Aa
Heart attack?
I'm a 28 year old male, and it was recently discovered that I have some form of arrythmia/"extra heartbeat".
It was actually caught by my neurologist during an EEG, but as that is not her specialty she wasn't able to tell me much.
I've had what *may* be angina pectoris off and on for the last year to year and a half, though it's hard to tell because I wrestle with GI issues occasionally as well.
I've also had dizzy spells that have came and went for the better part of five years -- something I always attributed to inner ear damage caused by using headphones in excess.
Since I frequently exercise, things tend to get painfully out of alignment anyway, so I went to a chiropractor just this morning to get re-aligned. (Which didn't seem to help anything)
The "extra beat" itself only seems noticeable to me while I exercise, and it goes from double-beating once every 10 beats to about once every 3. Other than that my heartbeat is pretty regular -- no sign of the double-beat without the aid of medical gear.
The thing that prompted me to seek advice is that just after I started my exercise routine earlier today I suddenly felt as if I had something caught in my throat. A few moments later, the area around my left carotid started to hurt, and following that a numbness traced up along my the left side of my face and mouth along my jaw.
The symptoms are all those of a heart attack, but I'm doubting that the case because they haven't ever gone away nor have they worsened.
What exactly is this, and how severe is it? Is it maybe just a pinched nerve aggravated by this morning's spinal manipulation?
Also, I *do* have an appointment scheduled with a cardiologist to figure out what precisely is going wrong, but it's at the end of June...all of the cardiologists in town are booked solidly until then, so that's the earliest I could be seen.
Just hoping these two things are unrelated, and it can wait that long.
It was actually caught by my neurologist during an EEG, but as that is not her specialty she wasn't able to tell me much.
I've had what *may* be angina pectoris off and on for the last year to year and a half, though it's hard to tell because I wrestle with GI issues occasionally as well.
I've also had dizzy spells that have came and went for the better part of five years -- something I always attributed to inner ear damage caused by using headphones in excess.
Since I frequently exercise, things tend to get painfully out of alignment anyway, so I went to a chiropractor just this morning to get re-aligned. (Which didn't seem to help anything)
The "extra beat" itself only seems noticeable to me while I exercise, and it goes from double-beating once every 10 beats to about once every 3. Other than that my heartbeat is pretty regular -- no sign of the double-beat without the aid of medical gear.
The thing that prompted me to seek advice is that just after I started my exercise routine earlier today I suddenly felt as if I had something caught in my throat. A few moments later, the area around my left carotid started to hurt, and following that a numbness traced up along my the left side of my face and mouth along my jaw.
The symptoms are all those of a heart attack, but I'm doubting that the case because they haven't ever gone away nor have they worsened.
What exactly is this, and how severe is it? Is it maybe just a pinched nerve aggravated by this morning's spinal manipulation?
Also, I *do* have an appointment scheduled with a cardiologist to figure out what precisely is going wrong, but it's at the end of June...all of the cardiologists in town are booked solidly until then, so that's the earliest I could be seen.
Just hoping these two things are unrelated, and it can wait that long.
The cardiologist read my ECG, and determined I was having PVCs every so often, but it was very much benign. Their recording showed my heart screwing up and double-beating once ever 20-30 beats or so. He said he could put me on a beta blocker to manage the symptoms if they were bad enough that I needed it (which I refused), but said I wouldn't need any further treatment apart from that. I couldn't get him to venture a guess as to the cause of the PVCs, but he didn't seem to think it was allergy-related.
It appears the angina actually is being caused by exercising on the ab crunch machine at the local gym, and only when exercising on it after my arms have weakened enough to allow most of the force of the crunch bar to sit across the lower part of my ribcage. The pain went completely away after the week and a half I stopped going to the gym and went cycling instead, but came right back as soon as I visited the gym again.
I'm 99.9% sure all of the other symptoms are allergy-related even though I haven't gotten input from a doctor yet. Another more obvious symptom has developed recently -- itchy, watery eyes
It appears the angina actually is being caused by exercising on the ab crunch machine at the local gym, and only when exercising on it after my arms have weakened enough to allow most of the force of the crunch bar to sit across the lower part of my ribcage. The pain went completely away after the week and a half I stopped going to the gym and went cycling instead, but came right back as soon as I visited the gym again.
I'm 99.9% sure all of the other symptoms are allergy-related even though I haven't gotten input from a doctor yet. Another more obvious symptom has developed recently -- itchy, watery eyes
Just to quickly follow up, my appointment with my cardiologist got bumped back to this Thursday.
However, as I re-examined my symptoms I realized I forgot to mention a few other potentially significant ones. The first is blurred vision, mainly in my left eye (my strongest eye), but also a little in my right eye. I completely overlooked this symptom because, quite frankly, my vision is horrible anyway, and I just dismissed it as having strained my eyes too much from reading.
The second is darkness around the ethmoid sinuses, which have persisted over the past few weeks regardless of whether or not I had been at all sleep-deprived or not. Once again, it didn't really register because it's fairly close to business-as-usual for me, except that the dark areas have almost always & exclusively been above the maxillary sinuses.
The third developed mostly since the last post; sinus and ear pressure/pain & neck stiffness (for me, usually is a referred sensation from the ear pain itself)
I've long suspected I have some form of seasonal allergy, and
as I understand it, all of these symptoms are symptoms of allergy. Even many heart-attributed problems can be tied back to it in some cases.
Looking at weather.com the grass & tree pollen has been really active in my area for a couple weeks now, so if I do have an allergy chances are it's among those.
Well, this was mainly an FYI, since I saw a lot of similar questions going unanswered. I'll try to remember to report back more specific findings when/if the cardiologist, etc figures it out
However, as I re-examined my symptoms I realized I forgot to mention a few other potentially significant ones. The first is blurred vision, mainly in my left eye (my strongest eye), but also a little in my right eye. I completely overlooked this symptom because, quite frankly, my vision is horrible anyway, and I just dismissed it as having strained my eyes too much from reading.
The second is darkness around the ethmoid sinuses, which have persisted over the past few weeks regardless of whether or not I had been at all sleep-deprived or not. Once again, it didn't really register because it's fairly close to business-as-usual for me, except that the dark areas have almost always & exclusively been above the maxillary sinuses.
The third developed mostly since the last post; sinus and ear pressure/pain & neck stiffness (for me, usually is a referred sensation from the ear pain itself)
I've long suspected I have some form of seasonal allergy, and
as I understand it, all of these symptoms are symptoms of allergy. Even many heart-attributed problems can be tied back to it in some cases.
Looking at weather.com the grass & tree pollen has been really active in my area for a couple weeks now, so if I do have an allergy chances are it's among those.
Well, this was mainly an FYI, since I saw a lot of similar questions going unanswered. I'll try to remember to report back more specific findings when/if the cardiologist, etc figures it out
I would also consider calling the cardiologist's office and speak to the nurse. They may want to see you sooner; all doctors usually have emergency slots available for patients that need to seen that day.
COMMUNITY LEADER
Good that you're working on seeing a cardiologist.
I think you can get by keeping an eye on how you feel. If your symptoms lesson, you should be all right waiting for the June appointment. If they get worse/stronger it may be time to go to your emergency room to be checked out.
I think you can get by keeping an eye on how you feel. If your symptoms lesson, you should be all right waiting for the June appointment. If they get worse/stronger it may be time to go to your emergency room to be checked out.
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