Lots of Weird Palpitations

[whelans5]

I am a 38, female, 5' 5", 116 lbs, low cholesterol, BP about 110/70 or 80, a bicuspid aortic valve with regurgitation,stomach acid problem (taking losec for years, but now have to nexium). I have had palps since my early twenties.

[Ivan Merida]

Hi everyone although sorry to hear everyone suffers from the same palpatations i have but im glad im not the only one.

Today i went to see my cardiologist and explained to him about having fluttering in my chest and fast heartrate. So far they did an echocardioghram, and EKG and right about now im wearing a monitor device for 24 hours. I feel really freaked out wearing this thing because im only 18 years old and have to wear this thing. Another thing im suffering from is some chest pain that has really scared me and made me a prisoner in my own home. I never go out anymore despite it being bloody cold outside i still dont go out with my friends and i never feel like doing anything. I get so scared to start excersising but i never do because im worried about my heart. My EKG came back normal...again because i had another one done in the hospital about a month ago. My echocardiogram came back ok and now i have to see about this monitor on my chest is going to fair out. Lately, i have been worrying so much about my heart and its heartrate. Going to the cardiologist really made me so nervous and it felt my heart was going to explode. I also feel shortness of breath at times and its really getting me so agravated, scared, and depressed. Im only 18 years old and im going through this and wondering if i will see 19 because worrying about heart disease, heart attack, stroke, palpatations, and fast heartrate have taken over my life. My dad keeps telling me not to worry but i cant its just too hard.

So symptoms are:

Shortness of breath
Palpations, fast heartrate
Stinging points in my chest amd some dullness
muscle twitching

what does anyone make of this? I have to see my cardiologist in 2 weeks to see an update.

[Rob2000]

Thanks for the support Hank. PVCs are such a weird thing--for me there doesn't seem to be any real trigger--just every year or two, they flare up for a couple weeks--usually they aren't bad, occurring a couple times an hour, but when they become more frequent (and for me that means once or twice a minute which sounds like nothing compared to what you have to deal with) they can be scary. It doesn't matter how much you are told that it is nothing to worry about--you just don't like your heart doing weird things.

And the whole experience has certainly taught me a lesson about EKGs. I'll definitely make my doctor interpret it next time. I've talked to a couple friends of mine who are MDs and they all said, just like you, that those machines are infamous for screwing up the QTc length. I guess that's what happens when you have to go to a family medicine clinic--those poor doctors are so pressured to see X number of patients a day that when the computer tells gives them a value, sometimes they just accept it without thinking about.

Needless to say, I'm very relieved here. My PVCs have calmed down a lot since getting the news--obviously much less stress. They are still present, but not too bothersome right now. Thanks again for the support--this is a great place to visit when I need reassurance that although they feel weird, my PVCs are nothing to worry about.

[Rob2000]

Good news here. I got an EKG from 9 years ago and it was exactly the same that I had this week. The doctor looked at the one from this week and realized the computer had calculated the QTc incorrectly. He said he should have realized it on Wed when it came back abnormal. He calculated it and then looked at the one I had 9 years ago which looked exactly the same and saw that the QTc on that was what he had calculated on Wed so the computer just got confused as to where to calculate it from and in the end, I don't have a prolonged QTc. Needless to say, I'm unbelievably relieved today to find out that my heart problems are just the standard old PVCs that I've had for a long time now.

[Rob2000]

Thanks again for your comments. Although I haven't gotten a second opinion I've solicited info from three doctors that I know. They all said the same thing--that with no history of passing out or shortness of breath or even diziness of any kind, it is highly unlikely that I have anything to be concerned about. They also said that what was key was to have someone look at it. The computer analyzes the data and if it is just 1 off the normal range that it has programmed in, it'll come back as "high", but they also said that there is a big difference between having a "high" number on the test and having long QT syndrome. They said it was probably nothing to worry about as the doctor said to go ahead and keep exercising and doing everything else I do. They said that there is a defined number that if it is above he would have said, this might be a real problem, don't exercise and we'll get you to a cardiologist in the next day or two. But since he didn't do that, it's probably just borderline high. I have EKG results from 9 years ago and those were in the normal range, but on the high edge of it so this could just be the normal variance from it. I'm just going to wait to see what my doctor says to me at this point and to not worry about it until I hear from him.

[Rob2000]

Thanks for the comments--that makes me feel better, although I went to see my doctor here yesterday. I moved here about two years ago so they had never seen me regarding this before so they did an EKG and found that my QT length was too long. He didn't give me any numbers, nor did he tell me what exactly that meant, but he didn't seem to concerned. He called for a couple EKGs I had done 9 years ago to compare them and then he'll decide if I need to go see a cardiologist. Of course though, I came right home and looked up long QT online and found out there is this long QT syndrome and that it seems it can cause people to drop dead with no warning, so of course this has me freaked out now. Like I said though, he didn't seem to worried and told me to go about my daily life, including exercise which I do 5-6 times a week. According to the material I've read on long QT syndrome, exercising can trigger a reaction that can be life threatening. But since he told me not to worry about exercising, I'm thinking he's not too concerned that I have that. I have no other symptoms--my heart never races or slows down, I don't get dizzy or pass out or short of breath, but of course now I am scared to go exercise.

[Rob2000]

It's nice to come on this thread and see that I am not alone with my palpitations. I've been having them for 9 years now. I was diagnosed with having PVCs and occassional PACs. Sometimes I'll go for days or weeks and not notice them. Sometimes I can feel a PVC every minute or two. It is indeed scary when they start up again, even after 9 years. Last night I had one of the worst episodes I have ever had--for about 7 hours I was having a palpitation once or twice a minute. I finally got up, drank some gatorade and just tried to take many deep breaths. That didn't get rid of them, but did seem to slow them down and I was able to get a couple hours of sleep, but it freaked me out quite a bit and as such, I found myself calling my doctor to make another appointment, but I don't know when it will be. I'm just looking for some reassurance. Has anyone ever had palpitations that went on this frequently for this long before?