WHY DO I GET THIS FEELING ??

[aussie mum]

Hi, well first i would just like to say a BIG THANKYOU from the bottom of my palpitating heart for this forum. I'am a 35yr mother of 3 (ages 4 - 3 - 11m) whom after the birth of my last child started down that long tiresome road we all seem to travel. Can i just say this,  now that i know what i know about what seems to be going on with my heart and when i think back to THE DOOM DAYS as i call them was not the palpitation as such but the fear of what i thought was going to happen to me. And i think there would be a few of us out there who had there self (dare i say it) dead and buried !! Too many trips to doctors, trips in ambulances, ER departments the lists goes on but always leaving with what seems like no answers. However thankfully for me a chance meeting one night in the ER department with a wonderful doctor who arranged for me to see a great cardiologist that day of which neither fogged me off but instead gave me answers, which after all seems to be the best medicine of all. So in a nut shell i get palps, skips, flutters and my all time favorite svt, I don't know which one they are, pvc or pac or why i sometimes get svt i just know this i need to learn to live with them and not let them BE my life but accept that they are apart of my life, for how long who knows ??
Here are my questions; why do i sometimes get a flushed face and hands when having palp/svt.
                                  : finally, what damage can all these episodes do to my heart and am i
                                   at risks of having a HEART ATTACK ??

[Forum-M.D.-bkj]

aussie,

If you havent had any other medical problems that have bee found with your palpitation evaluation (thyroid, etc...) then the flushing could possibly be a symptom of anxiety remaining from the palpitations. I would discuss that particular symptom with your phsician.

The risk of having a heart attack is separate from the palpitaitons. It would relate to the development of blockages in the heart arteries. This would occur from the typicall cardiac risk of hypertension, smoking, weight control, cholesterol, and inherited risk.  Your risk as a 35 yo female from these would be low, but now is the time to start thinkning about these issues and controlling your risk factors.

good luck

[kellebelle4]

Hello,

You make me laugh....I too have palps, pvcs' and what they think is svt. For over a week now I am waking up between Midnight and 4am tachy anywhere from 100 to 180 can't even count it when it gets too high...My days are good, just a blip here and there. But then boom, I am off to the races...I am confused. I am prone to panic attacks...but I usually don't get this night after night. It is always reassuring to hear what the md doc has to say. Just want it to go away and get a good nights sleep. I agree we have to have humor or we would all be sitting on the couch paralyzed by these darn things. I am very compassionate to those who are scared too death by every symptom. I have been there as well. Take care and keep the good attitude...!  

[anacyde]

Hey there :)

To ease your mind, heart attacks are caused by plaques in the arteries that lead to clots and/or lack of blood flow to the heart.  Unless you've got advanced CAD, this is probably not something you need to stress too much about.

That said I do understand and have shared your fears.  I was diagnosed at 16 with SVT (paroxysmal type) and sinus tachycardia.  I also have a good amount of PACs with the occasional PVC.  I don't take medications for it yet, though I do avoid triggers and it's taken time (years) to learn them all.  More than time, it takes patience.

My understanding is that the heart can handle thousands without it becoming a major issue.  People here speak of having 1,000 or more on a Holter monitor and being told not to worry.  EASY SAID!  lol  Hang in there ;)

[aussie mum]

Hi first off thanks for your kind words !! Just wondering do other people get this feeling of having a flushed face and hands and if so does any one know what causes it ?? What can be really frustrating is when you have new sensations/feelings with these palps. Do i need to run off to my doctor when this happens or just except thinks like this will differ over time. And that seems to be what is happening now after not having anything for months suddenly DOOM !! but now (not with every one thankfully)  i'am getting this flushed feeling. Any help with this would be great !!

[alwaysmom]

I just wanted to let you know that many times the flushed feeling is not from you heart but because you get scared and when it happens(the clunks) it happens fast and you stop and it frightens you. Then your hand get cold and you face flushes. What do you think?  

[azqtpies]

I have just found this forum... I too have the flushed feeling in my face and head when I get the pvc, skipped beat.., all my docs say just say my skips are nothing and if I am not passing out then I am fine .. they seem to not listen to me.. can I ask you I seem to have these come on much more so after I eat,,do you have this at all or anyone??? it seem like everything I eat especially sugar foods, fried, spices , carbs or if I eat too much??? I seem to get many more of them.. they are so very frightening.. I absolutley hate them.. I dont nderstand why several years ago they started for what seems no reason?? does anyone know why these start when you  never had them before? I am 38 female not over weight I did smoke but quit again 1 month ago. Any info would greatly help =)

[alwaysmom]

I am also a 38 year old mom of 2 10 years and 5 years. I have had palptations since I was about 11 years old.  Over the years I had them a more than a few times especially when i am nervous or anxious. Just recently within the last year when I get them it stays with me and they hurt . It could stay for a week ot 2 straight. I would get them almost every hour on the hour for a week. I would get so scared my face would flush my arm would throb and my hands would get clammy.  Then it stops and I won't here back from it for a few months . I have stopped running to the hosp. and I say to myself It was worse last time and I lived to tell about it so, I will try to wait it out. My doc gave me toprol but, I never take it . I put it in my bra just in case and walking around w/it helps knowing it is there. Is that strange?  

