Irregular Heartbeats for Heart Palpitations

Hello. I am a 39 year old caring, loving woman who feels that my life is being taken from me from these symptoms. I feel totally hopeless and helpless. Therefore, I am a scared person and feel I am the walking dead. I simply do not know how much longer I can go on like this. I spent about three hours a day online looking for answers, and know I have to reach out for support. I am feeling very alone and I simply do not know what to do. I have CONSTANT irregular heartbeat and palpitations, but they are happening ALL THE TIME and my doctor says there is nothing wrong with me. I have had three EKG’s and have been to the ER as well as a 48 hour monitor and a Cardiologist, who was a complete jerk and his staff should not work with people…they were horribly abusive to me in how they spoke to me and did not take me seriously.
I want to state: I do not eat sugar, drink caffeine (I have been off of it for a month), sodium or high fat foods, do drugs, smoke, drink alcohol and am not on any major medications.
I am taking: Hawthorne, Taurine, Co Q 10, Vitamin B 100 and Vitamin D3. None of it has been helping with the irregular heartbeat though a Chiropractor told me I would.
Yes, I do have stress, but I do not feel in any way that I am having panic attacks. Can someone out there give me consolation, compassion, support, love, whatever you want to give? I have been down this road before, but my heart is doing things that scare me. I CONSTANTLY feel the irregular heartbeat and I feel chest pain and pressure. I feel my heartbeat in my throat. Yet, my primary care doctor, who is a woman, thinks I am crazy and that nothing at all is wrong with me.
After his staff lied to my Cardiologist, he told me I was not welcome in his office anymore b/c I had questions! I felt so degraded and overwhelmed and majorly abused. That is a long story. I have called the Patient Advocacy department and they have not called me back. I need help. He did say I had Sinus Arrythmia and it is PAC’s and that it is causing me to feel the irregular heartbeats, but did not explain much else to me. And he wanted me out of his office. I left his office in a lot of emotional pain and fear. I need help b/c the ER did a chest x ray, a chest cat scan for a pulmonary embolism and an EKG, but that is it.
I went to the ER and the ER doctor was rather arrogant (The doctor was a woman doctor) at a major hospital here in Seattle. I was overwhelmed with her telling me it was just anxiety. There was no explanation to me as to why the palpitations happen constantly except to say that I have anxiety, and that is not a sufficient answer for me.
I went through panic attacks back in 2007, and back then, I would have the panic attacks even in the absence of heart palpitations.
Now, I am getting the heart palpitations in absence of the attacks.
Here are the things that are happening in my life:
1. I have been unemployed since June 29th and it has been hard, but I do not feel in any way that I have been having panic attacks.
2. I Had HORRIBLE vertigo and dizziness these past four months and then in the past month, it went away. But I still have ongoing heart palpitations and irregular heartbeat. How can it be panic if I am not having attacks?
3. I have gone off of Prozac and I have removed myself off of caffeine for a month.

I need help for coping. I feel totally alone. I wake up with these Irregular heartbeats and palpitations. I go to bed with them. I pray to God they will stop.
I have suffered so much in this state and recently and I wonder how much longer the suffering will continue…I have been laid off on June 29th and lost my health insurance on July 31st. I have used up my husband’s five visits he had on this limited benefit plan. I have no benefits left. I am completely despondent…I feel I need to see an Electrophysiologist and a cardiologist for a second opinion b/c I have been treated horribly by the doctors here.
I am from the East Coast, and have been VERY UNHAPPY with medical care here in Seattle. I feel that the doctors would rather die than help someone. They are cold and compassionless. I grew up near Washington D.C. and our medical care was a lot better.
Right now, I am wondering if there is something they have not missed…And I feel I need an Echo…then the other part of me is wondering if this is just some weird manifestation of panic or if this is withdrawal from Prozac and caffeine and this is the manifestation…
I have tried: Acupuncture, meditation, breathing techniques, sleeping, herbal remedies (listed above), water, eating very, very healthy and numerous other things to no avail…The Palpitations and irregular heartbeat just continue, and continue.
I also have pain and heaviness in my chest.
Can someone…anyone, please tell me how to cope? I am totally hopeless here.
Rebekah

Welcome to PC ((seattlepoet)) - I'm sorry you've had bad experiences with doctors. Did you let your doctor know you went off the Prozac - with some meds its important to taper off gradually to avoid withdrawal affects. How long have you had the palpitations? Have you had blood work to test your thyroid?

I get irregular heartbeat sometimes too and had the test to rule out the harmful kind. Have any of the doctors explained, there are different kinds of irregular heartbeats - serious and non serious?? Mine happen to be the harmless kind but I do understand they feel odd when its happening. Its good you're avoiding caffeine because this can make them more frequent. I want to reassure you that this irregularity won't kill you or harm you. You might be helped by taking a magnesium supplement and this would also calm your anxiety as well. I think you should speak to your doctor about trying an anxiety med.

I also used to get panic attacks as a child and know how scarey they can be. One very valuable trick is not to resist the attack. The more the person resists, the more intense the panic and the circle of fear. The trick is, to accept the attack and you can even joke and say "hit me with your best shot". Once you realize the panic can't do lasting harm and it no longer scares you.....the panic will begin to get better. You may be worried deep down, you're going to die ....try not to worry about that. If there was anything seriously wrong the tests would have showed it. Once you disarm the panic by not fearing it, you'll start to feel less worried.

