Missed heart beats and the worry of what ?

[Chrismascray]

Hi all I post here from time to time, sometimes looking for re assurance and sometimes, I hope, to help others. This time I want to share something and ask if this is similar to others. I have had Anxiety for over 20 years, the biggy for me is the missed heart beats and to be honest the totally hey wire beats where there is no rythm and it goes mad. I had tests some 8 years ago when it was really bad, I saw my Doctor almost daily with them and strangley for once it was missing and un even when he took my pulse, doesnt always happen like that does it, he looked and just said, " oh yes I can feel it" I looked at him awaiting the news, Tests, problems, I even expected him to reach for the phone to get an ambulance, he did none of te things I thought he would, he just looked smiled and said it was nothing and not to worry, he was a great Doc. But I had to go back again and again until eventually he sent me for tests, ECG 24 hour, ultra sound and stress tests, all came back fine, and my blood pressure has always been ' Very Good' accoring to my Doctors, last one two weeks ago took it, looked at me, smiled and said " that is better than mine and I am healthy", made me feel pretty good especially as he is younger than me and I et he doesnt smoke.
So why this post, well I am rying hard to see what exactly I fear, sudden death? I dont think so, Illness? well yes but deep down I know there is nothing, I fear the fear. As soon as I get a Missed bat BANG Off I go and it is THAT that I fear, I so want to be normal, the missed beats have ruined my sex life, made me about 30% efficient in my life, I have achieved muck but I know it is only a third of what I am capable of, without te fear. I wanted to ask for a little re assurance from you folk, heart beats missing are OK but also to ask what is it you fear? and also how can I draw away from this fear?.
I have another ecg booked for 8 Dec, a 24 hour one again, freaked when My Doctor suggested it, but then as he said, it has been 8 years, and then he said two things, " I VERY much doubt there is anything wrong" and " if we find something we will fix it Of course he then had to answer th obvious, what, what mightb you find, what chances are there of there being something, why an ECG, What have you found" he told me it was simply as I hadnt had one for ages and was to help me realise I was/am Fine.
I kind of feel relived I am having the test, fear of course there will be something !! but aso looking forward to the all clear so I can get on again, BUT I have thought to myself, what is it I fear ? also when ( being positive) this test comes back fine, how long will I believe it? how long before tis sticking plaster falls off? and back go to fear. You see it is heart at the moment, but I have 'had' Cancer of the stomach, Bowel, throat and I have had all sorts of other things 'wrong' with me, all clear I AM fine, but I still fear, and I am trying to get to the bottom of the fear, fear of what? Any one got any help and or ideas?.

[looking4answers]

We fear the unknown and its natural to fear death. I too have been having missed heart beats for a few days.. Don't know if its stress due to losing a family pet or maybe a touch of the flu or just cold weather or gas.

I also have had an ekg recently and it was perfect also the doctor has reassured me she couldn't find anything wrong with my heart , lungs or anything that would lead her to think of anything major wrong. Everything I ask her about always comes back to ,its anxiety or its benign and nothing is wrong.

I suppose I will have to stop asking.. I feel ridiculous. I get worried sometimes because I had rheumatic fever as a child and it damaged a little of my heart ,enough to make it go into tachycardia sometimes but I have learned over the years ways of controlling my heart..

I have had cardiologist that say my heart was healthy and there was nothing wrong but still like you I get afraid.. Im sorry your fear has taken hold of you , and hope that you will try to let go.. I get afraid of dying to sometimes , and have to think about what someone wrote here I think. When you die, you are the same as you were when you were not born. You don't know it.Time passes and it ceases to exist for you and you were not afraid before you were born..so why should you be to die?

I know its sad leaving this life , all the people you love and things you love but at least we got a chance to live. We enjoyed things that many others never got to enjoy and experience.We had family and pleasure, and pain and all the things that make life life.. so I guess in a way this is all we can think .. Im not sure how you over come the fear.. Sometimes as you get older I think that you come to terms with it but then again what about the many that died being brave.

Bravery is not to not fear, its to face what you are afraid of and go forth. There isn't one military man or hero that died that wasn't afraid to die., they just faced it and proceeded. It was inevitable and could not be chosen or not chosen, It something we all face but thats life. So as far as why you afraid im pretty sure this is bottom line.. of what you are afraid of ... and as far as being afraid , im sure you will never stop being afraid but only learn not to focus on it.

Im 55 and have been afraid most of my life.. off and on depending on how things were and realize now that most of my life is behind me.. I wished I hadn't worried so much and wish I hadn't been afraid . It made me miss out on things ,but then again fear sometimes protects you from things that might have happened so I guess its a toss up..

Sometimes i get very afraid and other times I could care less so i guess it all balances out.Take care feel better .. and try not to worry.. Michael

[kestral]

all you say is exactly the way i have felt since i first had palps about 36 years ago. my wife who is 58 says she doesnt fear that she will die as its part of what happens to people. the thing she worries about is having to go for surgery and medical tests. she has had a number of operations,one of which went wrong and led to her having further surgery which only partly corrected the original error and shes had various complications to deal with since then.and is constantly having to see her gp. i have what feels like missed beats etc and had a 24 hour holter test in june which showed early/missed beats which the gp said was normal enough and the beats are benign, although i still stress about it. since then ive felt them when i walk,mainly up hills but sometimes on the flat or just watching tv and i wake with a racing heart and yet i feel a steady beat going on at the same time, its very strange and gets me really worried as nobody on here seems to have felt the same thing. so i live with the worry of everything its possible to imagine about, illness and dieing and a massive feeling of anxiety about this strange feeling when i wake.