[azqtpies]

Not weird at all!.. I dont get mine all the time they are so randon throughout the day somedays I feel like I dont get any.. but mostly I get them everyday the last two months! when I get excited, upset or over heated they seem to come on as well with the foods I mentioned... So I dont know what to do to stop them from coming on.. Thank you for the info...I would like to have another baby.. did you have any problems during your pregnancy because of  them or your delivery??? thanks for answerind =)

Kelly~

[aussie mum]

Hi everybody and thanks for your comments !! In regards to the flushed feeling, thankfully i don't get them with every palp :} only the odd one. I don't feel it's anxiety because the few times this has happened (flushed face/hands) i've been doing nothing, if anything most of my palps seem to happen when I'm most relaxed ?? Example's would be laying down to go to sleep ( i now sleep mostly on my right side because of all the FLIP FLOPPING that can go on some nights !! ) watching T.V. reading etc etc etc !!! Does this happen to you ?? I thought maybe it was to do with how much slower your heart rate is when your relaxed. I really need to lose a few kilo's and worry about exercise with palps/svt. I know what we all get told "AS LONG AS YOUR HEART IS NORMAL " but when you feel your heart  flippen & skippen like a fish out of water that DOES NOT seem NORMAL to me (LOL) Do most people remember the first time they had there palp?? Because i had just had my 3rd child i was given some GREAT explanations of what may be causing them, dehydration, not eating the right, not resting, stress and my all time favorite a possible blood clot and or heart attack !! So can some one please tell me when you feel your heart quiver is your heart pumping/working normal. My cardiologist explained the reason we feel them was to do with the SA NODES miss firing but what i didn't ask him (must remember to write my question down before hand) is why sometimes when it quivers it goes then to svt which i REALLY REALLY hate. Thankfully i've been shown some great ways to stop then but they don't always work :{ And finally i would love to have another baby but the fear of what will happen seems to win over the joy that having no4 would bring. Has any body had to deal with them whilst being pregnant ?? At the start of all this my cardiologist said it may have been a form of cardiomyopathy and the first few test i had came back with my levels being just within and some were just outside normal but after a few months a some more testing he was very reassuring that every thing was fine. All i have to do now is learn to live with my palps !! THANK FULLY  i found this forum which when I'm having a bad run helps. All replies are grateful :}

[alwaysmom]

I think that most of the palps are caused by stress even if you think your not under stress you mind is. I had gone to Aruba and I didn't have 1 palp the whole time . When I came back to work i had a whole bunch.Other times it could be some type of food or drink. 100% for me is hot chocolate. If I drink it I will get them. Mexican food too. Even reading this site .(sounds weird) but, I'm looking for answers too and I look into what everybody says and wonder if I have it and then I really think I have whatever that sounds close. I run to the Doc and he says the same thing. "You have Palps that miss fire they occur on diffrent areas of the heart so it feels diffrent at all diffrent times. The upper chambers could feel like a flip while the other chambers could give a missed beat with a hard throb.-alwaysmom  

[aussie mum]

Hi every body and i hope this post is finding you all well :} I would really love to hear from anybody who has been pregnant with these (palps/skip beats/svt) Did they increase or decrease ?? Sometime i think for me, a lot of this may be caused by hormone imbalance. Food and drink sometimes play a part i think also being over full will sometimes set them off. Has anybody tried yoga ?? I do get when people say about stress being a BIG factor in all this, so what really gets up my goat is when there are no factors at all e.g not stressed, eating well, sleeping well basically everything is peaches then BOOM there back and the games begin as to what set them off this time. Or should i be resigned to the fact that there is no one answer as to why they happen (or the even bigger question why they stared in the first place :} ) Well i guess all we can do is have a laugh and enjoy the most we can out of life !! Cheers :}

[alwaysmom]

