Doctor said he has never seen a heart like mine?

[ReederC]

Hello. Yesterday I went to a my family doctor hoping for appetite suppressants. I'm a 29 year old female about 70 pounds over weight. I have been over weight my whole life. He told me my heart rate after sitting for 30 minutes was 133. I am not on any meds at all. He told me to come back the next day (today) and my heart rate was 135. He did an EKG. He told me that he has never seen a heart like mine. He explain to me that my heart was shifted to the right?? He drew a picture of what my heart should look like and then a picture of mine and it looked like it was flipped completely over. (Like looking at itself in the mirror if it makes sense). Of course I was automatically confused since he got all this from an EKG and couldn't really "see" my heart. He explained to me that on the first line the jumps should be above the line like ____^____^___^ but mine were like ----v-----v. I do not have insurance so he said he is going to send my ekg to his cardiologist buddy but I shouldn't worry. Not so easy!!!


I have never been told my heart rate was abnormal. For the last year I have been able to feel my heart beat to the point to it felt like it was rocking me if I concentrated on it. BUT this had me thinking...6 months ago I had a bad pain from gastritis and went to the ER. As soon as they did my StATs they took me to do a EKG because they said my heart rate was up. I thought it was just from pain. They said the EKG was normal. Then last week I experienced my first migraine but I thought it was something else. AGAIN my heart rate was up and they did an EKG. Normal. I still figured the pain.

Laying down I can get my heart rate down to about 106 and up moving around cleaning or walking it goes up to 150-160. I've had trouble breathing for the last 6 months but nothing a few deep breaths didnt help. I also am very tired lately.

Could someone give me some clarity? The doctor said he will get to me by Monday but now I'm a little worried.

[is_something_wrong]

Hi,

Yes, dextrocardia was the first thing I thought about when reading your original post.

Your heart is located in the right part of your chest and not the left. Dextrocardia itself is a benign condition, but as the heart is "mislocated", chance of cardiac abnormalities are slightly higher than normal.

Cardiologists in Norway are recommending an ultrasound of the heart, just to check if the heart function is normal. If it is, you can forget your heart and the fact that it's inversely located :)

[ReederC]

Achillea- thank you! My doctor actually called me in today to do more test. And you are completely right. The upside to it not being common was my doctor was curious since he never seen it before and my bill today was zero $. :) He said it is normal just not common and for me not to worry about it.  It called it Dextrocardia situs inversus. I feel much better.

Jerry- Thank you. As I stated in my question I am doing exactly what you are saying. I went in to get information and help to get this weight off. I'm well aware of the affects its having on my body. Thank you for your concern.

[Jerry_NJ]

You know the problem, 70 pounds over weight - something you can and must address.  You don't need insurance to address this problem. Cut way back on what and when (never in the 3 hours before bedtime) you eat. You know the routine.  

I was about 25 pounds overweight and I am 6' 5" tall, so 25 pounds had a long frame to distribute itself on, still I suffered from mild obstructive sleep apnea.  The doctor said I may be able to fix the problem by loosing some weight.  I've lost about 15 pounds in the past 3 months and the apnea symptoms I could detect are gone.

I am not hungry, I simply stopped all ice cream, donuts, cake, pie, candy... I still have beer with dinner and my weight is going down, still going down I am trying to drop 25 pounds total.  I'm beginning to have keeping my trousers up.

Over weight is a killer, and I mean killer I'm not using the word casually.

[achillea]

There are unusual conditions in which some or all of the internal organs grow in the reverse or mirror-image of their usual placement in the body.  This can cause symptoms--or none at all.  Quite a few people have it without even knowing it, and although all GPs read about this in their internship, very few ever see it.

In the case of the heart, if the only 'picture' you have is an EKG, some electrical conditions can provide a false picture, so to speak, and thus many more tests are needed.

Your heart rate is a bit fast, but at this point, without more imaging and tests, no one but your cardiologist can really tell you what's going on.

Relax and wait until you hear from the doc on Monday.