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Ambulance emergency visit
I am 25 years old. My whole life I have experienced painful episodes involving my heart skipping beats and the right side of my chest/arm hurting. I have seen countless doctors and they all keep saying "anxiety attack". Anyone who knows me knows this is absolutely ridiculous.
I have been training for a marathon for the past two weeks. Running for an hour every day on a treadmill. Three days ago I did my first jog outside. A little over a mile. I jogged a steady pace, steady deep breathing, and I felt wonderful the whole time. I jogged in a large circle back to the gym. I entered the doors, talked to the receptionist for a while, told her how great I felt, ran into a trainer and chatted for a minute. I began to sweat and have mild, expected labored breathing so I went to the locker room, where I began to feel dizzy. I sat down, drank some water, and put on some music to keep myself focused as I breathed slowly in and out. I felt fine after 3-5 minutes. I went out to the public area to consult with the trainers more. After two sentences I felt my chest tighten in a way I have never felt, and I could hardly breathe. They instructed me to sit on the floor. I did, and my hands began to tingle. I laid down, put my feet up on a chair, and concentrated on slow, deep breaths. 4-7 minutes passed and the dizziness and tingling became unbearable. As they phoned my housemates to retrieve me and take me to urgent care, my legs, then face, began to tingle badly. They phoned 911. They checked my heart rate. It was NICE AND SLOW. I continued to breathe DEEP AND SLOW. Immediately my hands involuntarily curled into tight fists and I couldn’t move my arms or open my hands. My legs became similarily unresponsive. As I explained what happened (because I was rational and not at all scared), my face involuntarily tightened and I couldn’t move my jaw to open my mouth. The fire department came and told me to continue breathing deep and slow. They did an EKG, blood sugar test, and listened to my heart. All results were completely normal. My blood pressure was raised though. The more I breathed as they told me to, the worse my condition became. The less I breathed, the better I felt. Eventually I forced myself to talk more and breathe less, and 10 minutes later I could move, but weakly. The ambulance took me to the hospital as I felt better, just very tired. As the stretcher was pushed into the hospital doors, it happened all over again. Within hours they kicked me out of the hospital because they couldn't find "any biological reason" why this had happened, even though they only took one chest xray and a couple of simple blood tests. My ex-husband had to carry me out of the hospital because I was too weak to walk. They told me it was just a simple "anxiety attack" and they gave me a prescription for Lorazepam and turned their backs on me.
Ever since this happened I have been very weak, and my chest is tight when I breathe. Does anyone have any clue what happened to me? At my age, doctors don't beleive me when I tell them I can feel something is wrong, but I can't afford to ignore it. I am a single mom with two little babies that are counting on me to live.
I have been training for a marathon for the past two weeks. Running for an hour every day on a treadmill. Three days ago I did my first jog outside. A little over a mile. I jogged a steady pace, steady deep breathing, and I felt wonderful the whole time. I jogged in a large circle back to the gym. I entered the doors, talked to the receptionist for a while, told her how great I felt, ran into a trainer and chatted for a minute. I began to sweat and have mild, expected labored breathing so I went to the locker room, where I began to feel dizzy. I sat down, drank some water, and put on some music to keep myself focused as I breathed slowly in and out. I felt fine after 3-5 minutes. I went out to the public area to consult with the trainers more. After two sentences I felt my chest tighten in a way I have never felt, and I could hardly breathe. They instructed me to sit on the floor. I did, and my hands began to tingle. I laid down, put my feet up on a chair, and concentrated on slow, deep breaths. 4-7 minutes passed and the dizziness and tingling became unbearable. As they phoned my housemates to retrieve me and take me to urgent care, my legs, then face, began to tingle badly. They phoned 911. They checked my heart rate. It was NICE AND SLOW. I continued to breathe DEEP AND SLOW. Immediately my hands involuntarily curled into tight fists and I couldn’t move my arms or open my hands. My legs became similarily unresponsive. As I explained what happened (because I was rational and not at all scared), my face involuntarily tightened and I couldn’t move my jaw to open my mouth. The fire department came and told me to continue breathing deep and slow. They did an EKG, blood sugar test, and listened to my heart. All results were completely normal. My blood pressure was raised though. The more I breathed as they told me to, the worse my condition became. The less I breathed, the better I felt. Eventually I forced myself to talk more and breathe less, and 10 minutes later I could move, but weakly. The ambulance took me to the hospital as I felt better, just very tired. As the stretcher was pushed into the hospital doors, it happened all over again. Within hours they kicked me out of the hospital because they couldn't find "any biological reason" why this had happened, even though they only took one chest xray and a couple of simple blood tests. My ex-husband had to carry me out of the hospital because I was too weak to walk. They told me it was just a simple "anxiety attack" and they gave me a prescription for Lorazepam and turned their backs on me.
