What should your pulse feel like?

[daisycake]

Kind of an odd question. I was feeling my pulse tonight (as my GP taught me to do that if I feel palpitations for some reason) and it feels odd. Kind of changes as to where I put my thumb to feel it but it's like the artery throbs up towards my hand and then moves back. Sometimes it goes beat-small beat-beat-small beat-beat-small beat, I think it does at least - and if I ever feel my heart beat itself, it feels like it is moving in a circle throughout my chest. Like not pumping steadily.. Which is odd surely? I am beggining to wonder if I am imaging that or if it really is doing that..! Everytime I feel my pulse it seems to be in a different blimmin place and changes! Whatever rythym it seems to be in it is regular and doesn't change while I'm feeling it, just if I move my thumb and then put it back it feels completely different.

[xtremx]

Hi, not to sure on how to answer question but can give you a but of advice get a new doctor cause if the doc has taught you to take you pulse with you thumb they are mad.
I say this as you cannot use you thumb to check a pulse as your thumb has a pulse of it's own which is slightly different from your regular pulse.
That is more than lightly way you are getting a strange pulse feeling .

[countrygirl]

Agree never every take your pulse with your thumb your dr doesn't he uses his second or third finger as you have a pulse in your thumb and this will interact with what you feel in your wrist.

From what you describe it sounds like classic ectopic heartbeats as with this your pulse is regular for xxx number of beats then it puts a quick one in then pauses to reset itself and so on and so on. Sometimes you can get multiple ectopics which feel very odd or say every 7th beat is ectopic. These are harmless and have been described by a cardiologist as like your eyelid twitching and orginate not in the heart but in your vagus nerve elsewhere in the body but this nerve affects the heartbeat.

If you feel your heart is totally erratic and irregular then this could be sign of atrial fibrillation but your Dr would have picked this up straight away just feeling your pulse and mainly affects elderly people anyway.