Maybe its my heart, maybe not

Read this if you want, or don't. But don't flame me for writing such a huge post. I'm looking for helpful suggestions to help make sense this craziness.

Hi. My name is Patrick. I am 28 and in decent physical condition. I exercise moderately and have a pretty healthy diet. I eat my greens! :)

I am not sure what forum to put this in b/c my symptoms are all across the board.

Heart issues: my heart randomly tumbles in my chest and it does make me dizzy when it's bad. I'll even be startled from my sleep to my heart tumbling. I can liken it to throwing a pair of shoes in the dryer and pressing the [ON] button. Very unusual experience. And I should mention the tumbling sensation can be so "violent" that it really scares me. It's the only symptom, out of all of these, that seems to put my body in flight or fright mode.

My doctor has never been able to observe the heart symptom. It happens randomly and it's unpredictable.

High blood pressure: controlled with Lisinopril

My resting heart-rate is ~130. My avg heart-rate when I use the eliptical is ~175bpm when I'm being lazy and ~190bpm  when I want a good sweat.

I do have a family history, on both sides, of heart disease and defects. My Dad, Grandmother, Aunts, Uncles have all had heart-attacks and bypasses. Both of my Grandfather's died in their 40's and 50's. They've doomed me with their DNA. lol.

My doctor is aware of everything I am writing on this forum. I don't know why I haven't had any heart testing nor have I ever been referred to a heart doctor. Probably b/c of my age. I've noticed that if the symptoms don't fit a textbook case of one condition or another, it's easy to be misdiagnosed. I have my father and a friend who died last week as proof of that.  

I was getting migraines about 5-7 days a week for a few months before we figured out a medication combination that worked. I am being treated with the Lisinopril for my blood pressure and Nortriptyline for the migraines. As odd as it sounds they tried to put me on a different blood pressure medicine when the Lisinopril was making me tired.. and the migraines came back when the other blood pressure medicine wasn't working.

Visual symptoms:
*erratic, electric colored spots which rapidly appear, flicker for a moment and fade. usually only one at a time
*vivid black lines which appear as a dot that extends into what seems to be a straight line which then vanishes
*gradient black spots which appear on the outside of my vision, and then fade away. They are the single largest artifacts.
*then of course, my favorite, the shooting stars. hundreds of little electric hued spots which cover my entire field of view, appear all at once and then smear. It really is a spectacular lightshow.. too bad it means something is wrong.

Other symptoms:

Ringing ears: It started about a year ago and only happened from time to time. Now it happens all the time.. Hard to describe, just changes in tone and sometimes multiple tones which sound shrill. The ringing is non-stop these days.

Mood changes: I have hyper highs and emotional lows. Crazy mood changes which make it difficult to keep myself mentally balanced. Hard to make decisions especially in social situations.

I have had an MRI(no contrast), a cat scan and I have been tested for thyroid issues and diabetes and all tests came back very good.

So there you have it. I have symptoms all across the board which makes it difficult to know which forum to place this in. It also makes it difficult for my doctors. So far I have only seen my primary care doctor and a neurologist. The neurologist tells me sinec the migraines are under control and my MRI is clean, there is nothing more he can do. My primary care doctor is stumped to say the least. And I don't blame him b/c this a huge grab-bag of symptoms. The only thing that ties all of these together is that up until a year ago I was fine.

[skydnsr]

When you say your heart is "tumbling", that sounds like really bad PVC's.  (When I was having that, it felt like a fish was flopping inside my chest.)  A resting heart rate of 130 is not normal for a 28 year old who is in good physical condition.  There are a lot of heart conditions that can be present in a young person.  A family history of heart defects elevates the risk that you have something yourself.  I would say that you need to be evaluated by a cardiologist.  

Assuming you live in the US, and you're in the type of medical system with which I am familiar, you can refer yourself to a cardiologist.  Call the cardiologist's office that you want to see, ask whoever answers the phone what records the doctor will need from your PCP, and then call the PCP's office and tell them what to fax to the card's office.   Don't ask the PCP for the referral, just tell him or her that you are going.  At that point, if the PCP does not cooperate, it is hard for him or her to justify why not.

Better yet, have the PCP's office get the records ready for you to pick up.  If you transport the records to the card's office yourself, you will know that they got there.  I have heard of people waiting and waiting forever for records to be sent from one doctor's office to another, and you can cut that loop.

Good luck.

[ireneo]

You mentioned that your doctor has never been able to observe your strange heart rhythm. There's a simple fix for that if only he had thought of it. Most of us with sporadic heart rhythm problems have had to wear monitors. The Holter monitor will record constantly for 24-48 hours. That works great if your heart is jumpy every day. For those that have arrhythmias once a week or so, there is the event monitor. It has a "loop" that records about 90 seconds and then continues to record over itself. If you have an event, you push the record button and it will save that period of arrhythmia. That way you can "catch" the problem and the doctor can see it when printed out.

I would strongly recommend you check into wearing a monitor.

The visual disturbances sound a lot like they're migraine related. I've had those; my Dad had those. His doctor told him they were a type of migraine. Just no pain involved. Strange but interesting.

Your heart rate of 130 at rest is not normal nor healthy. Your doctor needs to address that, not ignore it.

First you need to find out what kind of arrhythmias you're having before they can be managed or fixed. I hope you get the answers soon.

[skydnsr]

ireneo, yes, I didn't mean to be diagnosing plpeterson's arrhythmia, just saying that it doesn't sound normal to feel your heart tumbling.  It does need to be evaluated.  Your idea about the Holter or event monitor is right on.  Hopefully, if plpeterson can get in with a cardiologist, the problem will be diagnosed.  Theoretically, a PCP can order the monitor, but if I were plpeterson, I would want to just move along and get in with a cardiologist.  In fact, I have done it just the way I described above, for similar reasons, and the cardiologist heard a valve murmur on my first visit.  My PCP thought everything with my heart was just peachy, up to then.  It turned out I needed valve replacement right away.

[ed34]

"Your heart rate of 130"

I agree ireneo. This is virtually double an ideal resting rate.

[ireneo]

Oh goodness - I never even thought about your comment as trying to diagnose the rhythm. I tend to agree with you; it does sound like the typical PVC's be-bopping around in there. But too often a person sees their regular doctor, the doctor doesn't hear anything unusual and they send the patient home. Well, that's no help at all.

Sorry to hear about your bad valve. Glad someone caught it though. I imagine you're feeling a lot better.

[Mom2four85]

"too often a person sees their regular doctor, the doctor doesn't hear anything unusual and they send the patient home"

I think this happens way too often; sometimes drs miss things or just plain don't think anything is wrong - you've seen one, you've seen em all type mentality...[steps off my soapbox]

I would def request in writing a copy of all your medical records and take them to a cardiologist who will look into what's going on, keep looking until you find one that will give you the answers you need.

I would ask why you have HR & BP so high at your age and fitness level, not just prescribe medication for the easy fix when they don't know the answer [ducks] I'm a why person and I keep badgering until I find my answers.

I keep a journal of symptoms, what I was doing, stress levels etc to take to my drs and figure this craziness all out.

Did the same dr prescribe the meds for headaches for the other meds? If you're having headaches, you need to see if you can find out a cause - see a neurologist to rule out different conditions.

I too get ringing in my ears, but it's not constant like yours.  I think mine is linked to BP/HR; if I don't sleep it is unbearable and if I'm under alot of stress or get aggitated I can count on it to be persistant.  I'm interested in knowing a cause, but no one has told me anything other than it CAN be BP/HR related.