Yes I was preg with both my kids thru palptations. I didn't get them often while I was pregnant . I know it comes from nowhere. I remember a few times i would just get a couple a day and that was it and one time i got it and it stayed with me for 7 days straight. It would happen maybe 3x an hour for 7 days 24 hrs a day round the clock. It was sooo annoying. Then it stopped and went back to the 2 or 3 a day. What are yours like?alwaysmom  

[aussie mum]

Hi well i've only had mine for 360 days , but who's counting !! (LOL) When i first started having them they seemed to be every odd beat how ever i think in the beginning a lot of it may have been anxiety due to the fact that i had convinced myself i was dying :{ Now it seem to come and go. I went what seemed like months with only the odd flutter then one day when we where on holidays DOOM out of the blue a quiver/flutter then into svt. The old me would of been in the ER dep but i did what i was shown to revert it and within a couple of minutes it reverted back and off we went to the beach. And guess what i did not die :} Yes i still worry about it but life goes on. I would love to have more kids but am unsure of how i would go having the palps/svt ?? Anyway you said that you have had them since you were 11 ?? How has that been having them for so long ?? I do sometimes wonder if mine will ever go. But really now that i know a little more about them i guess it makes it a little easier to deal with. Do yours ever go into svt and if so how long do they last also what do you to revert them back. That's what reallyyyyyyyyyyy freaks me the most, SVT, if i never get any more of them i'll be a happy little vegemite (that an aussie saying !!)  Do you ever have palps when you lay on your left side ?? Thanks for your Helpful comments. Chat soon :}

[AquaSF]

This is my first time posting and i am thrilled to see this string of dialogue. it is a little bit past midnight PST time and i've been crying and frustrated from this pounding, fluttering feeling in my chest wondering the same thing: Why do I get this feeling????? i know i'm not having a heart attack--it's just this annoying feeling that my heart is flopping like a floundering fish. . .i'm a fairly expresive person with my emotions so i'm frustrated that this is happening.. thikning that maybe because i share my emotions with my boyfriend and family enough, that my heart should be emptied of any emotional congestion in there. .

is this something that could happen just because i just switched jobs that i'm suddenly experiencing all these floundering fluttering heartbeats? before i left my old job, i would wake up in the middle of the night every night with a racing heart beat. ..now that i've left my old job, i don't wake up in the middle of the night, instead, it seems to be replaced with these flutterings which is way more annoying since today it lasted all day. never in my life have i ever had an emotional-stress response when it came to getting a new job.  . and i have never had anything like this. . .i am now 39 and just turned 39. .. .suddenly all this is happening. .and i just don't have time for it. .!

i like what 'always mom' said about although we don't seem stressed out, our minds are stressed and so it's producing a response on the heart. . .

i'm still trying to understand the relationship between stress and the heart and why it does what it does. ..ugh. .! there. .my heart just started up again. it's like that feeling of when you get scared and then your heart skips that beat and makes the heart THUMP. . .i HATE it and i'm scared which only aggravates my situation. . ..i'm trying to relax, listening to classical music and nothing seems to be helping. .i'm even afraid to go to sleep, and. .there. ..my heart just flipped again. .i just want to sleep but i can feel this happening when i lie down--so i sit and sleep, but i can still feel the flipping around in there..  ..

i don't want to see a doc because i don't like to take meds. . .does yoga or anything like that help with something like this. .???any advice to help alleviate just the anxiety from it all. .??? thank you!

[mommyof 3]

I'm 35 yrs.old and last Tuesday night I was bending over to kiss my daughter goodnight and when I came back up my heart started beating really fast, the recue worker said it was 230 when they arrived and they were able to get it on a ekg. They had to give me a injection to bring it down. the doctor in the emergency room put me on toprol and I'm seeing a cardiologist this Thursday for a echo and some more tests. I have had these before but not this bad and never have had to call ems. before I would get an attack every year or so and my heart would start pounding and I would lay down and after about 10 minutes it would suddenly stop and go back to normal.  the birth of my 3rd child the night after I had one at the hopital ,I went to the bathroom and was coming back and it started, by the time I got to my bed my hair was completely wet and the labor nurses told me it was from getiing up to fast and losing to much blood. I was 30 at the time and that terrified me into not having a fourth child as we planned it also caused me to get post partum because after coming home with the baby i was terrified of having another episode and dying. before i had proof on a ekg the doctors would tell me this was anxiety, so now that I have proof they're sending me to a cardiologist they think it's svt's and I 'm not crazy anymore.

