Ongoing

So, long story here, but here it goes...

For the record, we're talking about a fit and healthy 30y.o. male here.

Back on November 26th of last year, I was blissful in ignorance and then on November 27th my life changed.

On that day, my mother, who had a month or so previous, recovered from a bout of sepsis following pneumonia, suffered what doctors have since called a massive heart attack and stroke. She died the following week in hospital with family at her side. Cause of death was listed as 1a. Aorta Coronary Syndrome, 1b. Bilateral Ischemic Strokes, 2. Atrial Fibrillation.

A week or so following her funeral (19th December), I experienced chest pains and palpitations whilst at my sisters house for Christmas. On 23rd December, I called 111 and they suggested I attend a local Urgent Health Centre for checks. Upon admission, they carried out an ECG which they reported to me as "abnormal" and sat me in a wheelchair. I was transferred to A&E and subsequent testing included more ECGs, Chest X-Ray, Full Blood Work (incl. Cardiac Enzymes), as well as observations. I as discharged same day with a working diagnosis of Anxiety and told to check in with my GP when back home.

Chest pain and general discomfort and palpitations continued and a week later I was in Newcastle at my parents house and during a visit to town felt lightheaded, woozy, dizzy and had chest pains as well as cold sweats and shakes. Again, I went to A&E and had an ECG, Chest X-Ray, Full Blood Work and an ECHO. Again, all seemed fine to the docs and I was discharged with a working diagnosis of anxiety and stress.

Since then, I been run the gamut of symptom after symptom and test after test.

Returning after christmas, my local GP agreed with the anxiety diagnosis but I had a 24 hour ECG for completeness and that came back perfectly fine. I made sure I exerted myself during that 24hr monitor so that was reassuring (for a while).

I was offered a Nuffield Health Assessment through work which included an ECG and a Stress ECG. The ECG came back with "LVH" which was suggested required further investigation. As a result, they didn't do the Stress ECG. My GP referred me for another ECHO which came back normal, thus disproving the LVH.

I returned to Nuffield for the stress ECG and it was reported as normal despite feeling a little discomfort below sternum at the very end. I thought it might have been down to breathing patterns.

I had a check up with Cardiac Risk In The Young (CRY) and that involved an ECG and a chat with a cardiologist and she wasn't worried at all.

So in total, over the last 5 months I've had:
- 8 ECGs
- 2 ECHOs
- 1 Stress ECG
- 2 Chest X-Rays
- 2 lots of blood work

All normal, and yet...

I still experience discomforts, pains, palpitations, heightened anxiety and heightened cardiac awareness. I still can't accept that this is all anxiety/stress related and I understand that increased focus on symptoms can lead to this hyper-sensitivity.

Recently, I've been running more and noticed discomfort below sternum when running. Doesn't seem to last all the run and seems to come and go but can't shake the thought that its angina! It's absolutely crazy!I've pushed myself to run up hills and sprint at the end of runs and the discomfort doesn't get worse or materialise in some cases.

I've also been experiencing left and right side jaw discomfort, sometimes worse in morning. Doesn't seem to be associated with chest pain. Obviously googling any of these symptoms brings up the BANG BANG of HEART ATTACK.

I spoke to my GP about this who read through my test background and didn't seem worried. Suggested a further Stress ECG (maybe) which he was going to discuss with the other GPs and get back to me next week.

Anyone with anything similar? Such a crazy, debilitating, annoying place to be!

Hope you're all doing OK. Just can't get the what if thoughts out my head. Terrified that this may be a problem that is building up and building.

:shrug:

Thanks for reading!

S.B.

Hi SB. I'm really sorry you lost your mum, that's beyond cruel and my heart goes out to you...and my heart does the flipflops every day too. What strikes me about your story though is there's no mention of all of your cardiac symptoms before she died, only afterwards. That's a real clue, that you've been living in fear since then, and that fear has manifested itself into the symptoms you are now experiencing.

Never underestimate the power of anxiety on your body, it's very strong and starts with fear of the unknown, fear of the 'what if ' and after a trauma such as yours it's to be expected. Grief isn't only felt emotionally, it affects us physically too.

ISB x

Also this thread was supposed to be called Ongoing Cardiac Anxiety, no idea what happened there!

---------- Post added at 21:33 ---------- Previous post was at 21:30 ----------

Thanks for replying ISB, it means a whole lot, I know what you're saying and I try and tell myself that everyday! It's beyond hard and I've never experienced anything like this before that I can't reason with. This anxiety seems to be the darkest part of me and one that I can't shine a light upon no matter how much reassurance I give it.

I think it's part of your grief SB, and something you have to go through. Some of us are just more sensitive to the effect of anxiety than others...that's why this forum exists after all. Your mind is in control of your body at the moment but with time you'll take the control back again. You don't mention medication, do you take any? I take a beta blocker and this really helps with the heart palpitations and with calming down the nervous system. They are not mind altering drugs like tranquilisers are either so are non addictive.

ISB ☺

Hi S.B

I am so sorry for the loss of your Mum. :hugs:

Like ISB said, you can't under estimate the symptoms anxiety can give you. A few years back now, I ended up going to hospital because I had been experiencing terrible chest pains. These pains had me bent over double and I honestly thought I was having a heart attack. Never in my life had I felt anything like it and like you, I was in my 30's and had recently lost a parent.

I won't go into it all but long story short, My heart was fine and it was caused by stress and anxiety. Losing someone you love is probably one of the worst things anyone can go through and it can effect you not only emotionally but mentally.

You have had so many tests and please try to trust the results. I know how difficult it is to do that but , I really do, but please try.





:bighug1:

Lisa
x

Thanks for the kind words all.

With regard to medication, I'm taking Citalopram 20mg for the anxiety and I also have 2mg Diazepam to take when required, but never really felt like it has helped to be honest.

Citalopram seemed to work for a bit, but now, not so much. Maybe I'll chat to my GP about changing it up.