Can Someone Calm Me Down?

[ChrisVA]

Hi everyone!  I've been reading this forum for a few weeks and find many of the post reassuring.  But I find myself increasingly worrying.

I am a 44 y/o female.  No history of heart issues except for a few issues over the years with tachycardia.  Many years ago I had an event monitor that confirmed "inappropriate sinus tachycardia."  The events came and went, mostly occurred in the morning and seemed to be aggravated by GERD.  Back in 2006, after a long lull with this, I started having problems.  Went to my GP and he sent me for an echocardiogram which was normal but showed some mild regurg. but nothing they would even call MVP.  He put me on Verapamil which I had an allergic reaction to.  I just gave up and lived with it.  Turns out, I ended up having iron deficiency anemia.  That is now corrected and my heart has been just fine.

....until a month ago.  On exactly January 8th, sometime early in the day, I started experiencing heart palps.  This went on all day, about every few minutes or so.  Now, I've had the occasional palp throughout my life and thought nothing of it.  These palps were disturbing but I know that most of them are benign so I try to put it out of my head.  I also know that I'm getting to be "perimenopausal" and chalked it up to that.  For 2 weeks, these palps went on like this.  All day.  They calmed down at night, especially laying down, and never bothered my sleep.  They were calm in the morning and then reared up about 45 minutes after being ambulatory.

Now, I had already had a doctor's appointment "on the books" so to speak, with my endocrinologist.  About 14 years ago, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, so I am on Synthroid and I see a doctor several times a year for thyroid hormone monitoring.  I was so "hoping" that my thyroid levels were out of whack which would explain the palps.  

I went through the whole story with my endo (but this time the palps had gone on for over 3 weeks and I was having them that day while in his office).  He hooked me up to an EKG and took 3 readings.  I did not have a palp while having the EKG.  He listened to me himself for a LONG time.  No palp.  You see, the almost disappear when I am laying down.  Not entirely though. He then told me that he would run the labwork for thyroid and anemia and if those were normal, I could get some Inderal.  Mostly these things are "nothing" he says.  I then asked "you mean I don't need to run off to the cardiologist."  No, he replied, but if you are nervous and it continues, I can order a Holter monitor.

Well, my thyroid levels are normal (what they have been for YEARS) and my iron levels are great.  So, I lived with the palps yet another week and decided to do the Holter.  That is scheduled for this Tuesday.  

After all this time of not really worrying, I'm really getting scared they are going to find something wrong.  I mean, after 44 years of nary a heart glitch, why so suddenly, and why are they almost non-stop?

They did seem to slow down after the first two weeks when I got my period.  Now that I am going to have my period in another week, they seem to be picking up again.

The things that are aggravating them are:
indigestion (after I ate a gooey hamburger yesterday they got much worse)
caffeine to a small extent (I cut it out for awhile but didn't get much improvement--I only drink 2 cups of tea per day)
Being out shopping and getting warm in the store
Being out shopping and carrying a lot of bags and being warm in the store! ;-)

When I get on my treadmill and workout it doesn't seem to make anything worse, although the palps started about 3 days after I decided to start a gentle exercise program.  Stopping exercise (which I've done for 2 weeks) has made no improvement.

So, does anyone have anything REMOTELY like this?  I'm just so afraid that they are going to find something awful.

I have been under some additional strain lately as I've been working on getting a new job.  It's just so hard for me to imagine that this would cause that though.

Please help!
Christine

[ChrisVA]

Regarding your comment about you having IST and it not sounding like mine.  I guess I should clarify that the IST is no longer an issue for me.  That was something that happened many years ago and we didn't know why.  In hindsight, it was tachycardia related to iron deficiency.  Now that the iron deficiency is corrected, I have a very normal pulse rate (around 75 during the day while I'm at work and doing general activities).  I rarely see the 120-130 bpm that I use to get.

[ChrisVA]

Thanks for your responses.  I guess I'm just wondering if it is "usual" for heart palps to come on suddenly and just STAY.  In reading through the forum, I don't think I've seen too many people like me.  Everyone else seems to have episodes and then they get a break.  I haven't had a good day in 4 weeks and this is where I start to worry.

I guess the monitor that I'm having done on Tuesday will tell all.

[Thinline]

Hi Christine. I have IST and it doesn't sound at all like what you are describing.  You say you are afraid that the docs will find something awful.  Whatever it is, I doubt it's going to truly be awful, but the thing is, if they find something, it's better than if they find nothing.  By having a diagnosis, they know what treatment to put you on, whether its medication, an ablation, or something else.  If they can't find anything, then they can't treat whatever it is you have because they don't know what you have.  Does this make sense?  I'd much rather a definite diagnosis than keep having tests and failing to find answers, so lets hope they find something MINOR and easily treatable so that you can get better quickly.  Let us know what happens.

[JonF]

PVCs and PVAs are common and not usually dangerous. Your best bet on tracking them down is to see an electrophysiologist and get set up with another 24 hour holter monitor.

[ChrisVA]

Edited to add:

I should have said that I am not suffering any tachycardia.  Heart rate is normal.  When I have felt my pulse during the feeling of a palp, what I feel is a "thud...pause....thud" and then it's back to the normal rhythm.  This is what is going on all the time.  When I described it to my endo, he called it extra systole.