Heartrate worries

[Punky789]

I am currently 16 weeks pregnant and would be classified as obese. I have also been horribly sick this pregnancy and have spent the past 12+ weeks lying on the couch for 8+ hours a day.

On Thursday at a doctors appointment my heartrate was elevated at 115bpm. My doctor told me to stop drinking any caffeine, which I have done.

On friday I walked to pick my kids up from school and notices my heart was racing after just 2 minutes walking. I checked it and it was 152bpm.

Ever since then my heart has been going mad. When I lay down it is between 87-95bpm but the moment I stand up it jumps to 130-150bpm. It calms as soon as I sit down. I also get a headache as soon as I stand up.

I've also been having a weird sensation in my right ear. I can hear and feel my heartbeat. It is in tune to my pulse and is almost like a throbbing/whooshing. Of course I google and up comes pulsatile tinnitus, which just seems scary.

Now I'm worried there is something wrong with my heart. My brother passed away from an untreated heart condition ten years ago.

I had to stop taking the medications I was on for my anxiety and now feel so worried and scared.

I'm trying to get an appointment with my GP but so far no luck. I'm only 30, I dont want to have a heart attack.

[ankietyjoe]

Before deciding what to do about this (or how to think about it), what has your Doctor said about your brothers untreated heart condition (sorry to hear about this). What did he have, was it genetic or was there another cause? It's important to rule this out first. I'm assuming when it happened, you must have been screened for a similar condition?

[Punky789]

Thank you. My brothers heart condition was created from a preexisting lung condition, so not something hereditary as far as I am aware.

I had an ECG done a few years ago and at the time the doctor said my heart was perfectly fine.

[ankietyjoe]

Ok, so your Brother had some complicated issues that you don't by the sound of it.

In terms of what you're heart is doing now, there's a couple of things that are probably worth thinking about.

1) Your Doctor is not concerned at all. This, is pretty much all you need to know. But...

2) Your heart rate goes up during pregnancy. There is as much as a 50% increase in blood volume, this is significant. An increase of 20bpm in your 'resting' heart rate would not be unusual.

3) Being sick AND pregnant puts a massive strain on the body, huge. Being sick alone will increase your heart rate.

4) Being sedentary for even a few days will make your heart freak out a bit when you start moving again, let alone 12 weeks.

5) It would be very unusual for a sick, pregnant woman with anxiety to have a heart rate of LESS than 115bpm at a Doctors appointment!!

6) After being sick and sedentary for so long, AND being pregnant, and then noticing a fast heart rate picking up your kids is going to spike it even further within milliseconds (adrenaline). I'm guessing the second you noticed your heart was thumping a bit....panic started?

7) Anxiety, heart rate....always high.

Basically you have ALL of the perfect ingredients present to have a fast heart rate. I say fast, I mean normal. It's really just your perception of where it should be that is the issue here as you have a mental image of what a normal resting heart rate should be. You were sick, you ARE pregnant and you have anxiety, therefore you are not rested!

It would be a really good idea to make sure you do some walking for 20-30 minutes a day. Nothing crazy, just a gentle walk to remind your cardiovascular system what it's supposed to be doing. Don't worry if your heart rate goes past 100bpm as that's what it's supposed to do. Expose yourself to a little safe exercise to counteract the sedentary time and then enjoy the sit down afterwards.

[hbug2416]

I'm pregnant and experiencing this myself. My resting heart rate has already increased almost 20bpm and it jumps up to 120+ sometimes just walking around the house or office. My doctors all say this is completely normal, but I did go see my cardiologist for some additional tests just to be sure. I've been off Lexapro for 3 months now so I'm hyper-aware of every little thing, too. Only 6 more months to go! Ugh...

[lily413]

This exact same thing happened in both my pregnancies! Every time I stood up my heart raced and I felt light headed. It would build and build until I sat down. I got a 36 hour tape done and all was well. Never found the answer, although I did wonder about POTS (harmless) but my doctor felt that because it went away after pregnancy it was an pregnancy related anomaly.