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Avatar universal

Waking up from quivering heart every night

Been through the typical Cardiologist tests already, and they all came back fine. I went to the ER a couple times over palpitations, and I've learned my lesson there, that palps are usually harmless.

However, I have been having new symptoms. I am waking up every night with a quivering / rumbling kind of feeling over my heart. My heart rate during these episodes seems in the normal range, but I am certainly feeling a rumbling / quivering, as if my heart is not synced or something. I have already googled this enough and it sounds like some paroxysmal form of a-fib. This just started happening out of nowhere in the few couple weeks.

It starts happening, without fail, every time I go to sleep. I will wake up after 3 hours of sleep with it, and it will persist for 10-20 minutes and then I fall back asleep. I will wake up every hour or two hours after that, same thing. Sometimes the Valsalva maneuver helps, sometimes it doesn't.

Do I need to make an appointment w/ my cardiologist for this? I am getting annoyed / scared of dealing with the doctor because I am afraid they won't find anything again, and that it's "nothing to worry about." I know if I even try to make an appointment I'll have to wait like 3 weeks for the actual appointment, then another 3 weeks of waiting for the 48-hour holter monitor.

I'm already prescribed a benzo to calm me down; it doesn't do anything to stop the quivering. It makes me care less about it, but it's still there, and benzo or not I still wake up from it.

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12492606 tn?1459874033
He needs to figure out what it is exactly so that is understandable.  If it is happening nightly, you will probably be done with it a lot sooner than 8 weeks.
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Avatar universal
Wow, I'm surprised that word is censored
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Avatar universal
The doctor wants an event monitor. ***** that I have to deal with this for another 8 weeks,

Guess it's my last option
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
It's every single night so yeah it's pretty annoying. If I didn't have my benzo prescrip I'd probably lose my mind over this nonsense. Anyways, guess I'll call tomorrow to make an appointment...
Helpful - 0
12492606 tn?1459874033
That sounds like vagally mediated AF.  If that is the case, then the trigger is the slowing of the heart from relaxation so it is frustrating in that it wakes you up and interfers with your sleep.  Definitely should check it out with a cardiologist if not an EP to get on anticoagulation as a first step.  And then you want to eliminate modifiable triggers and risk factors.  Alcohol, caffeine, diet, exercise, etc ...  AAD meds may help but usually not over the long term.  There is always ablation as an option if all else fails but make sure you use a center that does a decent volume and an EP that's way beyond the learning curve.  Check out the lone AF forum too - lots of vagal affibers there.
Helpful - 0
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