Any advice????

I hope someone may remember me.... I signed in as a newbie probably a month ago. I was experiencing heart flutters and that horrible anxious dread feeling all the time. My doctor back home prescribed xanax .5 mg once a day (been taking for about two months now).

 

I will say that it did seem to help a little but this past week the flutters and dread came back full force. I had a echocardiogram done while I was back home and wore a monitor for 24 hrs but of course i did not have any flutters while the monitor was on. The doctor told me that my heart according to the echo is functioning properly and everything looked within the normal range. ( I am the one whose father passed away at 44 with a massive heart attack).

Anyway, i felt a little better hearing this from her and since the meds seemed to be helping a little i thought okay, this is definately anxiety again. I am away from home, my children, my family and dont know when we will be getting back, if ever.

But now that i had the relapse this past week im beginning to think that it could be something else again. I have a doctors appt tomorrow (new doctor) in the state i am living in now. What should i ask for? I can tell her what is going on but I dont know what tests would help me rule out anything so that i can be sure it is just this horrible disease we call anxiety..... Maybe the echo is enough to rule out heart problems, i really have no idea about that kind of stuff.

 

Then there is my next problem, if it is just the anxiety i do not want to up the xanax, i want to find a way to deal with this without meds... i hate meds. Actually, i dont hate them i am scared of them.

Someone please give me some advice..... I get so tired of living this way. I want normal, I want carefree, I want this to go away.... I know im not the alone i wish this could just go away for everyone that suffers from it.

Please help.

 

Thanks

Cammie

Cammie,

The echocardiogram is certainly a good start toward ruling out heart conditions, and a 24-hour monitor too gives a lot of information. (I had an echo done as well as an EKG and stress test, but I think the echo was the most definitive test - it was certainly the last one we did.) Ask your new doctor what she thinks the next step should be.

If she thinks those tests are sufficient, it's certainly okay to ask in detail why she believes your heart is okay. I have bad health anxiety, and I have to ask my doctor (he knows about the anxiety too) many times before I can leave his office whether I'm really going to be okay. He's very patient, and his answers help.

percycat