Aa
Should I trust the docter?
Hey everyone! (Eep! Prepare for a LONG post hehe)
My name is Emma, I'm 18 and currently 8 months pregnant. I thought i'de make a post here and hopfuly get some useful advise as i'm extreamly frightened and confused!!
Basicly since I was 14 i've had a concern about my heart. It beats extreamly hard alot of the time, and really fast some of the time. If I even attempt to walk up stairs I have to stop at the top and sit down due to shortness of breath, Tight cheast and a fast/hard beating heart, At night I find it almost impossible to lay of my left side. Also I find every now and again it would feel like someone was pressing down on my chest, there would be one large painful heartbeat then my heart would beat in a funny sort of way for about an hour after that. All this is combined with extream dizzyness, random fainting, sharpe chest pain, extreamly pale skin, nausea, vomiting, aching left arm and left side of my neck, unfocused eyes and pounding head aches As you can imagine this has made most day to day tasks very hard to do. As i'm about to be a mummy I wanted to get it all sorted! Also because it all seemed to get way worse during my pregnancy and I was rushed by ambulence due to an extream episode of all my symptoms
Also I had a 24 hour holter trace monitor done and these are the results:
Maximum Heart Rate: 151 bpm
Minimum heart rate: 59 bpm
Avarage: 94 bpm
Beats In tachycardia: 50250 (more that 100 bpm)
3 Isolated ventriculars
Interpretation: THIS RECORDING WAS IN SINUS RHYTHM WITH EPISODES OF SINUS ARRHYTHMIA AND SHORT SINUS PAUSED NOTED. 38% OF THE RECORDING WAS NOTED TO BE IN TACHYCARDIA. 3 PREMATURE VENTRICULAR CONTRACTIONS WERE RECORDED AS MULTIFORM ISOLATED BEATS.
(On this day, I had no panic attacks or anything of the kind, Infact this was a really good day for me)
Because of my pregnancy I was refared by ante-natal to thier cardiologist. Now I don't like to be mean about anyone but this man was horrible. He was cold and rather scarey. He was more interested at the fact that I didn't work at the moment than my heart problems. He would ask me questions and when i tried to answer them he would roll his eyes at my responces and rephrase them for me. When I explained (or tried too) that I have a history of insombnia and panic attacks (of which i was dignosed with when i was 4 years old!) He put all my problems down to that had a quick listen to my heart then sent me home after just 15 mins. 3 weeks later my heart went odd and I collapesed at one of my routine ante-natal check ups and was sent in to see my local GP. He did a number of small tests and instantly detected a small murmur but told me he wasn't happy that that was the cause of all my problems so I was sent back to the cardiologist who seemed quite annoyed at this, and when I told him about my gps finding of the murmur he got even more annoyed, I felt I had upset his "God complex" alittle. He told me my fast heart was somthing everyone in the world had and that my dizzyness had nothing to do with it, my heart was fine, that they at cardiology cant help me.
The reason I'm posting here is because I know my panic attacks, i've suffered with them as long as I can remember and find them easy to control now days. I can tell the difference from something thats been happening to my body for more than 14 years and whats been happening recently. I am not paniced by my symptoms when they happen, Just sore weak and tired. I guess i'm just tired of living like this with no answers I would just love to know if anyone else has been suffering with anything like this or has any advise for me.
Sorry if this post seems alittle daunting. Thanks for reading
Emzie
My name is Emma, I'm 18 and currently 8 months pregnant. I thought i'de make a post here and hopfuly get some useful advise as i'm extreamly frightened and confused!!
Basicly since I was 14 i've had a concern about my heart. It beats extreamly hard alot of the time, and really fast some of the time. If I even attempt to walk up stairs I have to stop at the top and sit down due to shortness of breath, Tight cheast and a fast/hard beating heart, At night I find it almost impossible to lay of my left side. Also I find every now and again it would feel like someone was pressing down on my chest, there would be one large painful heartbeat then my heart would beat in a funny sort of way for about an hour after that. All this is combined with extream dizzyness, random fainting, sharpe chest pain, extreamly pale skin, nausea, vomiting, aching left arm and left side of my neck, unfocused eyes and pounding head aches As you can imagine this has made most day to day tasks very hard to do. As i'm about to be a mummy I wanted to get it all sorted! Also because it all seemed to get way worse during my pregnancy and I was rushed by ambulence due to an extream episode of all my symptoms
Also I had a 24 hour holter trace monitor done and these are the results:
Maximum Heart Rate: 151 bpm
Minimum heart rate: 59 bpm
Avarage: 94 bpm
Beats In tachycardia: 50250 (more that 100 bpm)
3 Isolated ventriculars
Interpretation: THIS RECORDING WAS IN SINUS RHYTHM WITH EPISODES OF SINUS ARRHYTHMIA AND SHORT SINUS PAUSED NOTED. 38% OF THE RECORDING WAS NOTED TO BE IN TACHYCARDIA. 3 PREMATURE VENTRICULAR CONTRACTIONS WERE RECORDED AS MULTIFORM ISOLATED BEATS.
