ervj
17-05-18, 11:30
Hi,
Had an incident at work the other day, and I'm not sure if it was a panic attack, an anxiety attack (if there's any difference) or what, so was hoping there might be some helpful people here to give me some advice.
For some background:
I have never had anything like this happen before, in spite of having dealt with periods of great stress at points in my life.
My dad passed away very unexpectedly when I was 16. After that I had battles with several substance addictions and a savage gambling addiction which effectively put me in 5-figure debt by the age of 20. Also had huge weight issues (5"7 and weighed nearly 17 stone at one point)
I started on my journey to sorting myself out by age 24, was out of debt by 26, got down to 11 stone, and am now in a job that, although stressful, is one I am interested in, and one I don't feel is over-burdensome. This is also helped by having directors that are hugely in favour of taking time off for the sake of personal health if that is needed.
I'm now 30, and compared to the majority of the last 50% of my life, I'm peachy - I don't have any debt other than a credit card, I stay way from previous vices where possible, and when I survey my life, my general feeling is one of as close to contentment as I feel I can be right now.
_______________
Now that you have the background: a few weeks ago I started noticing an abnormal heart rhythm/palpitations - every 5-20 beats I'd get a skipped beat followed by a noticeably heavy beat right after.
I kept an eye on this and a few days later at work (at a relatively peaceful time) I felt a bit lightheaded and my heart rate skyrocketed so asked one of my colleagues to take me to the emergency room to check.
They ran an ECG, chest x-ray and took about 6 vials of blood, all of which came back normal apart from what they called an 'ectopic heart rhythm'. They said it was nothing to be concerned about, and that I should stop taking my pulse at the first sign of discomfort as this would exacerbate it.
Another few weeks went by with minor palpitations every now and then, not seemingly triggered by anything (have altered diet, stopped taking antihistamines, to no avail).
Then on Tuesday I started feeling very uneasy at work (very hot and constricted, tight chested, slight numbness in the extremities) so I asked to be taken to the ER again.
About 100m from the hospital my chest tightened so much to the point it felt someone was sitting on my chest, my arms and legs both went numb and I got pins and needles all over, I couldn't close my fists as my fingers went almost stiff and fully extended and I couldn't speak properly (slurring and cutting off mid-sentence).
Obviously that was terrifying as I thought I was having a stroke or something - I got helped into the ER by my colleague and was seen pretty promptly. The constricted breathing abated after a few minutes, and the slurring and numbness went away after about 10-15 minutes. Shaking in the hands remained for about an hour and I just felt absolutely drained for the rest of the day (followed by a 10 hour uninterrupted sleep which is a rarity for me).
If anyone can shed light on what this most likely was, I'd be awfully grateful. I'm getting put on a 24hr monitor next week to see if there's any pattern the cardiologist can pick out but until then I'm left with the idea of a recurrence hanging over me.
Cheers
EJ
Had an incident at work the other day, and I'm not sure if it was a panic attack, an anxiety attack (if there's any difference) or what, so was hoping there might be some helpful people here to give me some advice.
For some background:
I have never had anything like this happen before, in spite of having dealt with periods of great stress at points in my life.
My dad passed away very unexpectedly when I was 16. After that I had battles with several substance addictions and a savage gambling addiction which effectively put me in 5-figure debt by the age of 20. Also had huge weight issues (5"7 and weighed nearly 17 stone at one point)
I started on my journey to sorting myself out by age 24, was out of debt by 26, got down to 11 stone, and am now in a job that, although stressful, is one I am interested in, and one I don't feel is over-burdensome. This is also helped by having directors that are hugely in favour of taking time off for the sake of personal health if that is needed.
I'm now 30, and compared to the majority of the last 50% of my life, I'm peachy - I don't have any debt other than a credit card, I stay way from previous vices where possible, and when I survey my life, my general feeling is one of as close to contentment as I feel I can be right now.
_______________
Now that you have the background: a few weeks ago I started noticing an abnormal heart rhythm/palpitations - every 5-20 beats I'd get a skipped beat followed by a noticeably heavy beat right after.
I kept an eye on this and a few days later at work (at a relatively peaceful time) I felt a bit lightheaded and my heart rate skyrocketed so asked one of my colleagues to take me to the emergency room to check.
They ran an ECG, chest x-ray and took about 6 vials of blood, all of which came back normal apart from what they called an 'ectopic heart rhythm'. They said it was nothing to be concerned about, and that I should stop taking my pulse at the first sign of discomfort as this would exacerbate it.
Another few weeks went by with minor palpitations every now and then, not seemingly triggered by anything (have altered diet, stopped taking antihistamines, to no avail).
Then on Tuesday I started feeling very uneasy at work (very hot and constricted, tight chested, slight numbness in the extremities) so I asked to be taken to the ER again.
About 100m from the hospital my chest tightened so much to the point it felt someone was sitting on my chest, my arms and legs both went numb and I got pins and needles all over, I couldn't close my fists as my fingers went almost stiff and fully extended and I couldn't speak properly (slurring and cutting off mid-sentence).
Obviously that was terrifying as I thought I was having a stroke or something - I got helped into the ER by my colleague and was seen pretty promptly. The constricted breathing abated after a few minutes, and the slurring and numbness went away after about 10-15 minutes. Shaking in the hands remained for about an hour and I just felt absolutely drained for the rest of the day (followed by a 10 hour uninterrupted sleep which is a rarity for me).
If anyone can shed light on what this most likely was, I'd be awfully grateful. I'm getting put on a 24hr monitor next week to see if there's any pattern the cardiologist can pick out but until then I'm left with the idea of a recurrence hanging over me.
Cheers
EJ