Missing every other heart beat

[Rachmaninoff]

Active male, 54.  Living in UK.  Hobbies mountains, caves (called spelunking in USA), rowing, used to do quite a bit of running.  Live in country area.  Good health.  Non-smoker.  Social drinker.  Software/electronic engineer.  No home or work worries.  Heart murmur and BP of 150/90 noticed at age 28 at insurance medical.  No clear diagnosis then, but suspected as being a minor ASD or HCM by a London professor of cardiology who said it might be a problem for later life.  Thousands of mountains and miles later, at age 51, I developed acute heart problem after over-exertion one crazy weekend.  Missing beats.  I was transformed in just an hour.  I have never had missing beats before, not that I'd noticed.  Pulse was 60 at my heart but was 30 when felt at wrist or neck.  I'd get 30-60 seconds of this half-speed pumping then a return to normal.  Light headed feelings, floating in the air sensation, fatigue.  Had a bruised feeling in the chest for weeks, that was not made any worse by exercise or rest.  Never had the slightest chest pain before.  Got hospitalised for 1 day, abnormal ECG, but country docs seemed only to care that I'd not had an MI (they checked my troponin twice).  The discharging hospital doctor had NOT seen my ECGs from the casualty dept the night before.  Got no sense out of any of them.  In fact they were flippant.  I took it easy for the next year, rehabilitated myself gradually, and problem faded away over about 3 or 4 months.  I avoid any over-exertion now.  I'm still doing all of the above sports except no more running.  The problem happened 3 years ago.

I guess I have some low-grade anatomical heart problem, and that I'm doing the right things by keeping quite active but calming down a bit in view of middle age.  But it would just have been nice to have got a proper diagnosis and advice from someone insightful and diligent enough to "join up the dots".  I've read a lot of re-assuring as well as tragic personal stories on this and other websites.  And I'm grateful that I have been privileged to enjoy such a good life.

The reason arrythmia is back on my agenda now is that I've recently obtained copies of my medical records, for unrelated reasons, and thus discovered quite a bit of interest in them relating to the heart problem -  specifically who said what and who assumed things without, er, possessing any evidence.  The report from the last hospital doctor to my family doctor says - in writing - that he did not have my ECGs from the hospital casualty dept when he formed his opinion.  I'm not planning to sue anyone.  But I might go back to a London teaching hospital and present my actual ECGs etc to a real expert.

Does my exercise-induced arrythmia and history ring a bell with anyone?  Anyone else out there had similar experiences, thanks?

[itdood]

I can't think of a darn thing that can cause a pulse of 60 at your heart but 30 at atrial sources.  

WHenever I hear people talking about skipped, missed beats, pauses, ...  I usually think PVCs, but what you describe doesn't fit anything I've ever heard.  Assuming they are PVCs, there's actually no missed beat, it just feels that way.  When a PVC occurs, your heart has a compensatory pause but the overall ejection is nearly the same.

TO get any further on your quest for info, need to catch on an EKG what exactly is going on.

[Jerry_NJ]

I take it from what I read (quickly) that you are a USA citizen who has moved to the UK.  Are you under the UK medical system?  

Independent of the above I think you should be given a long term monitor and perhaps an echocardiogram exam to determine the condition of your heart.

I was a runner/jogger until the age of 67 when my atrial fibrillation would no longer convert to sinus rhythm.  I'm still working that problem, 3 years later, but suppose at 70 I'll never return to running, but hopefully I'll be able to get back to walking up steep hills and riding a bike with more speed and comfort.

You're a good bit younger than me, and I'd hope you can get a diagnosis that gives you room to continue a quality of life level of physical activity.