Jump to content

Heart Palpitations came back


[Mi...]

Recommended Posts

Hello all. Sending you wishes of healing and recovery.

I really feel for everyone on here and think of everyone often praying we all feel better soon.

 

I know there's a palpitation group, but I wanted to post this here in hopes that it will get more replies.

 

I had some heart palpitations 4 months ago and I thought they were gone, but unfortunately they have returned. Back then, in October I had a run (about 5 hours) of a high heart rate 140's up to 160 so I went the the ER and ended up with a 24 hour Holter monitor and a follow up with cardiology. In all of the ER heart monitoring there was never an arrhythmia. My heart was normal, just fast for those 5 hours that day.

 

Also when I was in the ER I would feel a "palpitation" and look at the monitor and. .. nothing abnormal. No arrhythmia Just normal sinus rhythm with tachycardia. Same with the 24 Holter monitor I had back in October. I would notate in the Symptom Log/Event tracker that I was feeling a palpitation or heart skip and . ....  again, no arrhythmia. Just normal sinus rhythm.

 

My heart "palpitations" just feel like a tiny flutter in my throat or chest. My heart rate has been normal. I have not had a high heart rate since that day in the ER in October. I have a Fit Bit I wear all of the time. Blood pressure normal too.

 

When I saw the cardiologist back in the fall, the Holter monitor was completely normal. Cardiology gave me some "take as needed" Metoprolol in case my heart rate gets fast like that again and won't come down. Well, okay the bottle of pills sit in my purse and I have not needed them. My heart rate has been A-1 perfect, and it still is except for these "heart palpitations" or "hyper awareness" of my heart beat feeling as of the last 4 days.

 

It's really infrequent. Like maybe 4 or 5 occasions a day where I feel my heart beat. The problem is that it scares me, on occasion so much that I get an adrenaline rush and feel faint ??? Or at least I think I feel faint or maybe it's the adrenaline rush??? I have not fainted. In the course of the 21 months that I've been in withdrawal this "faint" feeling has happened only 3 times. This past Sept, Oct and then about a month ago. I don't have this fear/faint feeling with every palpitation. Not even close. That just happened those 3 times. All the other times the skipped heart feeling happens and it is done and overwith in one second's time. The problem is that I am surrounding it with this fear that I might faint.

 

The FEAR part has been so bad that after an entire day I said: "I had palpitations today" when really I had zero palpitations.  I just spent the entire day WORRIED that I'd have one,  but never did .

 

The problem is now I've surrounded it with fear because of these "heart sensations", so of course it's ruining my days. Otherwise I've been pretty fortunate lately where I am feeling good to mostly healed. Actually for the last 2 months I've been having days sometimes up to 11 in a row that are symptom free.

 

I actually drove yesterday for the first time in 4 months. I did really well, but then after about an hour of driving I freaked myself out with this "heart sensation" symptom because I had one while driving, but it just passed as quickly as it came. No issues.

 

I won't take the Metoprolol.  I don't take any meds. I'm very med sensitive with the exception of a Motrin once in a while that I have no issues with. Besides,  the Metoprolol is for an emergency fast heart rate. My heart rate would have to be 200, and not going down for me to take the Metoprolol, and I'm not having that issue.

 

I took Metoprolol before. Before benzos and up until last year when I lost weight and visited cardiology because my heart rate and blood pressure were actually a bit too low from it. So my cardiologist stopped the med. And, really i tapered off of it in only a matter of 2 weeks and sometimes I think that set me back in my withdrawal. Anyway, that was in November of 2019. Over a year ago..

 

I'm trying to walk daily to help with the heart palpitations. I'm not sure if it's helping or not. I'm trying to ignore them because I've seen many a times even said by physicians that if you hyperfocus on them they worsen. Easier said than done for a person in withdrawal where all we do is hyperfocus on symptoms!

 

Anyway, I made another appointment with cardiology. I think I'm going to get a 30 day Holter Monitor just to ease my mind.

 

I read in a success story here on the forum (sorry don't know which one) in their own experience (they healed at 22 months) they felt that because it was taking longer than a year to 18 months they began to get frustrated with the time it was taking to heal. Instead of thinking of all the symptoms they no longer had, they were frustrated with the few they had left. Idk. Maybe that's what's happening with me. Who knows. That's just an analysis. Isn't that what our withdrawal brains are just so good at doing? Searching for symptoms every minute of the day all day long, over analyzing them then bringing on a bunch of fear?

 

I've been looking at success stories and putting "palpitations" in the search bar and reading stories of those who had heart palps as a symptom, and they went away with all of their other symptoms. This seems to help me some.

 

Any heart palpitations stories or input?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have palpitations all the time. I was also poly drugged and rapid tapered off of three medications in a very short period of time. I do also have to take metoprolol daily. My skipped beats were PVCs diagnosed with EKGs. That were pretty rampant the first three months. They’ve calmed down a lot now but still here. Mainly in the evenings but I thinks those are more reflux related. I’m still early on in recovery and still have a lot of GI issues as well. I hope your palpitations get better and start to fade as they did before. Just wanted you to know that you’re not alone in this and in fact are doing better than me as well because I need medication to control mine you’re doing amazing beasting through them with no help at all. You are well on your way to healing. 😊❤️
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have palpitations all the time. I was also poly drugged and rapid tapered off of three medications in a very short period of time. I do also have to take metoprolol daily. My skipped beats were PVCs diagnosed with EKGs. That were pretty rampant the first three months. They’ve calmed down a lot now but still here. Mainly in the evenings but I thinks those are more reflux related. I’m still early on in recovery and still have a lot of GI issues as well. I hope your palpitations get better and start to fade as they did before. Just wanted you to know that you’re not alone in this and in fact are doing better than me as well because I need medication to control mine you’re doing amazing beasting through them with no help at all. You are well on your way to healing. 😊❤️

 

Thank you Paxia for your reply. I really appreciate it.