[alwaysmom]

I just went for my yearly check up with the cardiologist. I asked him what the flushed feeling is. He said it was 2 diffrest things. 1st is that if you feel a strong boom then the flushed feeling it is because just at that moment your mitro valve opens and blood is pushed fowardand the flap doesnt close all the way and blood get pushed out like a back flow; NOT Dangerous you could feel it from your stomach up other time a swooch feeling almost like a roller coaster.(even if you dont have mitro valve prolaps) 2nd from being caught off gaurd and you get a flight or fight feeling. Like if you walked in an alley and saw a strange man . Your heart jumps, hands sweat ect.Hope this helps  

[pregnant with PVC/PAC]

I am replying to the questions about pregnancy and PVC/PAC.  I am currently six months pregnant and I am frequently getting PVC's and or PAC's.  I currently have an event monitor to determine what is going on.  I used to have SVT's but I had an ablation last year and hopefully it does not come back.

I have to tell you this is one of the hardest things to do.  I am so trying not to stress out but the palpitations are getting worse. I have different doctors say different things.  Some doctors say that you will get more palps in the first trimester and then they would get better.  My OB/GYN stated that actually it would get worse around 32 weeks because that is when your heart is taking on the most volume.  I am actually experiencing more palps now compared to the first trimester and it is horrible.  I am 36 years old with two children under 5.5.  I went to the ER the other night- and all was "normal".  How can this be 'normal".  I am starting to really stress out, freak out etc.  And I feel like my  Doctors are not taking me seriously. I guess I havent accepted that I am going to have to deal with this for the rest of my life.  

Funny thing is that during the day, unless I am very stressed the palps are at a minimum.  However, at night, when things are supposed to be quiet my heart starts going crazy.

I am starting to getting nervous about the delivery... Has anyone had a normal delivery with palps?

Thanks!

[mommyof 3]

Hi, I have Svt's and I know how it feels  to experience one. I had a episode two days after the birth of my third child and after I came home from the hospital I was so worried I would have another I could not enjoy my new daughter and it caused me to have post partum depression, I would try not to think about them and to keep busy because stress and anxiety contribute to them.I know reading other peoples stories on here has helped me a lot to be able to deal with my svt's and flutters.

[prjose56]

Hi everyone.  I have intermittent tachycardia myself but was wondering if anyone experiences a very dynamic heart rate.  Here's what I mean...my heart rate will be around 100-110, drop to around 80 for a few beats and quickly ramp back up.  It's a really weird pattern.  I can't explain it and it scares me to death.  It's gotten to the point I've become affraid to exercise in fear of my heart rate shooting way up.  The other day I tried to go on a very light jog and after 1 minute of jogging my heart rate was at 140bpm and rising.  

Does anyone else experience this?  If so please reply or email me.  Thanks.

Jose
lilrican_56***@****
AIM: prjose56

[abbee]

I am 60 yrs old... I have had on and off spells of panic attacks since I was 18 yrs and now the heart pounding on a regular basis has started.....heart test show nothing and I'm on 3 Transene a day and 2 Atenlol to keep me calm, but it's not working. The doctors say it is stress, but it seems to me if it was stress, the meds would work. I don't notice the pounding until I sit down to read, type or sleep..if I lay very still, it will stop.  If I move or breath, it starts again. I have been awaken by tremors, and the pounding. Now,I notice that with any exertion that my body gets weak.. especially my arms or my legs if I squat.  I have been healthy all my life except for this and it has been a plague. My doctor wants to do a MRI and to see a Neurologist.. not sure what he is looking for except for a brain quirk and he says that MS will cause the same symptoms... but I think stress starts it, and fear is the root of the stress.  I had gone for years without a problem, and then one morning, there it was... the pounding. This was 8 weeks ago. I notice a "stuffed" feeling when I eat and like everyone, i think it's my heart and that I'm dying or going to have a stroke or something terrible instead of just goign on with life.  I have been "holding my breath" and gritting my teeth, and I get cold hands and at times a flushed face.  Blood pressure is always good. Atenolol helps because it keeps the heart rate slow so that when I get fear or anxious, it doesn't get out of control... I feel the flip/flops,but my doctor says they are not dangerous. I had the stress test, echo, holter monitor, and no explanation of the pounding.. I want to run from "conflict" and at times "real life" confrontations.... I am looking for peace and can't find it... at my age I'd like to be normal and not let my emotions rule me. God has been so good to me in all areas of my life-- and apparently I have a glitch between the ears that has not been fixed or healed... I wish I could handle stress like most people, but I can't. My answer is always to run from it... not face it. I think if we all could face "life", when it is good and bad, and accept it, not fear it, we would be better off, but so far, I have not conquered this. It's hard to understand because even when things are going good, an attack can happen. I pray for all of us that suffer and allow our emotions to control us. They are in control of us...we are not in control of them. We have to get a grip or put up with this junk...generally prayer will help me the most. God Bless !