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very strange heart sensation followed by adrenaline rush and fast heartbeat - very worried about this
Hi. I'm a 26 year old female, neither fat nor skinny, no smoking, only occasional alcohol use. Prior to what I'm about to describe, the only heart issues I had were: occasional flip-flopping feeling which knocked the wind out of me but only happened maybe a few times a year, and a sort of flip-flopping or difficulty beating when lying down on my left side (sometimes, not every time I lay this way - started around age 13).
Background: Three years ago something happened to me that I still haven't figured out - my heart started beating very fast and my BP went way up (so high that with every heartbeat I could see the tiny capillaries in my eyes as an overlay on my visual field). Paramedics couldn't bring them down so took me to "A&E" (aka the ER - I'm American but live in England). Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happened (that I'm aware of) prior to this incident, except for insertion of Mirena IUD one week prior - I do still have it but now think I'll have it removed.
Thus began months of seemingly random 'attacks' during which I'd get varying combinations of tachycardia, high BP, tremors esp in left leg, lightheadedness, inability to fully inhale, feeling of not getting enough oxygen even if I could breathe properly, and the list goes on. I also had a terrible feeling of physical anxiety (churning stomach, agitation, etc) but with no mental anxiety as the apparent cause!!! Attacks could last minutes or hours and any combination of symptoms would happen. And in between attacks, my heart would regularly do many strange things - tachy, brady, irregular rhythm, extremely forceful beats, 'flip-flopping' feelings, etc.
I also sometimes experienced a sensation of the heart stopping and restarting - immediately after the restart I would feel a MASSIVE, uncomfortable surge of adrenaline and the heart would beat very fast for a little while. I could never figure out if I was getting an adrenaline surge that caused some odd heart behaviour that I felt before I actually felt the adrenaline, or what. Sometimes my heart would also start beating EXTREMELY fast from resting for no reason at all - it was literally immediate - this was also accompanied by an adrenaline rush but no preceding feeling of the heart stopping.
These incidents gradually decreased in frequency over time, along w/ the other symptoms, until after three years I was feeling mostly recovered from whatever got me. I viewed myself as not entirely back to normal, but almost there. UNTIL a couple of days ago, when I had another (random as always - I was just riding in the car reading, no stress) heart stoppage -> restart -> adrenaline event. This one was the second most severe one I've ever had and I thought I might die. Luckily the heart DID start pumping again so I'm still here. By now I'm pretty familiar with flip-floppings and extra-strong beats, etc, and this definitely feels very different and much more worrying. I am afraid that if it happens again, the heart might not start on its own.
I should also say that when I say it 'stops', I mean it seems to stop pumping blood...I get the impression there is still activity going on in the heart but that blood is not being circulated. Could it be ventricular fibrillation, or ...? Maybe adrenaline is not causing this, but rather my heart goes into an abnormal rhythm and my body releases adrenaline in an attempt to self-shock into proper rhythm?
During the most severe incident in '06 or '07, my colleagues said I turned "white as a sheet" while it was happening. That time, I was clawing at my chest (reflex reaction, I didn't actually think that would help) and thinking "please start please start please start", knowing I'd die if it didn't. That time, it felt like the heart was quivering/fluttering but not pumping. All other times including the one a couple of days ago, it has sort of felt like the heart is contracting in extreme slow motion, or having some sort of muscle cramp.
I cannot figure this out and would welcome any insight anyone has to offer. After it all began in 06, I had a stress test (slightly above avg exercise tolerance), echo (normal), stress echo (normal) and many ECGs. The cardio said my heart was perfectly healthy. No evidence of MVP (which I thought I might have). He said the only thing to remark on was that the heart was smallish, but not abnormally so.
My GP diagnosed me w/ 'anxiety attacks' w/out finding it necessary to order any physical testing whatsoever. (The above cardio is a friend of my parents who saw me while I was on vacation in the US). GP put me on citalopram which I went along w/ just to be cooperative, and propranolol to help regulate what he viewed as anxiety-induced tachy. Did not seem to find it significant that symptoms did not occur during periods of actual mental anxiety. Said it might be pheochromocytoma, but that he wouldn't bother testing as that's so rare. Ashamed to say I didn't and still haven't actually demanded said testing.
All ECGs were normal except once at A&E when they caught random very hard beats interspersed w/ regular beats - v. hard beats could be seen as an extra-long downward spike on the readout. Of their own volition (as opposed to at my request), A&E sent this to a cardio (different one) who didn't bother to look at it and just told me not to worry. Thanks, buddy! So, not really knowing how to interpret these readouts, I still don't know if that was significant.
