HEART PALPITATIONS AND FAMILY HISTORY OF HEART ATTACKS

[sundownnz]

Hi all....i've just joined this group today...and looking forward to a new awareness with all this info around me.  I am 42 and have had heart palpitations since i was 20 yrs old.....possibly younger...but that's when i sort help.  Nothing was done back then.  Recently, after seeing my dad through his quad bi pass at the end of last year and finding out he had his first heart attack at 45...and his dad dying of a heart attack at 50...and more recently my brother who's 2 1/2 yrs younger than me having a lot of chest pain but leaving it too long after it to establish whether in fact they were heart attacks he was having.....all this...then a couple of weeks ago I started getting chest pain in the morning....dull sort of ache...kept working...then later in the day it increased with intensity to a stabbing pain feeling.  Dr sent me through to the hospital given the family history.....the bloods showed that I hadn't had a heart attack.  They had me on the mobile ECG unit all night as I was getting bigeminy and ectopic rhythms....they discharged me the next day.  And they eventually will call me in for the echo (ultrasound of the heart) and the 24 hr mobile ecg unit to bring home.  My question is that when I went to the dr about the palpitations a couple of times he said that if they were when i was sitting doing nothing strenuous ..that this was normal...and not sinister....I told him that i'd never really kept an eye on it when i was exercising....but recently with my new awareness of this (which is making me a little cranky with worry) I have been checking my my BPM (over a 10 sec period at the gym....and it's anything between 20 beats per 10 secs to 27 beats....but generally in that 10 sec check there's nearly always at least one missed beat....sometimes 2...and then sometimes a "catchup beat (or that's what it feels like anyway).  Does anyone know if this is ok?  The other day when it got up to the 27 beats / 10 secs....I did feel a little dizzy...and just a "flash of sick" feeling....I slowed down a bit ..and it came right.  Any info would be gratefully received. cheers

[sundownnz]

well....we hadn't planned to go to NJ....except that we'd bought (before we left New Zealand) a motorhome in Florida...hence why we flew there first...then next stop was NJ to pick up the corvette we'd already bought...( that was quite the sage on it's own....with the seller being a crooked boat broker)....then we drove both to Georgia....picked up a van we'd bought there....towed the van behind the motorhome (that was hubby's job) and i had the good job....the corvette convertible......

next time we'd definitely visit rather than just arrive and leave......we were up against the wall on time....and there was a storm starting up..and we were worried about the motorhome and the wind on the big bridge just south of NJ.

NJ and NZ are certainly far away from each other huh?  so are you in telecommunications?

[sundownnz]

well....we hadn't planned to go to NJ....except that we'd bought (before we left New Zealand) a motorhome in Florida...hence why we flew there first...then next stop was NJ to pick up the corvette we'd already bought...( that was quite the sage on it's own....with the seller being a crooked boat broker)....then we drove both to Georgia....picked up a van we'd bought there....towed the van behind the motorhome (that was hubby's job) and i had the good job....the corvette convertible......

next time we'd definitely visit rather than just arrive and leave......we were up against the wall on time....and there was a storm starting up..and we were worried about the motorhome and the wind on the big bridge just south of NJ.

NJ and NZ are certainly far away from each other huh?  so are you in telecommunications?

[Jerry_NJ]

Yes, New Jersey USA.  

I am surprised to read a visitor just passing through NJ would think there was anything to see.  Much of what is around Newark Airport and the NJ Turnpike is industrial and very old residential, not particularly "pretty".  I do read you drove up from Florida, so you must have passed through some of the farm land areas.

In truth, much of the shore, and even more in my mind, the hills and farm land in the middle of the state over to the Delaware River (Pennsylvania) are varied and lovely.  I like the North Western part of the state the most, and that's the part I now live in.

I flew through Auckland a number of years back on my way to Melbourne for an international meeting on telecommunication standards.  All I saw of New Zealand was out the airplane window, but what I have seen in travelogue programs on New Zealand makes  think I'd enjoy the country... especially the fishing.  

The distance between New Jersey and New Zealand is about as far as possible on this planet.

[sundownnz]

Thanks Jerry will do....are you from New Jersey? ...Is that the NJ?  We drove there from Florida 3 years ago to pick up a corvette we'd bought.  Wish we'd had the chance to stop a while..but we had time deadlines and couldn't go sightseeing. :)

[Jerry_NJ]

Good to get everything checked and the echocardiogram will give a complete picture of the physical condition of your heart and valves, also you ejection efficiency.

Try to not think about it too much, this can cause anxiety which will provoke heart rhythm problems in many/most people.

Let us know what you learn, and share your experience with others who post their problems and questions.