Aa
Oh my God, I think my heart is going to stop.
Sooo scared tonight ... I have had similar episodes in the past but not quite like this: I honestly thought my heart was about to stop, and still think it might. It started in the shower when I felt sort of weak and shaky. Then it got worse: I got weaker and shakier. Then I bent over and felt a PVC, followed by an acceleration in my heartbeat. It slowed for a few minutes after some deep breaths, but then my chest and throat started to feel tight, and I felt a tingly flush pass over my neck and back. In the next instant, my heart rate reached 130 beats per minute, and in an awful fluttering way, with a very, very shallow pulse. I could barely even feel it for a few minutes and had to press my hand to my chest to see how fast my heart was going. I was certain my heart was weakening more by the second and would soon get so weak that it would just stop altogether. I was afraid to breathe too much because somehow it felt as if taking a deep breath would shock my heart and cause it to seize up. After several minutes of full-fledged panic and certainty that my last hour had arrived, my symptoms abated, but I am still feeling the shakes, and my palms are sweaty, and most of all I'm terrified to death. Tightness in throat + fast shallow pulse + shakiness ... Does this sound like a dire situation? Does it at least sound familiar? What is wrong with me now??
is_something_wrong, thank you so much for your detailed and reassuring answer! I have actually always had really low blood pressure, so it is absolutely probable that it played a role in my recent ordeal. My blood sugar had been really wonky all day too, so I am thinking that was also a factor. I had been extra hungry all morning, and then drank a latte with a pastry in the afternoon closely followed by a large dinner, so I may have spiked my blood sugar. I am off to my doctor next week to have some blood work done (how I hate needles, but necessary!) so maybe an irregularity in my blood composition will show up. Of course, I'll talk with my doctor about this recent event too.
Hamed, your kindness and reassurance was most appreciated too, and has been duly taken to heart. :)
Still alive as of now, and hopefully for a while yet ...
Hamed, your kindness and reassurance was most appreciated too, and has been duly taken to heart. :)
Still alive as of now, and hopefully for a while yet ...
many of us ANS patients go through this and the reason I can't get in a hot tub or take a hot bath and only cooler showers; FL's heat just kills me and I've been told to move to a cooler climate - exactly as you described it and what Is_something_wrong says.
try cooler showers and try not to bend over much - that's a sure fire way for me to lose it in the shower; not a pleasant experience to faint in the shower
try cooler showers and try not to bend over much - that's a sure fire way for me to lose it in the shower; not a pleasant experience to faint in the shower
Stay really, really calm and take nice deep breaths, everything is fine. If you feel chest pains and arm pains, call an ambulance and don't hesitate. Love, Hamed from Sydney, NSW.
P.S. Beautiful
P.S. Beautiful
Believe it or not, this isn't uncommon :)
Feeling a PVC (or a PAC, you can't say for sure what it was, I would bet on PAC) while bending over is normal and common. Also, it's common for the heart rate to slow while bending over (because you increase the pressure in your carotid arteries and aorta arch).
The problem with hot showers is your blood pressure. Being a young healthy girl, I assume you already have a fairly low blood pressure (just like me), some of your symptoms may point in that direction. When you take a shower, the hot water dilates your blood vessels, so your blood pressure may drop really low. This will, again, make your blood pool up in your veins, most of it in your abdomen and legs.
Most people may actually faint when they stand up too quickly after a hot bath, because of this effect.
When you get anxious in this setting, the only way your body can increase the blood pressure is to make the heart beat faster. The problem is, that your heart needs blood inflow to pump blood out. With lots of the blood pooled up in other parts of the body, the calculation is a bit like this:
Heart rate 80 BPM:
6 liter / 80 = 75 ml/stroke
Heart rate 130 BPM
6 liter / 130 = 46 ml/stroke.
Which of course produces a shallow pulse.
What I do to prevent this is to keep moving a bit around in the shower. Just some movement of the legs is enough to maintain some venous backflow to the heart. You don't have any blood pressure in your veins, blood can't flow upwards due to gravity, so the only way the blood can return to your heart is through muscular activity. And by all means don't stop breathing! When you're standing still, the only way your veins can squeeze some blood back to the heart is through the breathing muscles!
I don't think (but can't rule out completely) that an SVT would cause a heart rate of "only" 130. Sounds to me like classical panic combined with the fact that you had dilated blood vessels and low blood pressure.
You can ask your doctor if you are afraid, but this didn't sound serious to me (though really scary, I completely understand how you feel..)
Take care :)
Feeling a PVC (or a PAC, you can't say for sure what it was, I would bet on PAC) while bending over is normal and common. Also, it's common for the heart rate to slow while bending over (because you increase the pressure in your carotid arteries and aorta arch).
The problem with hot showers is your blood pressure. Being a young healthy girl, I assume you already have a fairly low blood pressure (just like me), some of your symptoms may point in that direction. When you take a shower, the hot water dilates your blood vessels, so your blood pressure may drop really low. This will, again, make your blood pool up in your veins, most of it in your abdomen and legs.
Most people may actually faint when they stand up too quickly after a hot bath, because of this effect.
When you get anxious in this setting, the only way your body can increase the blood pressure is to make the heart beat faster. The problem is, that your heart needs blood inflow to pump blood out. With lots of the blood pooled up in other parts of the body, the calculation is a bit like this:
Heart rate 80 BPM:
6 liter / 80 = 75 ml/stroke
Heart rate 130 BPM
6 liter / 130 = 46 ml/stroke.
Which of course produces a shallow pulse.
What I do to prevent this is to keep moving a bit around in the shower. Just some movement of the legs is enough to maintain some venous backflow to the heart. You don't have any blood pressure in your veins, blood can't flow upwards due to gravity, so the only way the blood can return to your heart is through muscular activity. And by all means don't stop breathing! When you're standing still, the only way your veins can squeeze some blood back to the heart is through the breathing muscles!
I don't think (but can't rule out completely) that an SVT would cause a heart rate of "only" 130. Sounds to me like classical panic combined with the fact that you had dilated blood vessels and low blood pressure.
You can ask your doctor if you are afraid, but this didn't sound serious to me (though really scary, I completely understand how you feel..)
Take care :)
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