Palpitations

[Carrie41]

I just want to know what other peoples palpitations feel like?  I actually feel my heart sputter or do a couple of little beats and then a super hard one.  I was kind of worried after I read a post from someone that didn't feel the palpitations in her heart but her throat.  I feel them in the left hand side of my neck and my heart.  How many times a day would others get that??

I was really worried last night.  I was really tired and I felt four really hard dropped beats (every third beat) when I was at the mall and then when I got home I sat down on the couch and put my feet up and my heart went wonky (like little skipped beats for around a minute or so).  Does anyone ever get that????

[spratty]

Hi everyone, i am 19 years old and i have been experiencing palpitations and panic attacks for about 2 years on and off. I am 15 weeks pregnant and they seemed to have returned since being pregnant. Mine are like missed, skipped heart beats and everytime i get them i think im gonna die. Its a horrible experience and very scary. I have had numerous ecg's a 24 hour tape and a scan of my heart and there were no abnormalities. The problem is i have never had a palpitation recorded as they only last a few seconds each time. Also wen i had my tape it was about the only day i never had one (sods law). I sometimes get them in my sleep really bad and i dont know if there real or im imagining them. I'm told all the time that there is nothing wrong but i still cant accept this and i am constantly thinking about them. I,m glad to see that i am not the only person suffering from these xxx

[BRAZZY3]

Just to relate to the Wal-mart posters.  That's when I first discovered my heart issues.  Right in Wal-mart, I started feeling funny, first like my feet would not take another step, then suddenly my heart started beating hard and fast.  I sat down on the floor then laid on the floor somehow the coldness of the tile kinda helped me feel better. All the while the employees are just looking at me like why is this customer on the floor(I called 911 from my own cell phone) I was diagnosed with a cardiomyopathy with an EF of 40-45%.  But it is so funny I have read on here a couple of times posters referring to having these episodes while shopping of all stores WAL-MART...Could there be a link?  For me it was too much good stuff to look at and try to buy and while there I start getting dizzy this happened several times but I would shrug it off, but actually I started having problems leaving the store.  I would have to call my husband or daughter for them to call my cell phone and literally tell me to put my items down and just leave the store.  I thought that being at the Wal-Mart was a stress reliever but I think it became the opposite.  I have told my story on other posts maybe you all have read.  But subsequently after 5 months my heart strengthen and I just had another MUGA Scan today so hopefully the results will still be good, appt with Cardio 2/16/07.  Along with all of you I suffer panic/anxiety the pvc's pac's & maybe some other things to, also I find once I leave my doc or after having tests I actually start having the symptoms...Go figure.  Thanks for letting me post such a long comment.

[scareddee]

Thanks for your comments.  I have learned a lot from this forum and it helps to know that I am not alone.  I don't talk about this affliction with anyone.  My husband knows, but he doesn't understand.  I guess I don't really understand it all either and I'm the one suffering with it.  Palps may not be life-threatening, but they sure are life-altering.  Best to everyone in the new year.

[tammyand]

hello, i failed my stress test went into v-tach. rushed to cardiac icu (4 days) then ambulanced to clev clinic.(3 days) went through all the tests to find out i have just v tach strictly electrical. Was put on sotalol and flecaidine. i still was getting "thumps" every couple of days. So i wore a event monitor for 31 days. It caught what my cardio guy calls a few extra beats, I call annoying all day long, am i going to die beats. taking ativan its helping a bit. my comment is that i dont feel that doctors spend enough time telling us how to handle that anxiety. between trying to get the meds right (which i have to go into the hospital if i want to change them)
trying not to go all "mental" when my heart flutters. I feel like my world has gotten very small. How did i go from icu, cant even get out of bed to you'll just have to live with it?

[finetilthree]

I had 13 pacs and 2 pvcs on holter monitor.  I felt every one although I can't tell the difference between the two.

[Carrie41]

I have had the extra beats for 20 years but they have really flared up lately.  I am back to square one with my anxiety about them.  I just was doing a test right now and I laid down on the couch for a couple of minutes to see if it would skip and it did.  

Don't worry about dying.  You won't.  I have been for so many tests and they say I am fine just have PVC's and PAC's.  I can't accept them though.  They say my reaction to these is the thing that is not normal.  They say just ignore them, but I can't!!!  I just had a holter last week and brought back the thing with not one skipped beat.  I think they don't believe me!  I have got to get it thru my thick head that these things are normal and not to worry but I have to find a way to do that.

[Carrie41]

That is when I am noticing them more now is when I lay down.  I hate laying down now!!!  All I think about it my heart when I am laying there waiting for it to skip.

