kimmiepie
04-01-07, 23:28
Hi my name is Kim, I'm 25, and I've suffered anxiety for as long as I can remeber. Just in the past couple of years have things gotten really bad and now they're at their worst. It started out with the heart palpitations and fluttery beats even when I wasn't panicking. Then I got chest pains beneath the breast area. 2 chest x-rays, bloodwork, 2 ekgs, 1 ecg (no dye), 1 halter monitor and 1 event monitor. (Of course I've had all the other deabilitating symptoms as well, dizziness, derealization, tingling etc pretty much everything on the list but I'm talking about my heart because it is my main concern right now.) Everything came back normal but I didn't have any of the pains or anything while I was doing the tests. Then a few months ago I got chest pains again only they were a dull deep feeling on the left side of the chest. It didn't hurt when I pushed on it but it spread to the armpit and occasionally down the arm. After much research I finally realized that it was most likely caused my muscular tenseness even though it didn't hurt when I touched it. Because that side was always SO tight. Well about a week ago I started noticing sharp pains (I had had these off and on before but not near as much) starting on left side of chest and going down arm, wrists, sometimes neck. Sometimes they come and go throughout the entire day or just a few times, other days I have none???? It gets worse when I'm stressed but doesn't everything??
So I went to the dr today who listened to my heart. I expected the same thing but she said when I had the pain that she heard a flip flop or something. She said my pulse was steady but the h/b was at times irregular. Ever since then I have been freaking out. Having an irregular beat sound with the pain that is supposed to be just like a heart attack...isn't that bad?? What scares me is that I didn't feel anything irregular. I can usually tell when I'm having missed beats or flutters. My heart was just beating fast....like it always has when I'm nervous but no other doctor ever picked up this before...only this time when I have the "heart attack" pains.
She said that because of my history of severe health anxiety, specifically heart attack related, and stress level that she thought it could be anxiety but wants me to get a stress test at a heart hospital just in case. I'm terrified! She did say that she didn't think it was a heart attack or even angina because it doesn't happen upon physica l activity(even though she didn't do any real tests) and not to worry-yeah right.
Forever I've been worried about heart attacks and my heart and it seems that gradually new symptoms come. When I hear about something that is heart attack related then I eventually get it....but quite a while after. But this is just SO real. It's sharp (which only happened rarely before) and goes down the arm, sometimes wrists (or sometimes just the arm etc) and can come and go whenever. I don't even have to be stressed.
Is it possible to worry over symptoms so much that you actually produce them? Why all of a sudden would I get this different kind of pain so often when I hadn't before? like I said there is a lot of muscular tension on that side as well as a bit of nerve issues from a car accident, but that shouldn't cause pains like these right...especially over my heart and causing irregular beats.
Someone please help. My husband is not home and I've got my 3 kids here and I'm having a panic attack just thinking about this. And the pains are back now.
Sorry to sound so crazy, but I'm really scared. Thank you!
So I went to the dr today who listened to my heart. I expected the same thing but she said when I had the pain that she heard a flip flop or something. She said my pulse was steady but the h/b was at times irregular. Ever since then I have been freaking out. Having an irregular beat sound with the pain that is supposed to be just like a heart attack...isn't that bad?? What scares me is that I didn't feel anything irregular. I can usually tell when I'm having missed beats or flutters. My heart was just beating fast....like it always has when I'm nervous but no other doctor ever picked up this before...only this time when I have the "heart attack" pains.
She said that because of my history of severe health anxiety, specifically heart attack related, and stress level that she thought it could be anxiety but wants me to get a stress test at a heart hospital just in case. I'm terrified! She did say that she didn't think it was a heart attack or even angina because it doesn't happen upon physica l activity(even though she didn't do any real tests) and not to worry-yeah right.
Forever I've been worried about heart attacks and my heart and it seems that gradually new symptoms come. When I hear about something that is heart attack related then I eventually get it....but quite a while after. But this is just SO real. It's sharp (which only happened rarely before) and goes down the arm, sometimes wrists (or sometimes just the arm etc) and can come and go whenever. I don't even have to be stressed.
Is it possible to worry over symptoms so much that you actually produce them? Why all of a sudden would I get this different kind of pain so often when I hadn't before? like I said there is a lot of muscular tension on that side as well as a bit of nerve issues from a car accident, but that shouldn't cause pains like these right...especially over my heart and causing irregular beats.
Someone please help. My husband is not home and I've got my 3 kids here and I'm having a panic attack just thinking about this. And the pains are back now.
Sorry to sound so crazy, but I'm really scared. Thank you!