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Issue with my heart

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Posted 6/3/2012 2:33 AM (GMT 0)
Hello All, I am a 32 year old Mail if fairly good shape.

Here is whats going on.

2yrs ago I experienced what I believed to be a panic attack. Had a lot of blood work done and found to be normal. Finally got my GP to refer me to a cardiologist. I was worried something was wrong with my heart. Did an echo stress test and basically said here take this and left. He was a smart you know what. I have since left him. What he gave me to take was Bystolic. because he said my heart got to fast. I was on the treadmill for the 12 minutes I believe and my heart was around 190 or a little higher, cant remember.

He really did not tell me anything of my test. How my heart was, how it looked and all that stuff. I guess if it was major he would have told me I guess.

So I started to take the bystolic. (I wished I never did take it but dum me went ahead and took it.) Was on 2.5mg for 5mths and made me feel slow, sluggish, low heart rate and BP. My normal BP is about 115/68.

I started to experience these funny feeling in my chest area. Sometime a thump and sometime these big drop your stomach feeling, sensation in throat and a head rush, like fainting feeling I guess. I knew something was not right because I have never ever in my life experience these before. I went back to him and told him what I felt. I described it as a gas bubble feeling and he just told me to take a acid reflux medicine. I told him I wanted off the medicine and we weened my self off of them. The worst ones I got or the feeling I had was when I weened my self off of them for 2 weeks.

I would still feel the strange feeling every once in awhile. I went back to him and talked to him and he was being short with me and say what do you want me to do. I left him. Found out that the owner of the gym I go to his wife is a PA for a Cardiologist. I like her a lot and she listens and is very nice. I told them about the feelings I get and they put me on a 30 day monitor by CardioNet. I thought I had some during the 30 day but not sure because the feeling were not as strong as before. They said they really did not see anything.

Well I had either had another panic attack or an episode of SVT about a month ago and these feeling are back again with a pretty strong feeling.

How do I know if I am having a panic attack or SVT. I woke up in the middle of night to use restroom, went to lay in bed and just felt this dread feeling like something bad was fixing to happened. My breath got very short and my heart just took off. I do not know how fast it got. It was just pounding away in my ears. I felt I could die any minute and that made it worse, and the faster it went. The feeling passed and it came back down to normal rhythm and my breathing returned.

Went back to the heart doctor and told her of the attack and the feeling in my chest. She told me that because nothing was really found on the 30 day monitor she recommended an implantable heart monitor that I could have monitor my heart up to 3yrs if needed.

Thats where I am at now. Not knowing what to do. If these feeling do not stop, I probably with do it because I am tired of the feelings and I would like to catch the very fast heartbeat episode to make sure there not dangerous.


The feeling in my chest are felt just below the sternum. I have actually felt it in my pulse now that it is happening more often now. My pulse will be steady and normal and then bam, I get that horrible feeling and then no pulse and then back to normal. Is this a PVC that I have been trying to catch. And I also get them sometime when I try to take the biggest deepest breath I can, right when I can not take anymore air in I feel a pause in my heart and that feeling in my throat agian.

Did being put on Bystolic cause these. Because I never had an issue until I took that dam beta blocker. Or is this a start of something else giong on with my body. See below. Becuase my new heart doctor did mentions lyme to me and we ran a ELISA test but it came back negative but I have now found out that is not a good test and I am going to be tested more for lyme.

I am also having a bunch of other weird stuff going on that my be related to Lyme because I am going to a doc for that. If you wish to read that story it is here.
https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=2428203

I am sorry for such a long read and I hope some one reads it.
Posted 6/3/2012 2:49 AM (GMT 0)
Hey AKA Jon,

I don't usually post here... but I do look in here at times because I have heart issues as well (it's something called POTS...Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome)... but I also deal w/ anxiety issues off/on... I'm on a beta blocker, too (Atenolol).

Anyway... I don't know much about Lyme disease.... so can't help in that area - but assume you've done some reading here on the Lyme board.

I would just suggest talking to your new doctor about maybe doing another echo. Maybe getting the report from the one 2 years ago and doing some comparison. I just had an echo after not having one for 2 years - and there WERE some changes.

I've done the 30 holter monitor as well... could you maybe try another 30 day one, before the 3 year implant?

When you have multiple health issues - it's really hard to separate everything out. A panic attack feels very much like much of the heart issues I've dealt with. That's why I think some further testing would be good. Because it's not something you want to let go if it's more than a panic attack, you know?

I'm sure the others here will have much more to add than I can... but I'm sorry you are dealing w/ all of this... I hope you can get an answer as to what is going on w/ you.

Take good care --Tina
Posted 6/3/2012 4:00 AM (GMT 0)
Hello Tina,

Thank you so much for reply. I will ask for another stress test.

How did you get diagnosed with POTS? Is beta blocker treatment for that?

I have talked to the Lyme group and I am in good company there. :-)
Posted 6/3/2012 6:10 AM (GMT 0)
I, too, have multiple health issues - so keep in mind I have so many things going on - that they often merge together when I'm talking it. So bear with me, lol.

