So Tired of Palpitations Part 2 (Still Tired)

Hi CSA08, sorry to read what you've been through but I'm familiar with some of it and while I know that each situation is different, here's mine and the outcome. I've been on BP medication for years. After a series of crappy events last fall including passing out and breaking a toe when getting up at 4:00 am, I was put through many heart tests because the ER thought I could have had a heart attack. This cranked up my anxiety (thinking it's my heart) and my BP but the irony is that I passed out because my BP was too low and my dosage was too high till that point. However, now the heart anxiety caused my BP to sky rocket despite my medication, and it had to be brought down immediately with clonidine. The heart tests came back fine but in my mind I still thought I was having heart problems. I was sure the doctors and tests missed something. The cardiologist and my regular doctor recognized that my bouts of anxiety (with palpitations) was causing the episodes of high BP, so they prescribed Lexapro on a daily basis and buspirone when needed for those strange anxious feelings. Since I could anticipate the anxiety attack, I learned that I could stop them by taking just half of the buspirone dosage I was given. I think knowing that I could do this has helped me tremendously to realize my anxiety could be controlled immediately. Lexapro will have a constant level of anti-anxiety medication in the blood which should help in general but the buspirone is what has helped me deal with the immediate attack of heart racing which I know is my anxiety. Time helps. I haven't needed the buspirone in months.

Please speak to your regular doctor for some additional help in dealing with this. I hope you can get over this as I did.

I'm glad you're seeing some improvement! What really surprised me is the havoc that anxiety was having on my blood pressure and my heart beats. For me it was a cycle: fear of heart problems led to anxiety which raised my blood pressure very very high which caused anxiety, etc. But understanding why this was happening helped a lot. I was monitoring my BP ten or more times a day obsessively looking for improvement. Anyway, as time has passed so has this problem and I put away the blood pressure cuff. I've needed the buspirone less and less and haven't taken it in about a month or so. This all started for me last fall.

I hope you can get rid of this now. Sometimes I take very deep breaths. That's supposed to slow the heart rate. Walking it off can also help if you're able to do that. Just know that this is not an unusual situation and doctors take it seriously to rule out heart problems and then focus on controlling the anxiety - I think it's harder to treat anxiety than heart problems. ugh

Have a great weekend!

They've looked for a murmur before. The doctors always listen to see if they hear one, and with the multitude of tests I've had, I'd hope they would have found it if I did have one. So I'm assuming that's not the case.

In fact, the ER doctor the other night told me he was gonna listen and see if he heard one.

Right now, I'm feeling quite defeated. Yesterday morning I felt great. This was all in my head, I was gonna start getting it under control, etc. Then, I had that extended flutter yesterday afternoon and it cut my legs out from under me. Even broke down in tears, and went to bed depressed. This morning it's just a feeling of complete defeat. Especially since the seemingly source of this was a beta blocker which is supposed to prevent these from happening to begin with. It makes me wonder if there's something more wrong with me even though everyone has said if that was the case, the EKG would have shown something that one of the doctors would have picked up on.

I think I'm gonna end up going back to the cardiologist regardless. I think that will give me peace of mind.

I'm sorry to hear about your husband. I can tell you that my dad has had a couple of procedures done on his heart like that and there's very little to them. It's insane how far we've come with treating heart ailments like that. What used to require open heart surgery is now a borderline outpatient procedure. So as someone who has had a loved one go through that, I can tell you that it really is simple, and my dad was in his 70s when he had both of his procedures. I hope that gives you a bit of reassurance =)

Deep breathing and I have a hard time getting along. Every time I start to have an anxiety attack due to skipped beats I will start to deep breathe and that feels like it brings on a flutter or a hard thud LOL. So it's like the cure is worse than the condition (which is hilarious considering that beta blockers appear to have gotten me into this situation!)

I am a bit calmer this afternoon than I was 24 hours ago. Still having some palpitations, but much softer and less noticeable than yesterday. That has helped me to relax. I still have that feeling of dreariness and defeat attached to it though. I think just getting the cardiologist on the phone Monday morning will help ease me some more. In the meantime, I'm kind of reluctant to do anything even somewhat physical in case it sets off another run of them. (I think that also has me down not getting out and doing my evening walk and feeling like I'm borderline bedridden.)

An update this morning: My depression has subsided slightly, but I can still feel emotionally worn down after the events of the last few days. I had a number of hefty palpitations last night in the "THUD" variety that got my attention, but I forced myself to ignore them the best I could. They didn't last as long after that even if it was hard to ignore them.

