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Avatar universal

Quit smoking and feel worse! Are these palpitations?

I quit smoking on Sunday evening after a 20 a day 14 year habit.  Last night (Mon) I went to bed with the most bizarre feeling in my chest.  It was like a pulse, not painful but like an extra giant heartbeat that I could feel down the centre of my chest.  These increased to about 1 every minute to the point where I could feel them throughout my body.  It was a little like a jolt almost like when your just nodding off and your whole body kind of jolts awake.

I was scared out of my wits!!

I have recently had Chest XRays, CT Scan and ECG's for unexplained chest pain which have all come back clear.  Also full bloods also showed a clean bill of health.  I am however, coughing up (apologies) a brown mucus with flecks in it, alot like I've coughed up before when I've quit smoking.  However, when I last quit, the mucus was clear with flecks in.

I'm in a bit of a state about all this now and have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow but just wondered if anyone else could share similar experiences?
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Avatar universal
you have been medicating yourself with nicotine for a long time which raises your blood pressure many times a day .I don't think it is healthy to quit cold turkey as our blood pressure could become to low without the nicotine . I would recommend taking a small piece of nicotine at bed time gum or lozenge for a while until your b.p returns to healthier level .just my experience ,I also smoked for many years then took nrt gum for years .stopping both played havoc on my blood pressure. If I took too much nrt gum at night I would get hypertension symptoms and insomnia  and if I did manage to fall asleep ,I  would  jolt awake  feeling like  body was stopping working (scary)and if I stopped taking the gum completley ,I would wake up feeling like my heart was beating to slowly(hypotension)so maybe you just have to wean yourself off the nicotine at a slower pace.
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Avatar universal
Thanks Jerry and a massive well done on your quit!  That's amazing!

I have always been curious about the damage done to lungs when smoking.  Can a smokers lungs ever get back to being shiny pink and wet or are us smokers destined to have charred lungs forever?  
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612551 tn?1450022175
COMMUNITY LEADER
Looks like good input from "itdood".

I quit smoking about 25 years ago, after smoking for about 25 years... at least a pack a day, and pipe smoking too.  I don't recall anything visible coming up from my throat.  Well it has been a long time, maybe I have just forgotten.

I am of the understanding that now that I have a 25 year history of not smoking, not even much second hand smoke, my lungs are back to being like an old guy who never smoked.

You made the right decision stopping smoking, stick with it.
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Avatar universal
Thanks for replying.  I think COPD would have been picked up on any recent CT Scans or Chest Xrays so I'm counting my blessings for that and  am thankful that its not too late for me to quit and still be able to repair some of the damage.

I had no idea that the Chest thing coud be related to my liver!  Wow.  
Helpful - 0
995271 tn?1463924259
Sounds like isolated PVCs for the heart thing.

I know folks who have quit after a long time of smoking and it takes a while for your body to adjust.  It's amazing how many different organs smoking impacts, even your liver is impacted by it.  That's kinda what I'm thinking is your PVC cause, because your liver enzymes will be a bit off while you adjust to not smoking but they do return to normal.

As for your sputum, not too sure but it's probably the result of years of smoking.  I can't even speculate what it might be, whatever damage that caused.  When you smoke this stuff doesn't clear your lungs.  Now that you've stopped the cilia can get back to doing its job of clearing debris from your lungs and all those years of tar is starting to release.

That damage is reversible if it hasn't turned into COPD so hang in there.
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