Ever since this happened I have been very weak, and my chest is tight when I breathe. Does anyone have any clue what happened to me? At my age, doctors don't beleive me when I tell them I can feel something is wrong, but I can't afford to ignore it. I am a single mom with two little babies that are counting on me to live.
Wierd...I take it that you have a low WBC...that is odd. I know that low WBC's can be caused by certain infections, cancer, autoimmune problems etc....I don't blame you for being scared out of your mind now. As far as those sinuses, they can make you miserable! Anytime I get an infection (which seems to be chronic these days) I always get those migraine like headaches along with them. Not only do I have alot of pressure, I have that awful pain that makes me want to remove my eyes! ( I know..gross...but that is how I feel sometimes...the pain gets pretty intense behind my eyes) Maybe you need a blast of antibiotics to get rid of the sinusitis. I also irrigate my sinuses to help clear the gunk out of there...stores sell the kits for sinus flushes. It is basically salt water but it seems to help.
I hope that the docs monitor your blood counts to see if your WBC's continue to stay low. If they stay really low it would make you more susceptable to infections.
That's awful for your cardio to say that!!! Ask if you had cancer and then wave it off by saying that things were probably okay. As if you weren't scared enough already....
I hope things work out for you soon....Sunny
I hope that the docs monitor your blood counts to see if your WBC's continue to stay low. If they stay really low it would make you more susceptable to infections.
That's awful for your cardio to say that!!! Ask if you had cancer and then wave it off by saying that things were probably okay. As if you weren't scared enough already....
I hope things work out for you soon....Sunny
When it happened, I wasn't really scared. But now I'm scared out of my mind. Ever since it happened, I've become really sick. Probably a sinus infection, but I've had a migraine for three days that is just KILLER. And I just remembered that the hospital blood tests revealed something strange. The doctor said my body was "destroying it's white blood cells". Was this not something they were concerned with? And then the cardiologist the next day asked if I had cancer! And then HE said he thought I was fine. What the heck??
God, that is wierd! Tingling of the feet and hands can be associated with hyperventilation (blowing off too much CO2) but it doesn't sound like you were hyperventilating. This still sounds like it could be a hyperventilation syndrome though...
I would have been scared out of my wits if I suffered these symptoms...Anytime I had problems with my SVT, it was natural for me to feel anxious...very hard to feel calm when my heart felt like it was going to flutter right out of my chest. I would snicker at doctors who would tell me to relax...something tells me that they never had issues with their heart and or breathing personally. Okay..now I am rambling! I hope that you get answers, this must all be so frustrating for you. Sunny
I would have been scared out of my wits if I suffered these symptoms...Anytime I had problems with my SVT, it was natural for me to feel anxious...very hard to feel calm when my heart felt like it was going to flutter right out of my chest. I would snicker at doctors who would tell me to relax...something tells me that they never had issues with their heart and or breathing personally. Okay..now I am rambling! I hope that you get answers, this must all be so frustrating for you. Sunny
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