I have been trying to find reassurances on the fluttering feeling on different websites. I think that was really what undermined me. I've had those before at sporadic times where it will feel like my heart is fluttering or constantly flip flopping. It generally lasts anywhere from 5-10 seconds, but Friday afternoon it felt like it did it back to back times so it was like 10-20 seconds.

I am planning on calling the cardiologist in the morning and getting their opinion on the matter. Even though two doctors have given me clean bills of health, I can't help but think that these aren't going to get any better until I hear it from a cardiologist since I keep on thinking the "what ifs?" Anything from "What if the flutter was missed on the EKG because it wasn't happening at the time" to "What if I was already coming out of my palpitations when I got to the ER and so the EKG and monitor were wrong?" All that fun stuff our brain likes to do.

But as of right now I am about as relaxed as I am going to get, and went the entire day yesterday with only a few thumps and thuds. Tomorrow will be a bigger test as I want to get back out and exercise again, and that already feels like a daunting task.

CSA08, I think it's reassuring to anyone when the medical tests are done and you see the outcome. In my case, I had several, some were repeated from months before, but in the end they found it was my anxiety. Now that I have understanding of how anxiety was causing my own symptoms of heart and high BP problems, I have the medication that helps me deal with it and also a better outlook. All the medical personnel took my symptoms seriously and we went through the tests. And there were long discussions of how anxiety can affect our BP, heart rate, irregular rhythm, etc.

Hoping you get resolution for this! Good luck with these tests. Stay well and stay informed but start back enjoying your life!

I thought I'd give a quick update. I'm two weeks into a 30 day monitor. My cardiologist said she thought it wasn't anything to be worried about and sounded like simple ectopic heartbeats to her. SHe still wanted to get an idea about what all I was dealing with so we could make better plans on how to treat it. As she put it "Obviously, just throwing pills at it to see what works and what doesn't isn't the right answer for you based on how your body reacted to beta blockers."

My palpitations have primarily been calm since getting the monitor. There's a few days I'm having to hit the button a good number of times. Today is one of those days where it seems like I'm having several an hour, but most days they have calmed down (and certainly nothing like I saw after taking the beta blockers.)

Ironically I did have to adjust my blood pressure medication. My doctor raised me up to 10mg a day of Lisinopril and, as usual, my body did not like that. I went from an average of 140/90 down to 115/75. I felt like a sloth during that period. Everyone said "that's normal", but the problem is when you're used to a higher blood pressure, you don't want to go to normal at breakneck speeds. I'm balancing it with one 5mg in the morning and one 2.5mg at night now which seems to have kept me from having issues.

I thought I would come on and leave an update while I was lurking about on a night where I am having a copious amount of palpitations. The problem I have keeping everyone updated is that I get on here when I am stressed, but then when I relax I tend to put help websites out of my head.

The 30 day monitor was successful, and the doctor said she saw nothing that concerned her. Everything was normal except PVCs/ectopic heartbeats that she wasn't concerned about at all. Said they posed no harm to me whatsoever. I calmed down significantly in the last couple of months, and only had a handful here or there that I could easily knock down by ignoring them.

This weekend however, they came roaring back. Had a moment on Thursday or Friday where I didn't eat anything from lunch time until about 7pm, and also got in a 30 minute walk on the treadmill. By the time I got done, my blood sugar felt like it had dropped, and I started having a significant amount of PVCs. I got settled down, but since then I have had a multitude of them.

Today is probably the worst day I have had with them since the episode with the beta blockers. I wasn't having any this morning, but about 4pm they started in, and I have been having several an hour for the last 10 or so hours. And in my head I know it's because I am focusing on them that is causing them to happen more and more. When I watch TV or talk to my friends they subside. Then I can feel one and away we go again.

It's just the sheer number of them bothering me. Two different heart doctors in the last four years and my primary care doctor have all said I am fine, but it's so hard to believe that when you are like "OK so that's about 15-20 I've had this hour..."

And in reality, I know I probably have them all the time just like this and never feel them, but when I do feel them... etc etc.

So anyway, just realized tonight I hadn't updated everyone and that was rude of me. So in October, I was given a clean bill of cardiac health, and yet I still can't shake this stupid anxiety when I have a flare up. *le sigh*

That didn't go well. Ended up being chastised by the nurse for wasting her time on the phone saying that they had already told me these were benign and to take my medicine (even though my primary care doctor removed me from that medicine due to blood pressure concerns stating that if they are benign palpitations then it's more important to focus on blood pressure control than palpitation control.)

So after some round and round, the nurse basically said she would inform the doctor that we talked, but insinuated that she wouldn't give her details beyond that. So now I am having dozens of palpitations an hour, and may have to try to find a new cardiologist as I no longer trust the professionalism of my current one. I hate how this year is starting off already. =\