I'm currently seeing a neurologist for delayed sleep phase syndrome. After hearing all this, he very kindly volunteered to arrange for me to use the clinic's Holter monitor; he'll then send the tape to a cardiologist. Not sure when this will happen, though, as it's the NHS (meaning things do not tend to happen promptly).
At the time of the latest incident, I was on amoxicillin but no other meds continuously, although I have been taking lansoprazole at night only, for a week and a half to two weeks. A few days prior to the incident, I had taken myself off of the pramipexole that I'd been on for a week, as I was having trouble swallowing (for which the amoxicillin and lanso were prescribed - possible sinus/throat infection or gastric reflux - doc and I wanted to attack on both fronts in order to avoid the return of the laryngospams I'd had during recent respiratory infection).
Thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to help...
Background: Three years ago something happened to me that I still haven't figured out - my heart started beating very fast and my BP went way up (so high that with every heartbeat I could see the tiny capillaries in my eyes as an overlay on my visual field). Paramedics couldn't bring them down so took me to "A&E" (aka the ER - I'm American but live in England). Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happened (that I'm aware of) prior to this incident, except for insertion of Mirena IUD one week prior - I do still have it but now think I'll have it removed.
Thus began months of seemingly random 'attacks' during which I'd get varying combinations of tachycardia, high BP, tremors esp in left leg, lightheadedness, inability to fully inhale, feeling of not getting enough oxygen even if I could breathe properly, and the list goes on. I also had a terrible feeling of physical anxiety (churning stomach, agitation, etc) but with no mental anxiety as the apparent cause!!! Attacks could last minutes or hours and any combination of symptoms would happen. And in between attacks, my heart would regularly do many strange things - tachy, brady, irregular rhythm, extremely forceful beats, 'flip-flopping' feelings, etc.
I also sometimes experienced a sensation of the heart stopping and restarting - immediately after the restart I would feel a MASSIVE, uncomfortable surge of adrenaline and the heart would beat very fast for a little while. I could never figure out if I was getting an adrenaline surge that caused some odd heart behaviour that I felt before I actually felt the adrenaline, or what. Sometimes my heart would also start beating EXTREMELY fast from resting for no reason at all - it was literally immediate - this was also accompanied by an adrenaline rush but no preceding feeling of the heart stopping.
These incidents gradually decreased in frequency over time, along w/ the other symptoms, until after three years I was feeling mostly recovered from whatever got me. I viewed myself as not entirely back to normal, but almost there. UNTIL a couple of days ago, when I had another (random as always - I was just riding in the car reading, no stress) heart stoppage -> restart -> adrenaline event. This one was the second most severe one I've ever had and I thought I might die. Luckily the heart DID start pumping again so I'm still here. By now I'm pretty familiar with flip-floppings and extra-strong beats, etc, and this definitely feels very different and much more worrying. I am afraid that if it happens again, the heart might not start on its own.
I should also say that when I say it 'stops', I mean it seems to stop pumping blood...I get the impression there is still activity going on in the heart but that blood is not being circulated. Could it be ventricular fibrillation, or ...? Maybe adrenaline is not causing this, but rather my heart goes into an abnormal rhythm and my body releases adrenaline in an attempt to self-shock into proper rhythm?
During the most severe incident in '06 or '07, my colleagues said I turned "white as a sheet" while it was happening. That time, I was clawing at my chest (reflex reaction, I didn't actually think that would help) and thinking "please start please start please start", knowing I'd die if it didn't. That time, it felt like the heart was quivering/fluttering but not pumping. All other times including the one a couple of days ago, it has sort of felt like the heart is contracting in extreme slow motion, or having some sort of muscle cramp.
I cannot figure this out and would welcome any insight anyone has to offer. After it all began in 06, I had a stress test (slightly above avg exercise tolerance), echo (normal), stress echo (normal) and many ECGs. The cardio said my heart was perfectly healthy. No evidence of MVP (which I thought I might have). He said the only thing to remark on was that the heart was smallish, but not abnormally so.
My GP diagnosed me w/ 'anxiety attacks' w/out finding it necessary to order any physical testing whatsoever. (The above cardio is a friend of my parents who saw me while I was on vacation in the US). GP put me on citalopram which I went along w/ just to be cooperative, and propranolol to help regulate what he viewed as anxiety-induced tachy. Did not seem to find it significant that symptoms did not occur during periods of actual mental anxiety. Said it might be pheochromocytoma, but that he wouldn't bother testing as that's so rare. Ashamed to say I didn't and still haven't actually demanded said testing.
