A bad experience in A&E

[nooey]

I have read on here a million times about palpatations and missed heart beats/pauses but I just wondered if you minded me sending you a personal email so when you are not too busy as I am sure that you are a very busy person that I may have a personal reply from you that I can put in my handabag and carry around with me.
Ill try not to bore you but I have had anxiety and panic for about 9 years now and up until last september I didnt go out of the house with agoraphobia but I have been managing to leave home with company and even alone a couple of times since september x
Well I have had a multitude of symptoms over the 9 years as we all have here and one by one managed to sort of work them out or learn to ignore/deal with them but last year I noticed my heart seeming to pause occasionally and if I take my pulse in my arm I can feel the pause (it doesnt hurt and I dont seem to get any other physical symptoms but I do break out in to a clamy person and occasionally get a rush of panic go from head to groin). Well I ended up in A&E and I had a foreign nurse (not that that was a problem) but all she kept saying to me is that everyone is anxious in hospital so try to calm down. Anyway it ended with me having a racing pulse when it slowed down it was about 140 (that was while I was in hospital) as by this time I was actually strapped to the bed in resussatation with oxygen mask strapped to my face and blood being taken. I was left tied to the bed for 7 and a half hours alone and sure that I was about to die any minute now and I cant seem to get the memory out of my head. Eventually a white male doctor came to see me said all my bloods were fine, and although fast my ecgs were fine he unstrapped me and my pulse lowered to under 80 (this was on its own with no medication just from reassurance from him) and I was sent home. Well since then I have noticed these pauses everynow and again in my pulse and also I have a lot of gurgling air in my chest. I am convinced my heart is going to stop and that is all I seem to be able to think about day and night. My gp has said it is anxiety but that he doesnt really know why it happens!! I am on proprananol (just 10mg 3 times a day) and also citilipram oral drops). I am so frightened Meg I just dont understand why this happens? Also I can go weeks with out noticing one and then I seem to get them on and off all day for several days and then gone again. I dont smoke, drink or do drugs. Also they sometimes happen if my heart goes a bit faster then normal when it is actually slowing down but they also seem to happen when I dont feel anxious or worried about anything although now I am anxious and worried about the pauses :-( I have gone on for long enough now I am so sorry but I have been crying all day and I dont know who to turn to I feel like I am harrassing my gp and I have had full blood tests, an ecg for 7 and a half hours in a and e and I still dont feel reassured as the man in there just said that it was all normal and fine. I am 32 year old female and I am not over weight and dont lay on the sofa all day. Very occasionally they happen if I turn my body without my legs or take a deep breathe? Also occasionally if I am bending over forwards when one happens it feels harder and more servere but at the moment I am scared to even move for fear that my heart will stop
Love to you nooeyxx

[nooey]

Thank You for replying to me Tetley . . . . Its silly isnt it as its like I am paralysed by fear :-( xx
Love nooeyxx

[learner]

I am sure it is anxiety which keeps trying to take hold of you, Keep positive and just allow the attack to pass knowing they are harmless.

I also have strange feelings and flutters in my chest, alot of the time i am not wound up so no reason for them.

Keep telling yourself you will be fine and be positive.

julie

[nickieb]

Are these episodes around the time of your period? as there is a link.
Your symptoms do suggest that of a panic attack & causes these tachycardic episodes (fast heartbeat) which can go on for hours even days as you are still anxious about the attack. If your ecg's suggest you are fine then you really need to believe that & try & move on.

Hun its all part of this stupid panic & anxiety xxxx

[countrygirl]

Be reassured I have had ectopic heartbeats since I was 20 yrs old and I am now 47yrs old!! I had alot of very bad years where I would get constant missed beats all the time for months on end - like every 3rd beat it would pause then give a big thump- which is exactly what you are experiencing. I also get 2 second episodes where my heart flutters very fast and it makes me cough which puts it back to normal. I have had endless tests and 24 hr ecg every 3 years and its totally harmless.

Cardiologist told me that none anxious people do not feel these missed beats and if a patient doens't mention them the Drs don't even tell them as there is no need as its harmless. In anxious people we are so tuned into bodily senstaion that we notice them immediately. Basically they are harmless but extremely unpleasant.

One intereting thing is that low potassium levels can cause these in suseptible people and i have found that if I eat potassium rich food then I suffer much less with them. Dr told me this connection and it apperas to be true.

[belle]

Hey...
Your A & E experience is IDENTIAL to mine, apart from they "lost" my ECG results where it showed something called Atrial fibralation, that was diagnosed in the ambulance. I was stuck there, wired up, with a IV in the back of my badly bruised/swollen hand with oxy mask from 6pm - 4am.

That happened last November. Since then i've had numerous "episodes" but none as bad as when i went to hospital. They'd lasted for 4 days SOLID. It was not just a wee flutter, we're talking, banging hard, racing, slowing right down, then massive pauses and then the oddest beat inside my chest but i could also feel it right in my stomach too.

I WAS NOT anxious when mine was happening, that is what freaked me out. I didn't panic at any time, even when i was waiting for the ambulance to come, no panic.

If you want to chat - PM me :)