My heart is skipping beats what does it mean?

[OregonGuy2008]

Well I have always been a fairly healthy person, however within the last couple years I have been experiencing problems. It began with sudden problem breathing that would last for a few minutes then go away. I think this was psychological and was just panic attacks. I did have a holter test and the doctor told me that everything was normal except for when I went to sleep and he noticed that my heart rate went up to about 120bpm for a short time. Then when I moved to oregon I began feeling tightness in my chest on a semi-regular basis - I ended up going to the emergency room one night and they did EKG and blood and said everything looked normal and I went home after receiving a dose of morphine. Again I contributed this to severe stress at work.

Most recently I have noticed that even though I am not working at the same job and feel fairly unstressed my heart will have periodic episodes where it will beat 6-8 beats normally, pause or stop for just a second and then continue. I have been noticing this happening more frequently and wonder if it's normal or could be something more serious. I don't have the $20.00 to post this question to a Doctor and I am without health insurance.

Please help.

Confused in Oregon

[ireneo]

Depending on how often this "skipping" occurs, a Holter monitor may not catch it within the 24 hours. Have you or can you ask for an event monitor? That is usually worn for 2-4 weeks and you press a button to record and save any irregular beats you have. Then the doctor can review it. You may be having PVC's - a pretty benign and common arrhythmia. If your heart is otherwise normal, then PVC's are harmless, just noticeable and annoying at times. An electrical signal comes a bit too early in the heart and throws off the rhythm for a moment. But it goes back to normal.

Being short of breath and having chest tightness could be related to panic and stress. Hope you get some answers soon. It's tough not knowing.