All ECGs were normal except once at A&E when they caught random very hard beats interspersed w/ regular beats - v. hard beats could be seen as an extra-long downward spike on the readout. Of their own volition (as opposed to at my request), A&E sent this to a cardio (different one) who didn't bother to look at it and just told me not to worry. Thanks, buddy! So, not really knowing how to interpret these readouts, I still don't know if that was significant.
I'm currently seeing a neurologist for delayed sleep phase syndrome. After hearing all this, he very kindly volunteered to arrange for me to use the clinic's Holter monitor; he'll then send the tape to a cardiologist. Not sure when this will happen, though, as it's the NHS (meaning things do not tend to happen promptly).
At the time of the latest incident, I was on amoxicillin but no other meds continuously, although I have been taking lansoprazole at night only, for a week and a half to two weeks. A few days prior to the incident, I had taken myself off of the pramipexole that I'd been on for a week, as I was having trouble swallowing (for which the amoxicillin and lanso were prescribed - possible sinus/throat infection or gastric reflux - doc and I wanted to attack on both fronts in order to avoid the return of the laryngospams I'd had during recent respiratory infection).
Thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to help...
Strange reading all this, it sound just like what i have been experiencing. But for me its like a double beat an on the second beat i get a shot of adrenalin shoot up into my throat. It only lasts a millisecond, but iv had quiet a few today. Dont feel sick, or any pain..... anyone else get anything like this?.
Thank you. It's posts like yours that keep me from freaking out about this condition. My pvc's actually settled while I read your post. That says something right there.
Hi everyone out there. I am new to this forum which I happened upon when I punched in a search on symptoms I experienced yesterday for the 'umpteenth' time in my life. I am 54 years old now and I have been having many of the symptoms and problems described above since I was sixteen way back in 1977. The onset of these was triggered at the time by a high stakes state exam in which I was expected to do inordinately well...so no pressure! At this stage of my life I can only talk common sense to all you young worriers out there. You will not die from these symptoms but they are random and very, very uncomfortable to live with AND for those of us who haven't come to terms with this particular sensitivity/vulnerability we were born with the symptoms are very frightening.
However Medive gives us all very good advice on this forum as to how to deal with the life pressures that cause such symptoms in those of us with this particular vulnerability. While some triggers may be personal to individuals among us (and we can identify these for ourselves over time) the overall message of 'healthy eating, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, rest, sleep, meditation/yoga if you can, a balanced lifestyle and as little as possible of self medication (i.e. alcohol, strong caffeine, self harming incl bulimia, smoking, cannabis or other soft/hard addictive substances, Xanax and it derivatives, painkillers) will go a very long way to alleviating the symptoms.
I totally agree with the many of you who recognise the 'vicious circle' aspect to the worry/trigger/attack cycle many of us can fall into. It is very important to recognise this and accept that the less we stress over our symptoms, the less frequent and severe the attacks will be. I say this with this added note of caution. These symptoms can and do mimic heart issues/problems which are potentially serious, so in experiencing these attacks for the first time, the sufferer must consult a doctor. However, if after satisfying ourselves that our hearts are healthy, the best remedy is the one which helps us to adapt a lifestyle to control and prevent regular occurrences of the symptoms.
I wish I had known all of this back in 1977 when my attacks first began. They caused nightmare scenarios for me as a young adult which I will not document here. Please rest assured, all of you fellow sufferers out there that you are are not mentally ill (even if you need to take anti anxiety medication). I also agree with Medive that if you can avoid medication altogether, that is best but not all of us can. The earlier we start with the healthy lifestyle and knowing our own bodies, its strengths and vulnerabilities, the better. Starting on this healthy self care route is the best chance we can give ourselves and even starting on it later in life is tremendously helpful.
Remember this please. We are born physically sensitive; that is all. We are not mad or mentally ill or hypochondriacs or drama queens. Don't please label us as this. Physical sensitivities just lead us to react more strongly to certain triggers than others in the population. In some ways this is a bonus as it acts as a very alert warning system to stress and other potential disease causing and fatal illnesses/attacks. Oddly enough, I also suffer from acute hay-fever, rhinitis and asthma. Think of our sensitivity and symptoms in a similar manner to these and it might help explain what I'm getting at.
I hope this advice is helpful to a few of us out there. It comes from a 'seasoned' sufferer.
Best of luck and DON'T WORRY!
