Big Question. Shortness of Breath, Mitral Valve, Chest Pains, Dizzyness, full details inside

[danman132x]

This is going to be semi-long, but I want to try and cover everything. My symptoms started in mid July, 08. I was on vacation overseas, when one day I was taking a hike with some family through the mountains. Walking uphill, for the first time I got really exhausted quickly, and experianced shortness of breath. I would have to try and take in a deep breath sometimes to "feel" as if I could get enough air. We continued walking and I continued to have the symptoms. I was still overseas for 2 weeks, and had no real doctor to see so I was worried. It did not get better at all, and I was constantly short breathed most of the time. One day, I was just sitting on the computer over there, when my heart started racing (~170 beats/min) and I quickly went downstairs and to my grandparents next door, since I was alone in the house with the PC. I thought I was going through a heart attack. When I got there it was still racing, and I started to feel weak. I sat down on the couch, and layed down and rested, and slowly I calmed down and nothing bad happened. We did call a doctor who came to the house and checked me out, and said that there wasn't anything wrong and prescribed me valium because she thought I had some anxiety or something like that. I also threw up twice while there. Both times in the morning, and out of no where. The feeling just came, without a reason. The last week while overseas, I felt a little better and was able to walk around some without feeling totally worn out. I called to the states and already had a doctors appt scheduled for when I got back. So the time comes to fly back to the states, and luckily I feel okay during my flights...

Back in the states, I see my general doctor, and he perfoms an EKG, chest X-ray, and blood work on me. The EKG shows that my left ventricular chamber is slightly enlarged, the x-ray looked normal, and all my blood work came out good. Cholestoral, tryglicerites, everything they look for in heart conditions is in normal levels. He then refers me to a cardiologist who continues more tests.

The next week, I have an Echocardiogram done, and also wear a holter monitor for 2 days. The holter monitor results came out normal, but the echocardigram test results say that I have left ventricular enlargement, mitral valve prolapse, mild valve regurgitation, global hypokinesis, and ejection fraction is estimated at 40% (normal 60%) Doppler velocities are normal. Because of this, she next schedules me a stress test.

I get my stress test done, getting images of my heart on a special machine (and a radioactive dye in me) before and after the threadmill run. This test confirmed to my cardiologist that my heart isn't pumping as well as it should, and she said mayb I have cardiomyopathy. She then tells me she is going to do a heart catherization on me, which I just had done on september 11th. It wasnt bad at all, just had to lay there for 4 hours while my insertion site closed up. She told me that the preliminary results are good, and my heart is in good shape, and the reason my test results from beforehand are a little off because my heart is laying slighty horizontal in my chest. She is also going to be sending me to a lung specialist. (pulmonary I think its called?) I dont know if my height 6'5" has anything to do with it. I have my followup for my heart cath on Sept.16th which is in 2 days. As of now, I dont believe it has anything to do with my lungs. I dont smoke, and all my blood work is normal.

Last night, sept.13th, I was driving home late at night. The roads were clear, so I punched the gas and hit 110MPH. I got a nice adrenaine rush, but right afterwords I had the most scary feeling in a long time. My heart slowed to about normal pace, but the beats were really hard. I physically felt my chest too. It was BEAT BEAT NOTHING BEAT BEAT BEAT NOTHING BEAT.... it did this for about 3 mins, and I got lightheaded in the process. I took in deep breaths, but it really felt like it wanted to stop, but kept going after the missed beats. It took my breath away everytime it did it, and this is something im going to bring up on my follow up appointment.

I forgot to mention, I also have a few hard chest pains right over my left chest area sometimes. I can be sitting down, or working, walking around. This is starting to hurt me emotionally. I miss being able to go out running, riding my bike, or just being active. I'm an outdoors person mostly, and although I dont work out, I was active when outside. Im 6'5" tall and weigh 155 lbs (down from 160 before my symptons) I also had the vomiting feeling a few times here too in the states, again without a reason. What could this be? I'm so worried, and want to be able to do the things I was once able to do without a problem. I get exhasted and short breathed so easily, sometimes to the point of dizzyness If i dont stop what i'm doing and rest. Thanks for taking the time and reading this, and I'm hoping to get some more insight.

[myster_e]

thank you for posting all this. ive been trying to fit all of my own puzzle pieces together having MVP and continually forgetting to drink water, and limit caffeine,processed sugar,alcohol,chocolate etc. hope you've been doing better!