[looking4answers]

I too feel what you feel and we are both in our 50's . Some days it seems like the missed beats are never going away ...some days I can't get my mind off of "the end" . I also feel more fear and dread of doctors and surgeries and such than actual death. On your feelings ,don't even think you haven't had anyone feel the way you do. I have the exact feelings a lot. I woke yesterday morning and my heart rate was fast.. I think its from adrenaline from dreams but whatever it is , I find it scarry I also feel that is a steady beat at the same time . I assure you I feel all the same things.

Now as I have been having my wife take my blood pressure because we were sure the doctor was wrong and put me on a stronger med. I have found that actually I don't think I have high blood pressure. My blood pressure isn't what is considered great but then again its not in the high stages..

I found that my average is mostly a little over normal .. but then I started worrying yesterday that I know it gets in the high range when I move around. This is why the doctor thought it stayed high all the time. I was stressed to the max went to the doctor and they walked me in and even standing not even sitting and relaxing took my bp and told me that I had extremely high blood pressure while taking it. That made it go up even further. Now im afraid that if I move around to much or get my emotions up to much I could have a stroke or a heart attack ,yet I read not to long ago about a man that his was terminally high. The guy just laughed it off. He owned four resturants and stayed really busy..

Two of the doctors were wanting to start a study of men with high bp and one of them suggested this man. One doctor said to the other ,don't worry about him ,he will be dead within a year. Five years later they ran across the man that had bought a new resturant ,making this his fifth and him still working 18 hours a day but he had lost weight and got a new wife and was doing better than ever.

So who is to say what is going to kill you and not kill you . Worry is starting to seep into my thoughts .. But then again I thought all the stress and physical stress I have been through in the last 20 years and I should already been dead , so thats a positive thought.Maybe my body can handle it. Hopefully im correct. Take care and try not to worry .. Know there are others like you here on this board. Maybe they don't talk about it openly but rest assured there are.. Michael

[Chrismascray]

Wow such kind caring people, it never ceases to amaze me how people I have never met amd probably never will can take their precious time to help, I do so thank you , and of course I also hope that what yu are goinmg through also goes away as I hope mine will. I have realsied I think that I worry about the worry, the fear is about the fear, dieing? well if it comes BANG really quickly I dont think I fear the act, I fear leaving those I care about and look after, but then my amazing wife will tell me they will manage, they would be sad, of course but they would get through and my Children would grow and be what they want to be, she is marvelous, how she has put up with me is simply a miricale, so then I worry about how much worry I pit on her shoulders, am I the best Dad I can be, or am I close but not close enough because I worry so much, I see the day light I smell the roses and I breath the fresh air, but..............and there is the rub, BUT, What if, why not even when really. I walk around my hand on my pulse, feelings flutters missed? was that a missed beat, PANIC adrenalin pumping, mustnt worry it is nothing, Doc says I am fine..........Too Late, the panic has set in, my heart reacts as it must, as it is designed to do, adrenalin tells is, Fight or Flight, quicken, m,ake more blod feed the muscles, I know all of this and still..........Thanks guys.

[kestral]

I too feel what you feel and we are both in our 50's . Some days it seems like the missed beats are never going away ...some days I can't get my mind off of "the end" . I also feel more fear and dread of doctors and surgeries and such than actual death. On your feelings ,don't even think you haven't had anyone feel the way you do. I have the exact feelings a lot. I woke yesterday morning and my heart rate was fast.. I think its from adrenaline from dreams but whatever it is , I find it scarry I also feel that is a steady beat at the same time . I assure you I feel all the same things.

Now as I have been having my wife take my blood pressure because we were sure the doctor was wrong and put me on a stronger med. I have found that actually I don't think I have high blood pressure. My blood pressure isn't what is considered great but then again its not in the high stages..

I found that my average is mostly a little over normal .. but then I started worrying yesterday that I know it gets in the high range when I move around. This is why the doctor thought it stayed high all the time. I was stressed to the max went to the doctor and they walked me in and even standing not even sitting and relaxing took my bp and told me that I had extremely high blood pressure while taking it. That made it go up even further. Now im afraid that if I move around to much or get my emotions up to much I could have a stroke or a heart attack ,yet I read not to long ago about a man that his was terminally high. The guy just laughed it off. He owned four resturants and stayed really busy..

Two of the doctors were wanting to start a study of men with high bp and one of them suggested this man. One doctor said to the other ,don't worry about him ,he will be dead within a year. Five years later they ran across the man that had bought a new resturant ,making this his fifth and him still working 18 hours a day but he had lost weight and got a new wife and was doing better than ever.

So who is to say what is going to kill you and not kill you . Worry is starting to seep into my thoughts .. But then again I thought all the stress and physical stress I have been through in the last 20 years and I should already been dead , so thats a positive thought.Maybe my body can handle it. Hopefully im correct. Take care and try not to worry .. Know there are others like you here on this board. Maybe they don't talk about it openly but rest assured there are.. Michael

what bp readings have you been recording michael?

[looking4answers]

My wife takes my readings once a day as per requested from the doctor. The doctor put me on a higher dose of beta blocker which made me feel really tired and slow pulse and just feel really bad.. I called her and ask her to put me back on my regular one lower dose ..She took a reading in the office that was high but I was stressed and was off my anxiety med for 15 days prior and well she really didnt give me time to relax and settle down before she took the reading and I was half standing.

This was a new nurse I had never met before and we were talking and she was telling me even as she was taking it that it was high therefore making it higher. After that I was so stressed the doctor prescribed me a higher med.. three times as high .We told her that it made me feel bad so I ask her to put me back on the other one and let us monitor at home. So far the readings have been just above normal . at borderline stage.. for hypertension