sudden onset of (perceived) heart problems

[mdproud]

I am a 22 year old in the army who returned from overseas late last year. I took 3 ambien on the 14 hour flight back, had a six pack of beer with the guys, and went to sleep. The next day I woke up, drank an energy drink (which I have been drinking at the rate of one to two a day for the past 2 years) and suddenly had a really tachy heart beat and a faint radial pulse. I went to the ER and the ECG came back normal. Over the next month I had 5 more ECG's, 2 blood tests for thyroid irregularities, a chest X-ray, a 24-hour Holter monitor, an MRI, and a stress test. All came back clean. While this should be comforting, over the past few months I still feel like my heart is beating either too slow or too fast, too faint or too strong. I feel faint for no reason, and occasionally experience skipped beats. It's bad enough that I don't feel comfortable being by myself for fear of something bad happening and not being able to deal with it. Does anyone have some insight as to what it could be, or a good course of action to deal with it? Keep in mind, in the military you need to get a referral to be seen by a full blown doctor, and since they have run the course with cardio tests, I am afraid the next PHD they send me to will be a psychiatrist. Thanks.

[cindy707]

Hey first off thank you for protecting our country....thats a huge biggie....and i do have a thought i'd like to share with you.  First off i agree w. Jerry that you were overtaxing your heart with everything along with the anxiety of coming home again, lack of sleep, energy drinks, throwing your body into an extreme of way high and then way low.  I have 3 nephews that are currenly overseas two of which are at Camp Anaconda and i know for a fact when they came home the adjustment was hard of them and one of them went thru what you have.  I know that his doc told him to learn to relax...take a trip somewhere in the U.S. and stay away from the caffeine for a couple of weeks.  He did both of those things and now he is fine.  I am sure you experienced alot, didn't keep regular sleeping hours and now all of a sudden you are telling your body to do something it hasn't been used to for quite some time.  Alcohol can also set these episodes off....taking 6 ambian in a 10 hour period is just crazy......and not tame at all....you are sending your body totally mixed messages and now its telling you ......oh heck no.....they ran the gambit of tests and you sound fine to me....i would just take better care of yourself both physically and mentally until you adjust ....and welcome home.....

[mdproud]

I quit energy drinks and cut back on tobacco. I still drink to excess, but it doesn't seem to have as much bearing on how i feel as other things. I notice after smoking that I feel like crap so that's a big motivation to quit. The thing that freaks me out is how it could happen so suddenly. That wasn't my first trip overseas and one energy drink and 3 ambien (I've taken up to 6 over a 10 hour period) seems pretty tame.

[Jerry_NJ]

Your introduction gives plenty of reasons for your heart to go a little "Nuts" in my mind.  You didn't say what you've been doing of late relative to pills and booze - or loss of sleep and lots to caffeine (energy drinks).   If any or even some of this continues I'd put my "money" on that being  the stimulus of your heart rhythm problems.  Add into that coffee, regular, especially black an strong.

You've got your age going for you and given the examinations you've had I'd guess if you lead a regular lower caffeine and alcohol with regular sleep and exercise you'll do just fine.  

All this said, many of us have some heart rhythm problems, and we never get over them and they don't kill us or even slow us down much.  At you age I'd hope you can get it under control, but until the doctors can not fix anything until they find something wrong.