(On this day, I had no panic attacks or anything of the kind, Infact this was a really good day for me)
Because of my pregnancy I was refared by ante-natal to thier cardiologist. Now I don't like to be mean about anyone but this man was horrible. He was cold and rather scarey. He was more interested at the fact that I didn't work at the moment than my heart problems. He would ask me questions and when i tried to answer them he would roll his eyes at my responces and rephrase them for me. When I explained (or tried too) that I have a history of insombnia and panic attacks (of which i was dignosed with when i was 4 years old!) He put all my problems down to that had a quick listen to my heart then sent me home after just 15 mins. 3 weeks later my heart went odd and I collapesed at one of my routine ante-natal check ups and was sent in to see my local GP. He did a number of small tests and instantly detected a small murmur but told me he wasn't happy that that was the cause of all my problems so I was sent back to the cardiologist who seemed quite annoyed at this, and when I told him about my gps finding of the murmur he got even more annoyed, I felt I had upset his "God complex" alittle. He told me my fast heart was somthing everyone in the world had and that my dizzyness had nothing to do with it, my heart was fine, that they at cardiology cant help me.
The reason I'm posting here is because I know my panic attacks, i've suffered with them as long as I can remember and find them easy to control now days. I can tell the difference from something thats been happening to my body for more than 14 years and whats been happening recently. I am not paniced by my symptoms when they happen, Just sore weak and tired. I guess i'm just tired of living like this with no answers I would just love to know if anyone else has been suffering with anything like this or has any advise for me.
Sorry if this post seems alittle daunting. Thanks for reading
Emzie
With a relationship as you're describing with your Cardiologist, it sounds like you need to go to a different one. I wouldn't want to ever go back to someone who had an attitude like him.
I suggest you go to an EP Cardiologist, who specializes in arrhythmias (weird heart beats) and who can probably help you better. EPs have a totally different concept of the heart than regular Cardiologists and would be better able to answer your questions, understand your symptoms, and figure out what is going on.
You should really get this checked out by a competent EP, especially since you are pregnant (congratulations!).
I used to have panic attacks, and I know that one can easily differentiate between that and something different going on. I can't imagine that a doctor would attribute your collapse to anxiety and brush it off so quickly. Doctors sometimes pass off too many symptoms to "anxiety" especially in women.
Hopefully everything checks out okay for you.
D
I suggest you go to an EP Cardiologist, who specializes in arrhythmias (weird heart beats) and who can probably help you better. EPs have a totally different concept of the heart than regular Cardiologists and would be better able to answer your questions, understand your symptoms, and figure out what is going on.
You should really get this checked out by a competent EP, especially since you are pregnant (congratulations!).
I used to have panic attacks, and I know that one can easily differentiate between that and something different going on. I can't imagine that a doctor would attribute your collapse to anxiety and brush it off so quickly. Doctors sometimes pass off too many symptoms to "anxiety" especially in women.
Hopefully everything checks out okay for you.
D
Emzie,
It's very possible that your symptoms are not heart related, but pregnancy related. Many of us who suffer with anxiety and palpitations find that these both can get worse with pregnancy and all the associated hormones. Slight murmurs in late pregnancy are not uncommon, many women develop an extra heart sound and it means nothing and resolves after the baby is born. Some doctors seem less credible when their manner is cold and aloof, but most of the time this doesn't mean their expertise is compromised - just their personality. If you are in doubt, however, do seek a second cardiology opinion.
Things to watch for in pregnancy are swelling that is more than typical, shortness of breath, fatigue that is more than normal, palpitations that change from your usual pattern or weight gain of more than three pounds in a day or seven pounds in a week.
Hang in there. You Holter report sounds great, aside from te tachycardia, which is common in pregnancy also.
It's very possible that your symptoms are not heart related, but pregnancy related. Many of us who suffer with anxiety and palpitations find that these both can get worse with pregnancy and all the associated hormones. Slight murmurs in late pregnancy are not uncommon, many women develop an extra heart sound and it means nothing and resolves after the baby is born. Some doctors seem less credible when their manner is cold and aloof, but most of the time this doesn't mean their expertise is compromised - just their personality. If you are in doubt, however, do seek a second cardiology opinion.
Things to watch for in pregnancy are swelling that is more than typical, shortness of breath, fatigue that is more than normal, palpitations that change from your usual pattern or weight gain of more than three pounds in a day or seven pounds in a week.
Hang in there. You Holter report sounds great, aside from te tachycardia, which is common in pregnancy also.
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