Heart prob. or Anxiety?

[tornadochaser]

Hello Everyone!
I have a question that I hope you can answer for me.  For the past few weeks, my heart has had short episodes of beating fast and "flopping" in my chest.  You know that feeling you get in your stomach when you plummet down the hill of a large roller coaster--that flopping feeling?  Well, that's what my heart feels like--like it just turned a quick flip in my chest.  This has happened to me on and off over the years but it has become a daily, almost hourly event, in the past few weeks.  Do I have a heart problem or am I have anxiety attacks?  My brother went to the ER last year for (gosh I hope I'm saying this right) "throwing PVCs" and after tests and a visit with the Card., he was basically told he was overdoing it on diet and exercise and his potassium was way too low.  So, thinking about him, I decided to eat bananas for a few days to restore my potassium level, but it didn't help, so I guess that wasn't my problem.  And no, I am not dieting and exercising.  Just normal day to day life of taking care of my 3 small children.  I could understand if all this is from stress--I mean, 3 kids, need I say more?  But we (my hubby and I) are thinking of selling our house and buying a larger one, all 3 kids have been sick at some point over the past 3 weeks with the flu or strep, and I am an anxious person by nature (that's the nice way to say it; my hubby calls me an anal retentive perfectionist).  I have made an appt. with my PCP for this Thursday-he's a good guy and I'm sure he'll be able to help or send me to someone who can--but in the meantime, I would just like to know what I'm likely dealing with here.  The episodes, though short, are frustrating and leave me shaking and nauseous for about an hour afterwards.  They are also making me irritable.  Any suggestions would be most appreciated.  Oh yeah, I'm 35, about 15-20 pounds overweight, have always had a heartrate in the low 90's and my BP is a steady 85-90 over 55-60.  I don't drink caffiene--atleast not often; maybe 3 times a week at most. THANK YOU!

[dolfnlvr]

Many of us have been diagnosed as having "benign" arhythmias.  But, an arhythmia CAN be a sign of something else.  No matter, it is always wise to go to the doctor and have a workup done to dismiss serious problems then to be sorry later for ignoring them.

Good luck.

[da75]

you really need to catch these events on an ekg. If it happens every day I suspect your doctor will (or you should ask) for a 24 hour holter monitor to pick these episodes up. A holter monitor is just a device you put in your pocket or on a belt that has five wire leads with suction cups on your torso. You go about your day and it records your EKG for the full 24 hours and you write in a journal any times you experience your symptoms. The key to the holter monitor is that the cardiologist can refer to your 24 hour journal when you said you have symptoms and look at the reading from the machine at those same times.  
This would be my advice. It may just be anxiety like you say, but this is a good precaution.  A metabolic profile via a blood test may also be warranted if your brother suffered the same symptoms and it was determined to be an electrolyte imbalance.