Robin :)
However Medive gives us all very good advice on this forum as to how to deal with the life pressures that cause such symptoms in those of us with this particular vulnerability. While some triggers may be personal to individuals among us (and we can identify these for ourselves over time) the overall message of 'healthy eating, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, rest, sleep, meditation/yoga if you can, a balanced lifestyle and as little as possible of self medication (i.e. alcohol, strong caffeine, self harming incl bulimia, smoking, cannabis or other soft/hard addictive substances, Xanax and it derivatives, painkillers) will go a very long way to alleviating the symptoms.
I totally agree with the many of you who recognise the 'vicious circle' aspect to the worry/trigger/attack cycle many of us can fall into. It is very important to recognise this and accept that the less we stress over our symptoms, the less frequent and severe the attacks will be. I say this with this added note of caution. These symptoms can and do mimic heart issues/problems which are potentially serious, so in experiencing these attacks for the first time, the sufferer must consult a doctor. However, if after satisfying ourselves that our hearts are healthy, the best remedy is the one which helps us to adapt a lifestyle to control and prevent regular occurrences of the symptoms.
I wish I had known all of this back in 1977 when my attacks first began. They caused nightmare scenarios for me as a young adult which I will not document here. Please rest assured, all of you fellow sufferers out there that you are are not mentally ill (even if you need to take anti anxiety medication). I also agree with Medive that if you can avoid medication altogether, that is best but not all of us can. The earlier we start with the healthy lifestyle and knowing our own bodies, its strengths and vulnerabilities, the better. Starting on this healthy self care route is the best chance we can give ourselves and even starting on it later in life is tremendously helpful.
Remember this please. We are born physically sensitive; that is all. We are not mad or mentally ill or hypochondriacs or drama queens. Don't please label us as this. Physical sensitivities just lead us to react more strongly to certain triggers than others in the population. In some ways this is a bonus as it acts as a very alert warning system to stress and other potential disease causing and fatal illnesses/attacks. Oddly enough, I also suffer from acute hay-fever, rhinitis and asthma. Think of our sensitivity and symptoms in a similar manner to these and it might help explain what I'm getting at.
I hope this advice is helpful to a few of us out there. It comes from a 'seasoned' sufferer.
Best of luck and DON'T WORRY!
Robin :)
I have some similar symptoms. So far I've been told they are panic attacks, but I'm still getting the symptoms checked out (and also making a therapy appointment). I'm also wondering if sometimes what I experience as related to my heart is actually awful heartburn that causes a "pulse" or "rush" feeling.
Feel better and have a happy and healthy 2015!:)
Feel better and have a happy and healthy 2015!:)
The same thing has been happening to me for years. After doing the same rounds as everyone else and nothing abnormal ever being found, I have stopped talking about it to anyone because of the usual "it must be anxiety" or "menopause" comments I get. It was even suggested I was just a bored housewife...despite the fact that I have a full time job, run a part time business and have a family so don't actually have time to be bored. That was until 6 weeks ago when I had another episode in a restaurant as we were celebrating family birthdays and I ended up having a convulsion and passing out while sitting at the table - totally out of the blue and totally random. I woke up to find myself on the floor and my daughter on the phone to the ambulance service. My heart was racing and my blood pressure so low the ambos wouldn't tell me what the reading was - they just kept saying it was too low. 4 days in hospital and as usual they couldn't find anything except that my heart rate kept going up and setting off alarms every time I got out of bed. I was sent home once I'd been cleared of any heart disease, stroke or epilepsy and told to follow up with my cardiologist in 6 weeks (only to discover the cardiologist that I had seen previously mad moved to another city). I saw another cardiologist yesterday and as luck would have it, I had an episode in his waiting room and became quite faint a couple of times while standing, so it was actually witnessed by adoctor this time. I didn't pass out, but at least it is now being taken seriously. I've been given a trial of beta blockers and will do a holter meter test (yet again) in a couple of weeks. It'll be interesting to see what they decide when the holter meter shows nothing, as I'm expecting. And yes, I'm also one of those that is woken by the episodes in the early hours of the morning and occasionally, every 20-30 minutes all through the night. The one thing I have noticed is that the episodes often precede a hot flush and once the hot flush happens, the episodes stop. Unfortunately the hot flush isn't always immediate so I can have them every few minutes for several hours before I flush and the episodes stop. I asked if it could be menopause related and was told no, menopausal hot flushes don't make you faint. Well I had an extended hot flush right before I fainted, so if it isn't menopause related, what are the heck are the hot flushes? Can't be pheochromocytoma because that causes episodes of high blood pressure and mine was very low, not high. Frankly I just want to get back in my box and not have to get back on this medical merry go round yet again because I know it'll end in the 'it must be anxiety" basket. That seems to be the place for everything that is too hard to diagnose.
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