Help - irregular heart beat while walking my dog

[hamster lady]

Hi everyone

I have suffered from palpitations and ectopics for 3 years now but today I had an extremely scary episode of irregular heart beat whilst taking my dogs out for a walk with my husband. I just bent forwards a bit because my dog was sniffing something and then my heart went really slow, then sped up, went slow again and then eventually went back to normal. I just stood there terrified clutching on to my neck to feel my pulse thinking that my heart was just going to stop. My husband tried to reassure me but I felt a panic attack coming on and spent the rest of the walk with legs like jelly, a dry mouth and trying to fight off a panic attack.

I have recently undergone some heart tests because of my terrible palps and fast heart rate at night which my doctor thinks are anxiety. I have had a chest x-ray and a 24hr holter monitor a month ago but my results are still not available. I phoned the surgery again this morning and she couldn't tell me anything because they have just had a new computer system put in. I told the receptionist that my doctor wanted to see me again when my results came through but I have got to wait 2 weeks for an appointment because she is away next week. This waiting for results is causing my anxiety to rocket and now I'm more worried than ever because of what happened this morning.

My husband wanted me to go to the doctors this afternoon but I couldn't face it and they always just say it is anxiety anyway and also I feel fine now apart form feeling horribly anxious! I am now terrified that I do have a heart problem and I have read lots of times about how an irregular heart beat can cause a cardiac arrest.

Have any of you guys had similar episodes of an irregular heart beat, which lasts a short time and then returns to normal? Could it have been a nasty PVC? I didn't feel faint and I didn't have any chest pain when it happened thank goodness.

I am now scared to go out now and walk my dogs on my own in case it happens again. I had worked so hard to get over my agoraphobia but now I feel myself slipping back into it again because of what happened this morning. Many thanks in advance, hamster lady

[saab]

Yes, I get this if I go upstairs too quickly. I have often read of people saying their pvcs start up when they bend over or turn/sleep on their left side. This may be because the heart touches the chest wall and it triggers the pvcs.

4 weeks seems a long time to wait for results, but I am sure that if the results were significant the hospital would have got in touch straight away. I think a machine reads them first, then they are seen by a cardiologist, so anything that needed immediate attention would have been flagged up straight away by the machine. Likewise, if the results need dealing with straight away they would ask you to see another doctor in the practise.

Unfortunately, this is how recovery from anxiety goes - there are lots of little setbacks along the way. Try to think of how far you have come and see this as a bump in the road. Best wishes.

[hamster lady]

Thanks so much for your reply Saab, it has really helped to put my mind at rest about my results and my palpitations. I am just a bit concerned that my results still haven't come through or got lost somewhere because the receptionist couldn't find it on the computer but then again they have just had a new computer system put in! I don't know whether to get an earlier appointment next week or wait until my appointment in a couple of week's time. I am just really concerned that the irregular heart beat episode felt different to my usual PVC's, it really felt like it went out of rhythm for a few seconds. I am terrified that it is going to happen again and that it means that I have some kind of arrhythmia.

I must admit, I absolutely hate my palpitations, and I am trying to work out why I have started getting them. I never had any palpitations until 3 years ago, I am really hoping that it might just be hormone related because I could be in the perimenopause now that I am in my early 40's. My sleep is extremely disturbed too so I feel absolutely dreadful at the moment and I have no energy and am struggling to get through the day.

Thanks so much again Saab for your reply, I really appreciate it

[janzenz]

Hi... you sound similar to me... after 20 plus years of heart symptoms I still get terrible anxiety re palps. Also have been happening more on exertion than before.. mind you get them laying in bed doing zilch too! Also am in mid 40's so feel hormones are getting worse...recently went through a bad recurrence of anxiety disorder also... but that is settling now... also just had 24hr bp monitor which showed very high bp readings so now starting another med to assist this.i lost 25 k and bp still high! Hope you're feeling better by now... also any test that shows a problem would be flagged and gp would let you know...