[danman132x]

recently, I've been having even more palpitations, and a trigger of them is getting sexually active. As soon as I erect, the palpitations come almost immediately, and along with the palpitations, I can feel the blood pulses in my head on every hard beat, and whats worse is that my cheeks are getting really red and start to feel heavy/sore when this happens. The cheeks stay red even after I have relaxed. This is really starting to worry me. I dont see a doctor again until Jan 12th. Any thoughts?

[cairo123]

Hi there,

I seem to be having very similar episodes to the ones you have described.  I moved out to Cairo 5 weeks ago and for the past week or so I have been having nearly constant episodes of racing heartbeat, chest pains and tightness... it feels like I am constantly having anxiety attacks. I do smoke, but I have cut down as a result.  I don't consume much caffeine, and I run regularly.  Otherwise, I am in excellent health.  The doctor hear referred me to a Cardiology clinic where I had an echocardiography and heart ultrasound.  I'll get the results tomorrow.  The whole thing is made more difficult as my Arabic isn't so good and the people at the clinic hardly spoke any English.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[danman132x]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/danman132x/cath_report.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/danman132x/cath_report2.jpg

[danman132x]

Here is my cath report
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/danman132x/cath_report.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/danman132x/cath_report2.jpg[/IMG]

[danman132x]

Some updates, I've been having more palpitations lately, with last night having some bad ones, (where I could physically feel my beat and it was off rhytm for a few hours, and everytime it did it made me feel funny in my chest) My pulmonologist still thinks I have mild asthma, and I've been taking QVAR inhaler every morning, and then I also carry around a rescue inhaler for when I have shortness of breath really bad, but I dont use it much anymore, because even when I have shortness of breath, I can still blow full force on my new peak flow meter. I've also been getting pain in my left shoulder muscle area which I would hope is costochondritis and nothing else, but Aleve isnt even helping the pain go away when it strikes randomly, even sitting down on the PC. When I had this pain before I went to the ER and did tests, nothing showed wrong with my heart there either. They told me it was costochondritis then. I had a follow up with my pulmonologist, and she presibed me Prednisone for 5 days and Azithromycin tablets for 5 days to see if it gets rid of a bacterial infection in me if I have one. I have to wait until january because then I'll have tricare again when Im full time student again, and im going to get some more tests done then, including seeing a different cardiologist

[danman132x]

I posted it above, but I did have a heart cath done, both sides, and everything came out okay. Nothing clogged, and valves all good according to it. I can get the summary sheet and list the pressures etc if needed, but they were all okay also.

[JJ1958]

Have you had a heart cath? If not you need to. Sounds like a clogged artery. I had perfect tests when I had my heart attack. No family history great blood work. And your symtons were the same as mine before I had one. JJ

[danman132x]

I honestly dont think I have asthma. My inhaler I have to use ever morning for 3 weeks so far doesnt help any. Lately, Ive been having palpitations, mostly no off-beats, but just the feel of my heart. It also starts going faster for no apparent reason sometimes, leading me to believe I have tachycardia. During these sessions, I've been getting lightheaded a lot, having to sit down, because sometimes it's that bad. I'm thinking its something wrong with my hearts electrical system. Even if my heart and valves are clear and good, the electrical system might be a totally different system. I've also had some nausea every now and then also, and every morning I wake up Im really sleepy, even after 11 hours of sleep. Once im awake, im good to go though.

[BlossomingNight]

Hi,

You and I seem to share a lot in common.  I'm 22 years old although I'm not tall at all.  I've also gone through extensive cardiac testing, with the last one being the right heart cath.  They also told me nothing was wrong with me.  I get short of breath pretty easily and all the while I was getting these tests done, it was also taking a toll out of my life.  I've also seen a pulmonologist, but unfortunately, I no longer see him because he isn't available anymore.  So i still have my mystery unsolved.

The beat beat pause beat i have too.  I figured out my palpitations were "premature atrial contractions" although yours could be something different (like premature ventricle contractions). I have chest pain too not related to activity and i have costochondritis so the chest pain might be just that. Let me know if you get any answers because I'm looking for them too.

Best of luck to you!

[danman132x]

I had a PFT done, and also talked to my lung doctor, and she told me I have mild asthma, which is why i get the shortness of breath sometimes. I still don't really see it being asthma, as I dont get the wheezing, and when i use my albutoral inhaler for sudden symptons, I dont think it really helps too much. i'm also taking a steroid inhaler twice every morning, which she said should take about 2 weeks to start taking effect. I have a follow up with the lung doctor on oct. 29th.

