Palpitations and Squeezing

[Will1471]

Hi there, apologies for the long post.
But please could you help me understand what could possibly be going on with my body.
I feel absolutely terrible and am getting quite exasperated with all of this!
I have had syptoms of all kinds, which has made visiting a conventional doctor a very confusing affair - I think for him, it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack!
So these are my most promient symptoms, which I have reflected on and singled out, with scrutiny.

Profile: 22 year old male - I regretably have smoked about 3 cigarettes a day for 5 years, (have curretly been making progress by cutting dow to this past month) eat reasonably well and exercise fairly often, slim build.

Symptoms:-

(Main ones)

In the past few months, I have felt an occassional barrage of palpitations lasting 2 minutes - this has directly caused breathlessness and nausea. Has only happened twice.

Also,
A heavy tightness in my sternum, or sometimes between my shoulder blades, - this gets worse with emotional stress and sometimes with excercise.
This tightness feels like a dull, heavy, thumping, feeling in the middle of my upper back.
It honestly feels like my heart is squeezing the blood around my body, rather than pumping it a lot of the time.
I feel a sort of tingling and pulsating in my lips occasionally when this happens.

(Less prominent/more tolerable ones)

Multiple extra beats which occur when I initially lie down to go to sleep at night. These cause me to become a bit breathless. (They only happen just after I lie down, but subside after 2 mins)
Also, sudden, intense 'one off' palpitations that come out of nowhere and COMPLETELY wind me for a split second (when at rest, relaxed, and suitably preoccupied)
[They make me feel like all the air has been sucked out of my chest, except my lungs are of course inhaling and exhaling normally.]

Have had several ECGs over the past 2 years, and one recently, none of which showed any abnormality.
Blood pressure is fine, resting pulse rate is average of a healthy person.
Have had panic attacks and anxiety before. I would say this is no longer an issue for me apart from the very strong main symptoms I am experiencing - even without panicing.

Was wondering if it would be worth requesting more extensive tests, other than the ECG and blood pressure tests I have had.
What tests would you reccomend?
Does anything actually need to be ruled out afterall?

[Will1471]

Thanks very much for your advice. I meant to post this in the doctors forum, but your reply is definately appriciated anyway! Yes, I want to get these tests, but my doctor isnt taking me at all seriously. He has told me that if I faint, he will take that as an indication of a serious underlying disorder: only then will he send me to a cardiologist. Right now he doesnt suspect a problem because the ECG is fine, I have a history of anxiety, (by the way, I have history of it, not a present!) and because I am young.

However, this tightness in my sternum and upper back during exercise is definately telling me otherwise! :-( It is very much like a pulsating, heavy straining feeling. And like I said, I also get very sinister feeling palps...its not the typical "du-dum du-dum du-dum du.....DUM" but more of a "du-dum du-dum du-dum --- du-dum" and during the "---" it suddenly feels like my arteries are straining a lot for a split second,, and I feel a very strong sinking in the middle of my chest. Whatever it is, is horrible thats for sure.

It feels very much like blocked arteries or valves. Do you think this could be the case?

[shell1925]

I would definetly ask for a Holter monitor which is almost like a 24 hour EKG that wear while doing your everyday activities.  It will monitor your heart rate and any PVC's or PAC's that you may be having.  If you are experiencing chest pain during exercise you may also want to ask them to do a stress test on you where you run on a treadmill while hooked up to an EKG machine.  Good luck and don't hesitate to ask anymore questions!

Shell