Heavy panting and palpitation

[Don333]

Hello,
My mum is 79 yrs old.
About 10 years ago she had a minor brain stroke. But it all passed well.
Lately she had an operation for shoulder tendon, which kept on aching her afterwards. Her doctor gave her Airtal 100 mg , 40 tablets over 20 days.
She felt better, but reading the side effects, elderly people are more susceptible to these side effects especially if the have suffered a brain stroke before.
Lately, i have noticed that she pants heavily suddenly, but no shortness of breath. And has palpitations as she said. Every now and then she has minutes shortness of breath.
But, the heavy panting, has been recurring more often, accompanied with palpitation, but no shortness if breath and no chest pain or coughing.
She is on:
Probetol (propranolol)
Betserc

I took her to the medic today, he ordered some blood tests and a cardiac echography  in the next couple of days.

Practically, she is under a lot of family stress too.
And her condition is not critical, but it gets me worried. As, thank God, she is still active, but this heavy panting is worrying me more than her.  

[Don333]

Hello Ed, im sorry i didnt get back to you earlier, i wanted to inform you that my mother did her tests, and all this was due to getting old, and a wrong medication that her former doctor gave her.
Tahnk God she is very fine now.

[ed34]

My Mother passed away 10 years ago when in the emergency room. I had called an ambulance because she felt unwell and had some minor chest pain. At the hospital they said "You can leave her in our care for the night and we are absolutely sure it's just a chest infection". The following morning I went to the hospital and was handed a bereavement leaflet. They said her heart had stopped several times in the night and the 6th time they failed to start it again. The autopsy showed artery disease. If I knew then, what I know now, she would probably still be with me. I would have insisted on an Angiogram. I applaud your concern over your Mother and starting a journey to find the cause of her problem. I hope you get them to explore every avenue and find it. It is also worth mentioning that artery disease is not always accompanied by chest discomfort. I had a triple bypass operation and 3 months later the vessels closed up. I know when it happened, I was panting for air, but there was no discomfort. A word of warning also, a echocardiogram is not the best test for artery disease. The patient is relaxed, laying on a bed and the heart is basically just ticking over. Blood tests may reveal raised Troponin levels, or they may not. This may not be a heart attack but tight restrictions that are being overcome by the arteries dilating. The only way to check without intervention is a stress test of some kind. The safest stress test is the treadmill because chemicals don't have to be injected to get the heart racing. Please keep us informed as to your progress. Of course it may not be the heart, but I firmly believe you have to make certain.