[madjlp]

Was the pain reproducible by pressing on your sternum or the  area of your ribs where you were feeling the pain?  Thats the typical way they determine costo.  If the pain isnt reproducible with pressure then its probably not costo or at least not classic.  Glad to hear that the ekg and blood work were good again - definitely something to feel solid about.

[danman132x]

Last night I got severe chest pains and pain in my left arm and went to the ER. Well i got there and they did a chest xray first, and then i went back to a lil room. Had an ekg and blood work done, and everything is normal. One blood test checked for blockages in the lungs. I still have the pain in my arm and chest area, and he tells me it something called "costochondritis" (says- pain in the chest thats comes from the suface of the chest, not the heart or lungs. It is due to an inflammation of the muscles or cartiladge in the chest. This is quite often stress related. costo... can be very painful but is not dangerous. It usually improves in 1-2 days but may come bacK) The ER docotr pulled up my records from my cardiac cath and confirmed again, my heart is in good shape, no heart disease, blockages, etc. i still gonna follow up with the lung doctor, having my first test this friday morning, because I still have shortness of breath a lot. Going to be doing breathing tests. I'm just releived to know it wasn't my heart causing the pain, and that costochindritis can mimic the pain.

[madjlp]

Elevated albumin is usually related to dehydration; hyperkalaemia (high potassium) can mess with the heart rhythm as can dehydration - so maybe you got dehydrated/elevated potassium while you were abroad (and since your kidneys appear to be fine according to the follow up tests you're probably ok there).  Stay hydrated I guess!   I'm glad you got the full work up - it sounds like you'll probably have to deal with the occasional episode but if you have confidence in your docs and test results then you should be able to deal relatively well.  Let us know if anything else turns up with the pulmonologist etc.  If you're still not satisfied you could always see an endocrinologist for more intense blood tests but I haven't gone that route personally so I can't say whether it would be helpful or not but given your height/weight I bet they'd have some ideas.  Best of luck.

[danman132x]

I am 20 years old. I've been in relatively good health my life so far. All my blood work is good, nothing abnormal that they told me, and I checked the levels on some of the sheets I got, and everything is in range. Potassium and Albumin was a lil high in a test, but they retested after telling my to drink more, and stay off bananas and OJ for a week. I do not know the detailed results of my cardiac cath., only that everything was good, pressures, and valves, and no clogged artieries. My holter monitor results came out good, although 2 years ago I had a case of palpitations for about 2 weeks straight, which I had checked out, but they told me not to worry and those never came back. My parents both have high blood pressure, and my grandma had to have a few stents put in to open up some blocked arteries.

[madjlp]

Hmmm

Great news on the cath!

If your grandparents are still around you must be relatively young - how old are you?  6'5 and 155 is incredibly thin - you mentioned your blood work is normal - was anything out of whack at all (ANA reflex test, ANA titer, white blood cell counts?)  MVP in somone with your build would make me think Marfan's syndrome but the testing you've had rules out aorta problems which is what you worry about there.  MVP can cause pain (I'm confused about whether the cath overturned the MVP diagnosis or if it just overturned the regurg dianosis).  Do you have any other significant past medical history?  How about unusual diseases in the family or illnesses in young people?  What did the cath show regarding your ejection fraction and left ventricular size?  I know I'm asking a lot of questions but you seem very well informed regarding your testing and your case is interesting.  The hard beats could easily just be PVCs or PACs (did your holter show any of these benign rhythms?)  It is possible that you got hit with a virus while abroad and in the process of working through your system it affected your heart - sort of subclinical myocarditis (a dr. applied this theory to me almost exactly one year ago following a trip where I had symptoms almost identical to yours).  I know its frustrating to feel poorly but it sounds like your taking all the right steps and the heart news is great - hang in there!

[danman132x]

I had my follow up, and according to the cardiac cath, my heart is working 100% and nothing is wrong. There are no blockages, and my valves (mitral and aortic valve) are good, and the pressures in my heart are good. She told me some of the other tests were abnormal because i'm so tall (6 ft 5) and my heart is slightly more vertical in my chest. I will be going to see a lung specialist and see if they can find out why i still get short breathed so much. My cardiologist's thought might be that im developing asthma.

[lauraboo6]

It sounds to me like you are developing atrial fibrillation because of your mitral valve. It can come and go until it sticks with you.
Find the best cardiologist in your area and tell them this whole story. Don't accept any diagnosis that doesn't answer your concerns.