[scareddee]

Hi Everyone,

I had an experience with palpitations a few weeks ago that maybe someone could explain to me.

I was shopping on my lunch hour and I got the usual sinking feeling in my stomach and I could feel my heart start to accelerate.  I made my way to the check-out line and by then adrenaline had kicked in and I was getting a pretty rapid beat and lots of palps.  Out in my car, I tried to relax. (Obviously, I have anxiety issues, too!)  It wasn't happening.  I became more anxious, my heart was going crazy and I was sure I was about to die.  I drove myself to the ER.  They hooked me up to a monitor.  My heart rate was about 140.  It showed sinus tachycardia.  I calmed down somewhat.  My heart rate went down and they were talking about letting me go.  I got another "sinking feeling," and my heart took off again.  Everyone was wathching the monitor.  I was feeling palps and I kept telling them when I felt them.  They kept telling me that nothing showed up on the monitor except sinus tachycardia.  Does this seem right?

Anyway, I was sent home the next day with Toprol XL, 50 mg daily.  It has helped with both tachy and palps, but it seems to have increased my anxiety.  I guess this is a potential side effect.  I followed up with the cardio that I saw in the hospital and she says I am fine.  This is all anxiety related.  I have struggled  with panic and anxiety for many, many years.  Maybe this is a flare-up of that.  I have had two previous echos several years ago.  One showed MVP, the second one showed no MVP.  I had a normal holter back in March.

Any thoughts from anyone would be appreciated.  These palps and weird heart sensations can really change your life.  I think about them 24/7.  I'm pretty sure that is part of the problem.  I need to stop focusing on them, but it's hard.

[sb786]

you're lucky you only have 10-15 a day. i had 54 caught on a 24hr monitor a few days ago. its weird though because i only felt about 20! Have you had 10-15 pvcs confirmed by a 24 hr ekg?

i seem to get most of mine whilst i'm about to sleep, does anyone else get that?

[finetilthree]

I definitely feel mine when I try to go to sleep.  One trick that has worked for me is sleeping with four pillows under my head and one slanted to support my back.  Also, hugging a soft pillow dulls the sensation alot.

[Carrie41]

I am going to try the pillow thing tonight.  I was just out again at Costco and had a big one standing in line!  I can't take this anymore.  I could feel myself getting panicky and just thought I have to stand here or I will lose my place in line.  Isn't that crazy huh.

[sb786]

Thanks for the advice. will try the pillow thing tonight, hope it works for me too! I just hate it when i'm drifting off to sleep and the pvcs start. when i wake up they stop!! how annoying its almost as if they are doing it on purpose to stop me from sleeping!!!

[anacyde]

carrie: sounds exactly like PACs and PVCs, I've had those symptoms with both.

scared: sinus tach can feel like your heart is thumping all over the place.  That sinking feeling is probably an adrenaline rush precipitating the spike in your heart rate.  Fortunately they saw this on the monitor and were able to assure you that you're in a normal rhythm when this happens.  Hang in there ;)

[finetilthree]

How long have you been noticing these extra beats?  I have been noticing mine daily for the last 8 months.  I'm thinking that if I was gonna die from it that maybe I would've already died.

[Carrie41]

Well isn't that funny.  That is exactly where I was when I got the dropped beats - in Walmart!  How bizarre huh.

Yup, I get the quick beats followed by the hard one as well.  So you are in the same boat as me.  Around 10 palpitations a day.  Ten to many I might add!  I don't know how these people make it thru the day with thousands I would be sent off the deep end.  I mean look at what this amount is doing to me!  I get the electric shock one as well.  I can have a flutter and a bang and then the next minute it will be just like a kick to the heart or the shock feeling.  It is never painful just a really unnerving feeling.  It sometimes feels like it is like someone has squeezed it or something.  Really hard to explain!

[finetilthree]

Oops, I left this part out.  I probably feel around 10 a day.  On a horrible day, maybe 15. Do you ever get a few fast beats followed by a PVC?  That is a new sensation for me.

[finetilthree]

Hi.  I feel the exact same sensations as you do.  I feel most of my skips in my chest where my heart would be.  I have occasionally felt them really low, almost below the breast bone and it feels GROSS.  I feel several weird sensations.  Some I feel as an electric shock that always makes me clear my throat or cough, sometime I feel two quick beats followed by a long pause (this is a gross one too), sometimes I just feel the pause.  The worst ones I think are the electric shock ones that take my breath away.  I was in WalMart last night and felt two or three of that type and I wanted to run to my car and drive home but I powered through.