I'm 38 years old. I was relatively healthy until about 30 (before that - just migraines, some depression/anxiety issues that came and went, etc). When I was 30, though, it literally felt like a semi-truck crashed into me - and, honestly, I've not been the same since then.

Since then, I've been diagnosed w/ POTS/Dysautonomia; Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; Chronic High BP; Hypothyroidism; Chronic Pain issues - beyond the fibro, I have cervical and thoracic back issues; sciatic nerve issues down my legs; severe carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands; oh, and that lovely depression and anxiety that comes out ever little bit, lol.

Back to the heart thing:

The main things before my diagnosis.... my resting heart was about 100. ANY activity - I'd immediately be in the 180's to the 200's. Well, this did not make doctors happy - to see a pretty healthy mom in there with multiple issues - and a heart doing crazy things. Another main thing at the time - ANY positional change would cause me to get so dizzy that I would almost black-out. At night, I often read to my kids while stretched out on the floor on my stomach. Well, I'd go to get back up - and I would become dizzy, light-headed, my heart rate would speed up and I would feel a rush of blood to my brain. This still happens w/ any positional changes.

POTS is something that branches off of Dysautonomia.... basically - your "autonomic nervous system" (the thing that runs all those fancy systems in our body that we don't have to think about, because our body automatically makes it work - such as our hearts, lungs, some GI stuff - even our body temperatures and some muscle/joint pain issues can be related).

I had every test imaginable - EKGs, Holter Monitor, 30 day monitor where I kept a diary of all activities, Echocardiogram, the echo w/ the treadmill test.... (it took me exactly 3.29 minutes to get to where my heart rate needed to be - in the 170's. I thought that was ridiculous.

Instead of me rambling on (which I do SO very well, lol) - why don't you peek at www.dinet.org. You might find that if you really read through the different components.... you might find things that you can identify with. You might see enough that puts you on that path to look more into it.... OR it still might help point you in other directions. Once you are familiar w/ the site - go to the "Forum" section... then click on Enter Discussion... then click on Dysautonomia Discussion. Maybe by reading some of people's stories - you might read something that sounds exactly like what is going on w/ you.

Managing POTS is finding the "right" meds to work - just like any other thing. I've been on a bunch of them.... That's for sure! Right now, I'm only on Atenolol (beta blocker) but at really high doses. For the moment, I'm stable... but that can change any time.

I think asking for another stress test make perfect sense. I'd really encourage you to do that.

Glad you talked to the Lyme board!! Anything hurt in your body?? Then, come visit me and my team at Chronic Pain - we've really got a great group there, lol. Point being, you are very welcome here, on any forum..... and so many of us end up becoming really good friends, it's funny.

Once you read all that stuff - if you have other questions about any of it - please fee free to ask away. I'll help you as much as I can. My e-mail is in my profile OR we can just keep discussing it on this thread :)

Well Mr. AKA - Jon :) It's been nice talking to you - and, again, I wish you so well on this journey. Please keep me updated, ok?

Tina
Posted 6/3/2012 5:24 PM (GMT 0)
Hello Tina,

It does suck that your feeling fine one day and the next every thing changes. I went to that web site and looked over POTS and I don't know if I fit the protocol for that or not.

It sucks that I wore the monitor for 30 days and nothing really went on like it is now. I thought insurance was going to cover it but after all was said and done, I was left with a nice bill. Hate to do that again and nothing shows. Seems like my heart behaves its self when it is being monitored. LOL

Hopefully some one here who dose experience PVC's can tell me if that is what I am feeling.

Had the same feeling this morning while checking my pulse.

I am sorry for what you have to go through, its no fun worrying all the time.

I will be sure to keep in touch. Going to talk to her this week in the gym.

Thanks again.

Jon
Posted 6/8/2012 2:29 AM (GMT 0)
HI Jon,

I don't know if this is the same feeling you have but I can feel my heart skip a beat. It makes me feel scared and a little breathless. I can feel it in my pulse. At times I have had it happen a lot.

I had a stress test done last week and right when they hooked me up the monitor it happened. I said "oh" and the tech asked me what was wrong and I said I just felt my heart skip. She said that it was a PVC.

I know that when I had them more frequently I was put on Metoprolol (?). It helped for a while and then it didn't work anymore. I haven't had them very bad for several years. Don't know why they slowed down.

I would definitely have some more tests done before they put an internal monitor in. You may not need it.

Take care,
Mary Ann
Posted 6/9/2012 2:57 AM (GMT 0)
Hello Mary Ann,

No, I cannot afford the internal monitor right now. I do not really have great insurance and I have not met my deductible. Almost $800 to put it in and $500 to take back out. I am at least going to try to see if they can put me on a 48hr monitor. I asked if I needed another stress test and they really did not think that was necessary.

The intensity that I had earlier this week is gone. They feel like a small hiccup now when I have them. Funny as heck how they just come and go at their own will. There has to be a reason why they start and go.

I don't care how the doctor tells me not to worry about them, they scare the hell out of me and I hate the feeling. I hate the ones that feel like I got hit with a fist. Luckily I only had one of those since they have started back up on me.

But right now, I must put all my expense towards being properly looked at for Lyme.

Thanks for the reply Mary Ann.

Jon.
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