heart pauses

Hey. My name is Andres, i am 24 years old, its 5am and i cant sleep so i decided to reach for some advice. Two years ago i began to feel scared about my heart beats and i kind of constantly reach to feel my pulse. I decided to go to a doctor cause i felt that sometimes my heart rate would be a little fast. He told me i had nothing to worry about, that the only thing he could notice was that when i had the physical test, after running for about 10 minutes or so, my heart rate would get out of "range" but quickly return to normal, but yet again he said i shouldnt worry (but how could i not right?). The thing is that about a month ago things changed. I just moved to Argentina and it might be due to stress or something, but now i feel pauses in my heart beat. The first time i felt it, i tried to ignore it. The second time i got really scared but said nothing about it. But then one day, i was walking to my apartment and felt this pauses a little stronger than before and decided to go to a doctor right away. I told him what happened and he wasnt surprised at all, he was really cool about it and gave me a brief explanation wich ended in a "you have nothing to worry about". Then again, thats easy to say. Since then (this was a week ago), i was a little calm about the situation until today. Ive been trying to sleep sin 11pm and its about 6am now and ive felt this pauses all night. I tried to play it cool, but some of them even got me so scared that i thought i was really in trouble.
I would like to know how dangerous my situation could be? how many people have this sort of problems? how "normal" is it? and as the doctors say, until what point should "i have nothing to worry about"?
thanks


This discussion is related to Slow heart rate with pauses.

[jahari]

I can relate to everything you are talking about.  I think I have always felt "skips," but was never sure that's what I felt until about 6 weeks ago.  I was having other health issues and a lot of stress and started feeling lots of the skips.  I had panic attacks because of them and after a day, ended up in the ER.  After being monitored, I was sent home and told not to worry.  I went to the cardiologist and after several tests, was told again not to worry.  Since then I have spent time on many different message boards and have learned that there are a lot of people out there that go through this -- many of them for decades.  You should go to the dr and get them checked out, just to make sure they are benign.

As for the night time problems you described, for most people they seem to be the worse at night, when you lay down.  For me, they also get worse when I don't get a good nights sleep -- creates a horrible cycle sometimes.

If you click on the heart rhythm button, right under the button for this discussion, you will find many wonderful people, going through the same thing.  They can help put your mind at ease.

[corcho]

thank you for responding. It really helps to read about others who have the same problems or issues, cause it lets me know that im not alone. I just really hope that someday this pauses will go away. I am finding the heart rhythm community very helpfull so thanks again for taking the time to respond.