Heart Event Question

[SammGamer33]

About three months back I was running on the treadmill when my heart began to pound rather abruptly. Freaked out I stopped and sat down and after a few minutes the pounding stopped. I chalked it up to overdoing it. After showering I was a little sore in my back but figured I pulled a muscle and thought nothing of it. Next day I felt fine.

Cut to a week later and I noticed that my heart was beating faster than usual (already in the 100s after just a few minutes on the treadmill) and that the beat felt wrong somehow. I would lay my head on my pillow and heart my heartbeat strangely: faster than normal but then speed up, dramatically skip a beat and then go scary slow for a beat before turning to normal.

I doesn't happen every day but enough that it concerns me.

Especially given my family history. I was adopted but a few years back was able to meet my bio dad and his family. He didn't really want a relationship but I had questions he was willing to answer. Alarmingly I came to learn that heart attacks run frequently and young in my immediate family.

My grandfather, father, half sister and cousin all had heart attacks between ages 35-42. When I asked more about it I came to learn that they weren't the kind that trusted doctors much and knew little and cared little about the why's and how's.

I did not maintain contact after that but came to learn that my bio dad passed away (from another heart attack) and any effort to try and find a cause  to the family medical issues will not happen. I made it a point then to be more proactive about my health. I became vegan, worked out more and saw my family doctor(who had been my doctor since I was born) every year.

That was until my doctor died in an accident last year. Since I have not been to a doctor nor have actively looked for one (I am still mourning my old one). This was not a problem until now. After talking with a coworker she urged me to go to a doctor because her sister had something similar and learned she had a what she called a silent heart attack.

My symptoms are not getting worse but not going away. I know I have to see a doctor, but am at a loss as to approach this and my complicated medical background to a new doctor and could surely use advice. My blood pressure is normal and my cholesterol is too the last time I had it checked but that was a year ago. Other than my family history and the last few months I have felt fine. However I am now concerned that my event was either early warning or a possible silent heart attack. I need answers.

My questions are:

What exactly is a silent heart attack?
How would I approach this situation/issue with a new doctor?
I'm only 37, not exactly ripe for a heart attack, but given my family history plausible, would my doctor take serious my desire to know if my event was actually a heart attack or test to see if I have had one.

Thanks
Same

[2210485]

Oh, and id also request the doc evaluate your 'QT' corrected interval given your famiky history of sudden cardiac death and likely pvc/pac outcome. Some blood work to check for electrolytes should help as well.

Its unlikely long qt is an issue, symptoms usually present as fainting episodes and fatigue but the disease is purely genetic, so its worth looking at while your there.

Just approach your family doctor of choice, tell him your symptoms and share my 2 posts/information, he should know what to do in terms of advice and referrals.

[2210485]

Doesnt sound like a heart attack.. Sounds more like an arrhythmia issue.

Given it happened on a treadmill the best course of action is probably a stress test. By having you run on a treadmill in the office they can rule out any immediate heart attack risk for your piece of mind and also lure out whatevers causing your symptoms.

If nothing comes up they can send you home with a 24 hour ekg unit (holter monitor) and try to catch it that way.