heart palpitations

[angie334]

hi im 19 years old and have been dealing with an irregular heartbeat for almost 6 years now. recently my chest has been getting really tight and sometimes causes a slight pain in my left shoulder/ left side of my chest. also, the left side of my face sometimes goes numb when my heart begins messing up. it hasnt always done this but also i get random feelings (feel like twitches or muscle spasms) mostly around my heart area but also other random places on my body. ive been to cardiologists years ago but the monitor never detected anything (most likely because my heart irregularity is irregular.........duh) anyways hoping for some kind of ideas of what could be wrong or if this is serious. thanks

[partlysunny777]

Hi - when u say your heart gets "messed up"  do u mean it feels like it is racing???  I have something called supraventricular tachycardia and I will go along for weeks with no issues and then suddenly i'll get this weird beat that then suddenly my heart starts a pounding racing thing.  With this I will sometimes have a little chest pain or tightness before it starts alwys during and then for the next couple days. Then I go back to completely normal.  It has been incredibly difficult to get to the bottom of this because when I go to the cardiologist I look as healthy as a horse (I am very athletic) and am always the youngest person in the place.  The doctor can only go on what I tell them because my tests come back good.  Finally they had me wear a monitor for a month that was able to record an incident and was diagnosed with the supraventricular tachycardia.  They have told me that this suppposedly is not a dangerous condition but when I'm having it I totally feel like I am having a heart attack and it's hard to believe that this is not something bad. They have put me on medication but it makes me feel tired and hasn't stopped it completely so now I am considering ablation which is a procedure they do to get rid of an extra electrical pathway thats causes this.  Not sure that I am fired up about it!!!!  My advice to you is to go see a cardiologist and don't let them push u aside because you r young.  My very 1st doc spent very little time with me and seemed like he had his mind made up about me the second he walked in the room.  He told me it was panic attacks.......but I have a very happy life and knew that was wrong so I kept at it and several doctors later (4 years later) I finally feel like I am getting to the answers I needed. Good luck to you!  Hope I helped a little.

[CCF HeartMD6]

Irregular heart beats can often times be intermittent -- and not often caught on an ECG. A holter monitor over several days might be more helpful in catching an irregularity rather than just a single day. This is most helpful when it is combined with a patient log recording when they are having symptoms. You should speak with your physician about what options are available for you.