Panic attachs... and anxiety are horrible!!!! It took me truly almost two years to get over.... hang in there... and find a DR who is willing to help you every step of the way

hi, i was in a similar situation a few years back, needless to say i ended up calling people at 4am to bring me to the hospital many times, each time they found nothing. this was very frustrating to me. it turned out i was suffering from anxiety and hyper tension (every time the palpitations came they came with severe chest pain and i thought it was a heart attack) well anyway i tried anti anxiety medication for a while and it seemed to help, it doesnt bother me anymore because i now know it was harmless but at the time it was hell. But i do think you were treated poorly and doctors really should know better !!!
anyway i hope you find some answers soon and my best wishes to you

Two things: 1, I would be careful with supplements? my mother's regular doctor called me in a panic a few years ago because her annual kidney test came back bad. then all the kidney specialist really did was take her OFF all the supplements my brother had put her on (and he yelled at me, cos he thought I was responsible! ha, like she ever listens to anything I say!) and that did fix her kidney problems, thank god, cos usually once your kidneys start going, they don't come back. and supplements are not inspected at all.

I got tested for heart palps, and honestly the only time they come back is when my mother calls me. I am not really in touch with my feelings at all, but she must have really scared the crap out of me when I was little, is all I can figure out. so I would guess that something similar might be happening with you, losing your job is bringing up a fear and insecurity. I got fired, I say "for the last time" ten years ago, but my whole 30 years working I felt insecure and never stayed at one place very long. And being called into a boss's office started the heart palps.

anyway, if the tests you had came back clear, I would trust them, and chalk it up to anxiety, even if it doesn't feel like your "usual" anxiety. that's my problem, I don't want to feel my feelings, but my body knows they're there anyway.

Hi,
Irregular Heartbeats for heart palpitations is a very common and serious problem now I am here to know how can we control this problem?

I suffered from this for YEARS -- and the palpitations were about to drive me nuts as they scared me to death, and that added to the palpitations. The more afraid I got, the more frequently I would have them!

I was treated with Inderal, which is a Beta Blocker. This stopped the palpitations & irregular hertbeats, plus I was put on Xanax for the Anxiety. But, the trouble was that I got ADDICTED to the Xanax. It is supposed to be used only short-term, and my doc kept refiilling my prescription -- I didn't know any better. Then I got to craving the stuff and I finally "came to" that this wasn't right! Plus I was also an alcoholic -- so I got sober and came off the Xanax at the same time. The only problem was you aren't supposed to cold-turkey from Xanax, and I didn't know THAT either -- I could have had a seizure, but God was watching over me!

Anyway -- the Inderal is good for the palpitations. I don't recommend the Xanax tho. Talk to your doc about Anxiety meds. I wish you the very best. God bless and take care. Hugs, Lee

I went through this years ago and really, there was nothing truly wrong with me. It really was an anxiety reaction even though I wasn't really in touch with how much anxiety I was actually experiencing. The irregular heartbeat is distracting and feels like something is really wrong, but they usually aren't dangerous and will eventually resolve themselves, but the anxiety and focus on them ironically seems to just prolong them so it's a vicious cycle. Are you in therapy to explore the probable underlying anxiety that is creating these symptoms for you?

Hey seattlepoet,


I am also sorry to hear your medical experiences have been pretty horrible for you. When I had my very first panic attack (I was 15) I thought I was having pain related to a heart attack. I also had trouble breathing and became extremely nauseous. It was as if someone was sitting on my chest!

I went to the clinic that night afraid that I was having some major heart problem and the doctor reassured me it was stress and anxiety which caused me to have a panic attack. I was extremely confused, I wasn't under any kind of stress!

Well, this went on for years, it was as if I had chronic panic! Eventually I ended up at a psychiatrist who told me that even though I didn't FEEL as if I was under stress, I certainly was. He said that my brain was registering stress and thus my body was, too. I went onto a few medications to get my anxiety under control. Those worked for awhile...but I continued to feel this way more often than not.

The fear of physical illness was terrifying, which only made the anxiety worse. I have tried meditation, deep-breathing, retreats, various medications, self-medicating with alcohol (don't try this), psychotherapy, counselling, psychiatry and cognitive behavioral therapy.

Later on , I had gone to the doctor feeling fatigued, light-headed and dizzy with extreme chest pain. The dr. suggested some blood tests to check my thyroid, blood sugar and iron turns out I was extremely anemic! Perhaps these are a few things to look at.

The doc put me on Iron and b12 vitamins supplemented with vitamin C (however don't take iron at home on your own without a doctor's advice, it can be toxic!). My panic attacks are generally few and far between now, although my anxiety is still quite high...

I continue to do daily exercise, practice proper nutrition and get a good night's sleep. I talk and write about my stress and anxiety, take quiet time to deep-breathe and reduce tension, use natural supplements, and do what I can to reduce stress in my life. Although we sometimes don't think we're under stress, we may be! The body has a strange way of reacting to psychological stressors, whether we're conscious of them or not! Our bodies are trying to tell us something. This world is extremely stressful!

I would suggest to some different medical opinions (when it is affordable -- unless it's an emergency of course). Look deeply at all the stressors in your life, is anything making you extremely stressed, nervous, tense and anxious? A counsellor would be a great place to start once all medical problems are ruled out.

Also, do you have any other symptoms?