I am male 41 years of age, 6'2" 280 lbs. In good health and currently eating well and exercising along with my wife. No family history of heart issues other than some high blood pressure. My cholesterol was a little off and I was at one time considered pre-diabetic, so I have been taking Niacin for a few years and Red Rice Yeast Extract recently, but not really exercising or eating well (not horribly either) until an episode a month ago which I will discuss further down if you would be so kind to read this entire post. My doctor prescribed Prilosec at that time and I've lost nearly 10 lbs in the past month.
Last Friday I felt my heart go flip-flop while sitting at my desk at home after work, normal rhythm followed by adrenaline took over. I didn't feel well for a couple of hours, so I saw my doctor Monday and he scheduled me for a 30 days heart monitor in a couple weeks time. For the past 3 days, after exercising after my appointment on Monday, I have been experiencing an abnormal awareness of my heart during my waking hours since Wednesday morning. I told my doctor and I was supposed to see him today, but I ended up in the ER instead when I started feeling bad at work and got light headed, felt a warmth in my chest, and felt something bad could happen, so I went to the ER. EKG and blood work looked fine, and I was discharged after a few hours and I am now wearing a 24 hour monitor.
The palpitations started Wednesday after a Tuesday night where I felt an agitated electric feeling inside that was worse as I woke near midnight. I didn't sleep well and the next morning at work I could feel a fuzzy beating in my chest all day. I am able to lay down and sleep at night, feel well in the morning, but by about 9:30 am on Thursday and Friday the same thing - a distracting feeling of my heart beating fuzzily, until the episode I describe above. I am feeling them now as I type this. I stopped my Niacin and Prilosec Wednesday morning as I read that they could cause palpitations and am approaching 3 days without them (I notified my doctor)
I really haven't had any issues of note except for 5 months ago, due to issues my wife has with depression, she tried MJ and could feel intimate feelings for the first time in a long time, so I tried it and did that once a week after that on the weekend. In December I ended up in the ER with tachycardia from this (140 beats a minute). I felt terribly ashamed, but everything was fine and a few weeks later I tried a small puff and decided it wasn't for me after getting uncontrollable shivering. The next day I ended up in ER again after work as I felt some pain in my left side, got tachycardia (120 BPM), and tight chest/trouble breathing. After a stress test the next day I was given a clean bill of health.
I started to exercise again for the first time in about a year. The first time running after this episode, my heart went to 120 bpm for 2 hours. I figured it was due to THC in my tissue being burnt off or just plain bad health. After this I was able to work myself up to 30 minutes of fast walking with some running interspersed.
I don't know if exercise, medicine, latent THC after 40 days (it was supposedly very potent and smelly), anxiety, or an underlying problem is driving these palpitations, but I am both embarrassed and scared that I might have hurt myself permanently over something so stupid.
I would greatly appreciate any insight into my abnormal awareness of my heartbeat. I can't concentrate well at work and obviously anxiety is a factor.