Not reassured at all by my visit to the ER...

[inha]

Hello,
well I'm sure posting a lot. Yesterday, I went to the ER panicking about a heart attack, which made the doctors there laugh (I'm 19).
I had had radiating pain in my left arm for hours.
I had an ECG (it lasted 10 seconds so I was a bit surprised at that), a blood test (it was fine), but the doctor heard a heart murmur I had never been told I had!
I had been the same morning at my doctor's office, he listened and didn't hear (or tell me he heard) the heart murmur! The emergency doctor told me I needed an echography of the heart, that I could get one in 5 to 6 weeks.
I feel like I need one now!

Sometime ago I read about aortic dissection where a girl was at the hospital for some chest pain and died there very suddenly from it.
I don't understand why two GPs in the past two weeks did not notice the sound.
Plus, at the ER when the doctors where looking at my ECG I heard one say "Yeah, a little." but I don't know what they were talking about.
Today I have pain in my chest which I didn't have yesterday and I woke up with my pulse super fast...

I'd go back to the hospital but my mother doesn't want to take me, tells me lots of people have heart murmurs and they're fine most of the time. She keeps telling me to take the Xanax I've been prescribed but I'm too scared of it.

It's even harder to reason myself, I'm desperate now...

[feelthelove]

My mother in law has a heart murmur and she is 84 and they haven't done anything about it so i guess its not worth bothering with . I can't really say much to help im sorry x

---------- Post added at 11:51 ---------- Previous post was at 11:46 ----------

Go back to your doctors today and ask as many questions as you want to it will help take away the fear .

---------- Post added at 11:53 ---------- Previous post was at 11:51 ----------

I also wonder if the anxiety and panic caused the heart murmur to show up at the hospital ?

[inha]

Hi, thank you feelthelove !
I'm not sure I can see a doctor today as my usual one is not working on Fridays.
I don't know if it's possible for the stress to cause the murmur, I sure could see my chest pound as I was undergoing the tests at the hospital, it looked like it would explode any second. I wasn't in such a state at my GP's. However I haven't seen much information on anxiety/stress related murmur...

[feelthelove]

Hi, thank you feelthelove !
I'm not sure I can see a doctor today as my usual one is not working on Fridays.
I don't know if it's possible for the stress to cause the murmur, I sure could see my chest pound as I was undergoing the tests at the hospital, it looked like it would explode any second. I wasn't in such a state at my GP's. However I haven't seen much information on anxiety/stress related murmur...

Can you phone your surgery and speak to a different GP to put your mind at rest .

[natalie yog]

I found out I had a heart murmur in my teens and was just told to keep my eyes on it but I've always had arm and chest pains and when I told the Dr this he told me it's amazing all the different kinds of symptoms that anxiety can create. But now I'm older and my murmur has never been brought up since. It's only now I've been prescribed propranolol for my high heart rate.

[inha]

I just got an appointment with another GP, feelthelove. I'll ask everything there and see. I hope it's a good doctor since I've never been to him before.
Thanks for your help Natalie, I hope my story goes along the lines of yours, and it's really just anxiety.
I might just try to take half a Xanax and see if it works. I'm most afraid of it making me too sleepy.

[Solus]

Perhaps worrying about said heart murmur is causing more problems

[feelthelove]

I just got an appointment with another GP, feelthelove. I'll ask everything there and see. I hope it's a good doctor since I've never been to him before.
Thanks for your help Natalie, I hope my story goes along the lines of yours, and it's really just anxiety.
I might just try to take half a Xanax and see if it works. I'm most afraid of it making me too sleepy.

Great news was the appointment today and how did you get on ?

[inha]

It was just now! He said he is really not worried about my heart, he could hear a very small functional murmur that is not associated with a heart disease, and said if I hadn't told him, he wouldn't have known. I also have respiratory arrythmia but it's nothing to worry about and he just told me to assure me it was benign.
Since my pain is only on the left, he said it was reassuring too.

Overall it helped a lot, I hope I don't fall back on my fear thinking he missed something/develop a new symptom (since he told me was cardiac pain actually feels like, I'm afraid my body might recreate it...)... He also told me not to hesitate and take a Xanax pill if it gets too much (though it would be better if I didn't have to).

I need to start trusting the 4 doctors I've seen, it's getting ridiculous.
Thank you for listening and answering me feelthelove, I hope you're doing fine !

[AlexandriaUK]

I was diagnosed with an extra systolic heart murmur in my late teens made worse by anxiety, I had 5 children and am still here, and my ECG is always abnormal, check my previous thread I was petrified and like you found it hard to deal with it.
Maybe its still there but I'm under the impression that in young people it only happens in healthy hearts (this was told to me by a cardiologist at Leicesters glenfield hospital 20 years ago) hope this gives you confidence.
Also exercise was an ok as well.

[feelthelove]

It was just now! He said he is really not worried about my heart, he could hear a very small functional murmur that is not associated with a heart disease, and said if I hadn't told him, he wouldn't have known. I also have respiratory arrythmia but it's nothing to worry about and he just told me to assure me it was benign.
Since my pain is only on the left, he said it was reassuring too.

Overall it helped a lot, I hope I don't fall back on my fear thinking he missed something/develop a new symptom (since he told me was cardiac pain actually feels like, I'm afraid my body might recreate it...)... He also told me not to hesitate and take a Xanax pill if it gets too much (though it would be better if I didn't have to).

I need to start trusting the 4 doctors I've seen, it's getting ridiculous.
Thank you for listening and answering me feelthelove, I hope you're doing fine !

You're welcome i know how it feels to be frightened about health i am the queen of HA lol. Seriously if you need to share again on here if i am on here i will always listen and try to help you. I'm so pleased you have seen the doctor and that is such good news and i would be well pleased with that if my doctor reassured me . I am always at the doctors with one thing or another but i am so lucky to have a doctor who knows all about my fears and tries to help me, last time i went which was last Friday just to see how my anxiety is , he asked me if i had any concerns and if so to say so and he will check it out because if i don't it will make me ill, so it is good to go to the doctors instead of dwelling on things and making yourself ill.

so so pleased for you :yesyes:

ps i have had a better day than expected lol after lying awake all night worrying over a symptom :lol:

[inha]

Thanks a lot !
It's really important to find doctors you trust (even though I doubt them anyway it's still a thought worth repeating in my head that I believe they are competent).

I know what no sleeping about this is like! I had a bad night too, waking with a sort of panic attack convinced I was having a stroke or the dreaded heart attack... Today all the chest pain is still there but I just keep reading the Symptoms page on nomorepanic to get myself to accept it's because I've been tense for weeks now...
I can't wait to have the echography too, it should put my mind at rest.