Palpatations, missed beats and other heart stuff.

[Pansy]

Please can anyone tell me when palpatations, missed beats and sudden onset of very rapid heartbeats stop be coming a just a nuisance, and start to be a bit serious.
I get palpatations and the odd missed heartbeat on a daily basis, but usually I ignore them and they pass.
Today I went shopping, that was ok. Got in the car and set off, ok so far. Then my heart did a sort of fipflop the started beating very rapidly, but not thumping, quite weakly really. My mouth went dry and I did feel a bit funny. I couldn't stop the car as I was on a no-stopping dual carriageway. I made it to the lights, then on to my works car park. By then the irregular beats had stopped but my heart was thumping quite fast. The whole episode lasted about 5-10 minutes.
I got into work and sat a while, then everything went back to normal, other than I felt really tired.
Has anyone had this happen to them?

[Freaked]

I've had a lot of very scary feeling heart stuff (sudden pounding, irregular beats, rapid rates for very long times) and they told me my heart was fine, though I do have a condition that causes my heart to race and faintness...it's just hopefully not a heart condition (autonomic dysfunction thing). But there are people who have thousands of skips every day and cardiologists still say it's fine if their heart is okay other than that. And your heart could apparently beat at 200 for days without doing damage if it's healthy and in a normal rhythm (hard to believe i know).

What you are experiencing are most likely just regular panic attacks (mouth going dry etc), but I'm sure a doc would be happy to arrange a monitor for you to be sure. Have you had a recent heart check up?

[joelhall]

What you're describing there is a panic attack. Generally you worry if it is accompanied by fainting, difficulty breathing, crushing or tight chest pain, nausea/vomiting, an erratic pulse which may vary in force from beat to beat or a family history of early-onset heart disease. This isn't a strict rule, as sometimes cardiac illness may not present any symptoms (usually picked up on a routine ECG, e.g. first degree AV blocks, long Q-T intervals). However, from your description, it does not sound like anything of cardiac origin.

[cattia]

It sounds like a classic panic attack, especially the tiredness afterwards, if I have a panic attack I just want to sleep afterwards.

[Pansy]

Hi there.............thanks for the helpful replies.
Freaked: I have had an ecg which didn't show anything, when I have check up my doc says I have a good, slow heart beat (usually about 60 beats per min) which is possibly why I get scared when I get a rapid pulse.
Joel and Cattia, you're probably right, just a panic attack, but it came out of nowhere. One minute I was fine, the next I'm a mess. I suppose after all these years of anxiety I should know by now.

[countrygirl]

I have had ectopic heartbeats for over 30 years ( I got them young!) and a few years ago got multiple ectopics that make me feel faint and my chest flip flops like mad. Again even multiple ectopics are not harmful if your heart is fine. I find that whenever I get the ectopics in a row I feel just like you did, faint, racing heart afterwards and panic stricken. I think its the adrenalin rush of the fear of what we are experiencing.

[Freaked]

Ugh, yeah. Ectopics in a row feel awful.