Coronary Artery Spasm

Hi BBP,

My cardiologist believes that I have coronary artery spasms also. I am on a low dose norvasc. I can't really say that it controls them if that is what I have. They simple come and go as they please. However I do not have attacks as bad as you.. When I have them, they are more sharp than dull and crushing. They do not last long but come back for a few hours. Mine are definately triggered by very stressful events such as my daughter being ill and hospital. Then they will just take off and I will have them daily for months.

The 'warm rush' you describe does not sound coronary artery spasm related to me but what do I know. I am not a doctor. I have had that sensation before though. I always attribute it to adrenaline rushes. They pass quickly for me and since I tell myself that it is an adrenaline rush I never let it bother me or escalate into a full-blown panic attack. However I do not really know if it is that. ??

However I am female and it took a couple of years for me to get a diagnosis. In that time, I ran into doctors who did not know what was wrong with me, would get frustrated and simple tell me I was either depressed take this antidepressant med or having panic attacks take this anti-anxiety med. I felt that they were wrong but I sought out a counselor who taught bio-feedback to work with him if I was having those types of probelms. That way I could deal with the issues without being on the meds which I was opposed to. I learned alot about the parasympathetic nervous system by working with him and that is where I got the idea that those sensations were adrenaline dumps into the body.

I hope that you get hold of your doctor soon and he can provide better insight. If you find out what they are, I'd love to know since it sounds similar to what I sometimes experience.

After consulting with the Cardiologist, we have come to the conclusion that I have been experiencing Ectopic Heart Beats. I could have explained the 'rise in heart beat' a little better in the fact it 'feels' like an extremely strong beat quickly followed by another smaller one.  I am going to follow up with my own cardiologist when she returns from o/seas and have already discussed the opportunity of booking a Holter Monitor with the cardiac clinic to determine if this is a correct diagnosis.  Again, I do not find these this feels anything like when I am experiencing a spasm (huge difference) and have read quite a bit in the past few days regarding Ectopic beats. This has somewhat eased my mind about these new sensations. It was proposed that maybe these extra/heavy beats have been occuring prior to this, and my awareness of what I am feeling since having such severe spasms is now letting me recognise what is going on a little clearer.

I must admit that I have felt these ectopic beats before, not as prominent though, but just put it down to high heart rate due to prolonged physical activity.

Will update this forum when results from Monitor testing come in.

Thanks for your responses,

Rgds

For the past 15 years I have been having pain in my chest that radiates to my neck and on both sides of my lower jaw. The pain feels like a contraction where it builds up to a crest and holds, then releases after a few minutes. It starts in my chest and builds up quickly to a steady pain. The pain in my neck area feels like someone is squeezing my neck and at the same time sitting on my chest. My arms and legs get weak and I feel like I turn pale but I'm told i don't look it. The other day I had an episode, it was the day Hurricane Michael was to hit. I checked my blood pressure during the episode and it was 168/112. I have never checked my BP before during an episode. My BP is usually low-normal around 110/68. With my BP so high, I carried myself right to the ER. I suppose this episode was brought on by the stress of preparing and putting up stuff and worrying about trees falling and flooding. I was at the ER at 11:30 am and the storm was to hit us around 8:30 pm in GA. This time my EKG was abnormal but non-specific. My blood work was good - no heart attack - so I went home and have to take an aspirin a day until my follow up with my cardiologist in a couple of weeks.

When my first episode happened, I had a stress test of which I failed. He did other test and then ultimately a heart cath. It was fine. I kept having episodes off and on for the next several years. They have only landed me in the ER 3-4 times. He told me a couple of years ago when I went (again for chest pain) that the test he was doing was only checking large blood vessels. He said he would have to do a different test for small blood vessels. I am going to pursue that route at this point.

Usually the episodes last anywhere between 5 min to avg of 15 min to 40 min. Most of the time, they are gone before I even tell anyone. Sometimes they wake me up at night. Sometimes it comes and goes several times before the episode is completely over. This past episode caused me to dig once again into the google goop. I read up again on all of my symptoms This time I came across artery spasm.

I also have brain lesions that are in the white matter of my brain. They are non-specific and could be from small vessel issues. I have double-vision and wear prism glasses for it. Nobody knows why I have the lesions or double vision! I have fibromyalgia too. about 7 years ago, I had the touch test for fibromyalgia, checking all the little spots that are supposed to hurt. I didn't hurt in any of them. Two years ago, I went in and she did the test again and I hurt on every single spot she touched!! I couldn't believe it. I was also diagnosed with Anklyosing Spondylitis with HLAB-27 +. My neck and back had hurt me all my life and that was my initial reason for seeing the rheumy. I also have osteoarthritis. Last year, my ribs felt like they were squeezing me! I was so uncomfortable. I went to my rheumy and she changed me from Embrel to Humira injections. That helped and now I have no rib squeezing pain. AND I have Hashimotos Hypothyroidism but at this point, it isn't bad and I am not on medicine for it.

Back to my chest pains which is my main concern... I have three thoughts as to what this could be. 1. MS hug. I have the lesions, double vision, gait and eye disturbances. However, I had a spinal tap 15 years ago and the fluid was clear. I saw Dr. Thrower in Atlanta and he said the lesions are not quite shaped like MS lesions so he couldn't diagnose me with MS. 2. Esophagus spasms? My mom had that but she felt like she was choking. I don't. I also have no regurgitation with it. I do have a hiatal hernia per my last scope. 3. Coronary artery spasm. I am hoping for an answer soon.. I'll let you know so maybe this will help someone else who is still wondering.

Post Edited (cswbeck) : 10/26/2018 11:50:25 AM (GMT-6)