conclude that they were skipped beats, too?

Yes they do pick up skipped beats, mine were picked up on one a couple years ago. They’ve got to be happening when you do the EKG though. I don’t know the exact mechanics behind it but basically yes, like making up for lost time.

Mine go like this;

Bump, bump, bump, bump.................BUMP, bump, bump.

I’m not exactly sure why they happen before you eat, maybe a change in body position or just a coincidence.

All a medical facility will do anyway is run an EKG, and you’ve already done that.

Mine really freaked me out when they started happening. I went to a walk in centre because I couldn’t get an appointment with my doctor. The nurse ran an EKG and picked up the skipped beats, because there were no doctors available to check the EKG reading she told me to go straight to hospital. I waited for about 3 hours only to be laughed at by the doctor and told they were really common. He said being anxious can actually make them worse. He said everybody gets them just most don’t notice them. My Lyme doctor actually said the same.

It might just be that your experiencing a panic spasm, I get these all the time. I suffer from anxiety & PTSD, caused by this whole Lyme ordeal, and my nervous system is on constant high alert.

If your sill worried I would get checked out by a doctor and once they give you the all clear, which I’m sure a they will, put it to the back of your mind and ignore it.

Hi Saraeli.
I suspected for a long time that this sensation was an adrenaline surge. It has nothing to do with the heart, I have it every 2 minutes, it is very disturbing and even painful. My heart is totaly fine and I can feel it normal when I have this awful "pang" in my abdomen.
I dind an article which explain the mecanisms in our body in a roller coaster ( but it is in French).
Our skeleton goes down faster than our organs and the body create an adrenaline flush in reaction.
I really think it is the explanation, because this happen every 2 or 3 minutes but when I have an emotion or with a unexpected noise ( like the "ting" of the messenger notifications on my phone).
And my hormones are a mess since lyme and co.
What to do for slow down adrenaline production, I suppose meditation etc...
If you know some herbs...

I used to get adrenaline surges - not when going to bed at night but only if I tried to nap. I felt it all over my body and it would prevent me from sleeping. The sensation was akin to a warm rush for me. I didn’t connect the dots in your original post, but if you’re not feeling the flutter or jumps in heart then adrenaline surge makes sense.

When these sensations are very potent, I can feel it in my brain too and it is painful.
I sometimes have the heart skipped beats, but it is different. My heart goes crazy for a few seconds, and then nothing, it stops and suddenly boum boum boum again.

Glad that you are feeling better saraeli