Is this heart arrhythmia?

[swagert82]

Hello everyone, I'm just another normal kinda guy, nothing much to look at, anyways, I'm 31 years old, my general health is very good, all my blood work is within normal range, the only blood test I haven't done yet is the thyroid test, I suffer panic disorder and PTSD, but I doubt they are causing my symptoms, I get skipped heartbeats very often but small ones and usually I don't feel them, nothing serious, but last week was something else entirely, very scary, it happened out of nowhere and all the sudden, a huge skipped heartbeat felt like my heart is literally shaking or stopping for a split second or maybe more, the heart itself was shaking not my chest, and feeling that my heart is drowning towards my abdomen, very weird actually, I felt as if my heart is going to fall from its place into my stomach,  at that exact moment I checked my pulse in my neck and there for just a sec or less there was no pulse!!, then it came back to normal but I was drained and very freaked out,  yesterday the same thing happened again, now I know I’m not a doctor but is this Atrial Fibrillation? Or ventricular Fibrillation? Because I read an article about AF and the symptoms matches what I've felt exactly, Please folks any ideas, this is very scary, and the thing is I live alone and mostly my friends got so tired of me whining about my panic attacks they don’t listen to my no more, but this is serious and I doubt it got anything to do with panic, this is by all means different... I just forgot to mention that all those heart issues occurred in the past from 3 years but wasn't so severe,  back then I went to a doctor and he told me nothing to worry about?!  (WTF?) , I did lots of EKGs and Echo tests and also holter and all came back normal, except the holter showed 2 or 3 PVC's only, nothing Significant…Sorry about the long message, god bless you all.

[MichelleP_3811]

Please try to not fear what you are feeling.  If you haven't passed out yet odds are good you won't.  That said, you can ask for a 30 day monitor to try and catch the episodes that feel like they are fast and sustained.  It is not ideal for isolated ectopic beats that happen all day long as the 30 day I had only recorded a couple of events then I had to call in to transfer the recording.  This would mean if you hit the record button for every skipped beat you would be dialing in all day long but it is good for catching the more elusive episodes where a rapid or sustained type rhythm is experienced.  So try that and at least you will know what you are experiencing if it is more than just isolated ectopic beats.

[swagert82]

Thanks a lot for your comforting replies michelle, very reassuring, god bless you, the last couple of days were really a nightmare for me, didn’t even had the time to go online and read what you've written, yes of course you’re right, I’m trying my best to stay strong and pull myself together, but it is not something that is easy to cope with nor that I think what I'm going through is practically normal, right now there are two voices inside of me battling, voice number a says what is happening to me is all due to anxiety, voice number b thinks otherwise, keeps shouting inside of me Hellooo! There is definitely something wrong, especially when an attack starts, I mean the arrhythmia attack ,not the panic attack, because my theory is that psychiatrists are not so quite correct in their diagnoses, they always try to pin everything happens to our hearts on anxiety and panic, while I can say for sure that my heart starts to act crazy and then the anxiety attack kicks off, I begin to doubt everything, the voice of fear just overwhelms any other voice inside of me,  yesterday and also today the same thing happened, the arrhythmia popped outta nowhere,  a really fast and irregular heartbeat rhythm, during this my heart would skip a beat and sometimes just wouldn’t, today the attack lasted more than 15 minutes, I was on my way to buy something from the supermarket, and of course when it started I turned around and head back home, but this didn’t make it any better, finally I reached my house, went inside tried washing my face with cold water and drinking as well, water, still couldn’t stop it, truly fast and irregular rhythm, I could feel it fluttering in my chest, was very scary and I thought I’m going to pass out and die, I thought about going to the hospital in a taxi but I know that as soon as I reach the hospital it would stop and the rhythm will be back to normal and they won’t be able to catch or detect the irregular rhythm...I’m seriously thinking about wearing a Holter Monitor again..I don't know anymore....I’m literally lost.

[MichelleP_3811]

Actually for me I was never afraid of my svt/fast heart beat.  I grew up with it so I didn't know it wasn't normal for it to happen to everyone.  I also kind of think my mind rationalized it as hyperventilation so it was my lungs not my heart.  It was only after I got it fixed and the ectopics became noticeable that I started to become aware of my heart.  Well I should take that back, towards the end over the last couple of years of having svt I was having almost daily symptoms with my heart so I was likely feeling the ectopics then but I just didn't know what I was feeling but becoming hypersensitive about the heart is very distracting to say the least.  I really did long for the days when I was oblivious to my heart because it can rob you of your peace of mind.  So I did initially freak out about the ectopics but I read up on them and have come to trust that they are harmless.  They are simply extra beats coming from the atria/pacs or ventricles/pvcs.  The SA node is the spot in the heart that usually initiates the beat but when the extra beats jump in it isn't really causing a stoppage of the heart.  It is just a simple one beat pause for the beat cycle to regulate itself but in the whole scheme of things the heart is still beating.  They may not be a beat that was initiated from the normal place but they are really just simply a heart beat.  They can be annoying and uncomfortable and distracting but I just try to remind myself my heart is simply throw a few extra beats.  The extra beats themselves are nothing more than heart beats.  The only threat is that because they are not in a timed fashion they can throw the heart into an unwanted rhythm but the going research is that only happens in a very ill heart and even then it is rare for it to happen so in the whole scheme of things these extra beats are more than likely NOT going to hurt you ever.  The only thing they will do is rob you of is your peace of mind and happiness if they keep you from living your life.  So tell your ectopic beats to leave you alone, stop distracting you.  Refuse to allow them to hold you hostage and take back your life.  You deserve to have a fun happy life.  And you may actually find after you take control of how you are letting the ectopics affect you, you may find they are less of a bother.  But if not you can at least triumph over them robbing you of your happiness.  Everyone deserves to have happiness in their life.  Stay strong.

[swagert82]

Thanks a lot for your care michelle and the helpful information you're providing, may the lord bless you, you know I know exactly how you feel, I don’t have much experience about the fast heart rhythm but I’ve been there once, long time ago I smoked pot with some friends, this was way in the past I was like 17 years old or something, my blood pressure went down very fast and my heart started racing, was very much like the number you mentioned around 200bpm, was a very scary event for sure, I thought this was the end and that I was going to die, but the lord saved me and gave me a second chance, I know how a fast heart rhythm can freak one out, it’s  very scary, but I don't know, I think the skipped beats are more intense and just scarier, the heart itself pausing and making this weird sensation of a fish flopping in one’s chest, to me this is the peak of fear, on the other hand this whole heart thing has taking its toll on my life, can't be serious about almost anything,  panic attacks and me monitoring every sensation in my chest and checking my pulse every now and then,  concentrating on my heart very much, it became my obsession, my life is literally stopped for the time being..

[MichelleP_3811]

You are very welcome.  I had an svt on top of the ectopic beats.  My heart would race to 230.   I had it all my life but never gave it much thought because it usually was very short lived and stopped on its own.  Once I got it fixed I was able to distinguish that I had something else, the ectopic beats, and because an ablation to fix the svt annoys the heart my ectopics went crazy on me and though my svt was probably more of a danger to me the ectopics initially sent me into a full blown panic.  But I eventually got use to them and read up on how benign they are so now they just aggravate me especially the ones that hurt a bit but for the most part I just try to ignore them.  That said, anything to do with the heart is scary so if you ever need a pep talk we are here.  :)

[swagert82]

Thanks a lot for your kind and comforting words michelle, very helpful indeed, phew!! you know I'm very much relieved now thanks to you, seriously, I'm gonna check with my doctor as well soon enough, thanks again, you're an angel you know that? ;)