Sudden Heart Racing Attack/Sudden drop afterwards - Please help

[shasta0863]

I'd like to first thank anyone who can give me some clarity and thank you in advance. Because I'm scared out of my mind right now. I'm 23 year old male, normal shape and good weight. Good blood pressure.

I've had this issue before, and I usually get them 1-3 times a year, usually at night.

Well not this time, and this was possibly the worst one yet. Earlier yesterday at school I got it. I felt like I was going to die because of how my body was reacting. It starts with a tough time breathing. And not that I was struggling to suck in air, it was just like my throat or maybe the chest was constricted in some way, but didn't 'feel' like it if that makes sense. After a little while of the breathing problems, I suddenly get this odd feeling come across my body. Almost as if the blood had been drained out of me and it's just so difficult to describe what this feeling is. This feeling like the previous times, results to the next stage. And that is HUGE heart beat increase out of no where. This last maybe a 45 seconds to a minute and half( the max speed of it ) then it slows down big time, almost to point where I feel like it's going to stop since it's so slow. Then it goes back to a regular, but still elevated heart rate. I then feel very weak after it, I have some problems being able to speak as I feel so drained and my hands are shaking a bit ( I assume from the adrenaline being pumped as I am panicking of course. )


And that is usually it, I will recover, feel very odd like I just suffered a heart attack or something as my body has this feeling like I just recovered from some severe trauma ( which it basically it did ).

This time was quite worse as after the initial attack, and my heart rate slowed down, it started to raise again and I got the same weird feeling inside my gut almost as if it was going to give me the same attack twice. It luckily didn't. After that I started to recover, still feeling odd inside and my pulse still a little bit elevated. At home 45min later, feeling a tad better. My pulse is still a tad high, not much and I feel bit strange inside still, but I'm better. By now, I feel sore in my chest internally, almost as if it's bruised.

Is this just panic attacks or anxiety? Or are these signs of something else? I wen't in before ( many years ago ) about this issue and my heart checked out alright and I've had ekg monitor once years ago that showed nothing. Things could show different now, who knows. But does this sound like Anxiety/Panic attacks or is it something else?

I recently read about Supraventricular Tachycardia, and quite upset as this seems like it is what I'm having. I really hoped it wasn't serious, but these are so traumatic I can't possibly think it's something as simple as panic attacks.

Any help to ease my mind, I'd so greatly appreciate it.

I've got a GP scheduled in a few days but I just wanted to get some opinions or thoughts from anyone. Greatly need it.

[shasta0863]

Thanks again michelle, it definitely is comforting to get some perspective on this. Unfortunately my mind races as I keep reading about things trying to get more information on my problems.

I read about Mitral Valve Regurgitation, do you think that is a possibility? I read the shortness of breath and sort of panicked a bit since I've been getting these, what I thought was anxiety attacks, nightly for quite some time. Even before the huge incident with my heart originally, I've had these feelings at night. I assume it was anxiety causing me to have a shortness of breath.

Since it says a person can have it for decades with out knowing until it gets worse, It has me concerned. But I don't have the swollen feet or legs. And would my EKG from the original GP have seen it? Or perhaps the EKG wasn't enough to actually tell.

I go in Wednesday thankfully, sadly learning about this new thing has of course gotten me a tad concerned.

[MichelleP_3811]

I think I just want to clarify something.  You very likely have 2 issues, svt and ectopic beats.  Ectopic beats are those odd feelings you are getting that cause those strange feelings.  They are completely harmless and fairly normal.  The ecotopic beats can cause someone to fall into the fast heart beat you feel which is svt.  The svt as well is not dangerous too you unless you were in the fast beat for a very long extended period of time which usually doesn't happen.  Or if one has a long episode they can go to the ER and get it slowed down.  The heart is very likely irritated by the svt but it will heal from it but because it gets irritated it throws off more ectopic beats which in turn can cause you to have svt episodes so they kind of feed off each other.  Get your svt addressed and you very likely will see the ecotpic beats clear up.  They may never totally go away but you should see improvement once your svt is corrected if you do indeed have an accessory pathway svt.  But to be clear, svt and ecotpic beats are very very rarely dangerous to a person.  You need to manage the issues as best you can and do what you can to correct any svt if you can but they are very rarely dangerous unless your heart is unhealthy from disease.  So just keep on track to get yourself properly diagnosed and if they find any svt work to get it corrected but try to not stress too much because the stress may actually stir things up for you more.  The fact of the matter is your heart is a very very strong reslient muscle.  It will survive this.  So just try and ease you rmind that you are on track to getting your heart the help it needs.  take care.

[MichelleP_3811]

Yes, they can feel strange and for me they can make me short of breath if I am getting a lot of them in a day.  I would say try to take it easy for a while and give your heart a break and see if that helps.  The heart is a bit irritated they believe so give it some time to rest and see if that resolves the issue.  Hang in there.  It is very likely you don't have anything to worry too much about but continue to follow up with the doctor just to make sure.  

[shasta0863]

Thanks for the encouraging words.

The thing bothering me the most I must say since this incident is these odd heart palpitations daily. Never have I had it this much, and clearly the original episode from weeks ago triggered something i must assume.

It feels as if there is a skipped beat, it's a strange feeling that last a second or so. It comes randomly, sometimes if I deep breath, or stretch. Sexual activity triggers it as well. It's really changed my entire life, since I can't gauge if these odd heart murmurs, palps, what ever they are causing this strange sudden feeling of my heart, are dangerous or not. The unknown of course, is a burden.

I think my nightly episodes are simply anxiety and stress from fearing over the above.

[MichelleP_3811]

You are correct that the vagus nerve can get aggravated by gas or acid reflux and send signals to the heart causing it to act up.  It generally triggers some ectopic beats, pacs or pvcs.  Pacs or pvcs but usually pacs are a trigger for someone with an accessory pathway to fall into svt.  This does sound like what is going on with you but do make sure you tell the cardiologist that you do have difficulty breathing and everything else you are experiencing.  Sorry your appointment got delayed.  I know that it can be frustrating to wait for answers but hopefully you won't have to wait too much longer.  Best of luck.

[shasta0863]

Thank you for the reply. My appointment got delayed so I'm waiting until next week.

Once thing I can't understand is I'm getting continued issues towards night, where it feels like I'm having breathing problems and can't suck in enough air. I have these a lot even before the incident in my original post, but these seem to be worse and my heart starts to rapidly beat.

I notice also that I've been burping a lot. And it seems to provide temporary relief during either odd heart feeling issues or the odd like anxiety or panic attack like episodes I think I'm having towards night.

I think I read something about gas build up in intestine or something causing problems for vagus nerve which is why burping seems to temp, help. Know anything about this?