You will get through this. You are strong.

We are strong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey miss fortitude,

Since all your tests and monitor was normal, don't you think that maybe it is just you "noticing" your own heartbeat?

Like most of the time you don't notice it, but then when you feel it even though it's normal, it just freaks you out because you can feel it?

I've had bad tachycardia both before and after benzos, and then after it settled down after acute, I would THInK it was fast or palpitating, and so I would check it....but it was normal. So I just said "oh ok, it's just that I feel it that's all, no need for alarm"

Once I took that mindset, then if I felt it, there was no fear, and then eventually, gone

If it were me, I probably wouldn't even get another monitor. Your first was already good!!! I would just wear the fitbit watch that tracks your heart rate, I did that for a while. Then you can see that it stays in normal range all day....and then like me...you will stop wearing it :)

I TOTALLY know how scary it can be to have fast HR

I had a bad time with it once with low potassium, like had to have adenosine shot and potassium IVs. A resting 180 is not fun!

But like you said, it has to be WAY up there and stay up there for it to be dangerous. I would do my best to ignore it :smitten:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey miss fortitude,

Since all your tests and monitor was normal, don't you think that maybe it is just you "noticing" your own heartbeat?

Like most of the time you don't notice it, but then when you feel it even though it's normal, it just freaks you out because you can feel it?

I've had bad tachycardia both before and after benzos, and then after it settled down after acute, I would THInK it was fast or palpitating, and so I would check it....but it was normal. So I just said "oh ok, it's just that I feel it that's all, no need for alarm"

Once I took that mindset, then if I felt it, there was no fear, and then eventually, gone

If it were me, I probably wouldn't even get another monitor. Your first was already good!!! I would just wear the fitbit watch that tracks your heart rate, I did that for a while. Then you can see that it stays in normal range all day....and then like me...you will stop wearing it :)

I TOTALLY know how scary it can be to have fast HR

I had a bad time with it once with low potassium, like had to have adenosine shot and potassium IVs. A resting 180 is not fun!

But like you said, it has to be WAY up there and stay up there for it to be dangerous. I would do my best to ignore it :smitten:

 

Thanks for your reply Southernbelle.

 

I'm trying to ignore. Distraction seems to help more than not distracting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ive experienced much of the same thing, and over time I believe a lot of it could be connected to the vagus nerve or stomach. ive had countless 'twitches' or little hiccoughs of sorts in my chest that I wasnt entirely certain if they were palpitations or just more of some kind of nerve response. I too have been checked and some episodes I thought were cardiac left no trace or evidence of that. ive also had these periods of heavy 'activity' wax and wane with seemingly no pattern.

 

the vagus nerve and our stomachs can wreak all kinds of havoc all throughout our abdominal area and chest. if youre otherwise healthy, and your cardiologist has checked you out, I hope in those scary times you can rest assured youre NOT going to fall over, had it been a serious cardiac event youd long be dealing with that, i sincerely believe much of this is nerves and the vagus response that can trigger a lot of this stuff right in the area that surrounds the heart. Ive had probably thousands of 'events' now from small barely detectable little twitch feelings to bigger events that likely were palpitations or big pvcs, a handful that were massive feeling and scared the living hell out of me, yet every cardiologist visit *knock on wood* the guy said my heart itself is 100% healthy and attributed it to nerves/anxiety/etc.

 

it all can be so terribly frightening but I hope you can find comfort in that gods forbid if something was mechanically seriously wrong I think it would have long been diagnosed and youd be in treatment for that. Im no dr but i really think youre the victim of a nervous system gone a bit bonkers over this awful benzo ordeal. id say of course stay on top of your health but id also wager your heart itself is FINE - our nerves are just in super excitable mode.

 

 

  • Love 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ive experienced much of the same thing, and over time I believe a lot of it could be connected to the vagus nerve or stomach. ive had countless 'twitches' or little hiccoughs of sorts in my chest that I wasnt entirely certain if they were palpitations or just more of some kind of nerve response. I too have been checked and some episodes I thought were cardiac left no trace or evidence of that. ive also had these periods of heavy 'activity' wax and wane with seemingly no pattern.

 

the vagus nerve and our stomachs can wreak all kinds of havoc all throughout our abdominal area and chest. if youre otherwise healthy, and your cardiologist has checked you out, I hope in those scary times you can rest assured youre NOT going to fall over, had it been a serious cardiac event youd long be dealing with that, i sincerely believe much of this is nerves and the vagus response that can trigger a lot of this stuff right in the area that surrounds the heart. Ive had probably thousands of 'events' now from small barely detectable little twitch feelings to bigger events that likely were palpitations or big pvcs, a handful that were massive feeling and scared the living hell out of me, yet every cardiologist visit *knock on wood* the guy said my heart itself is 100% healthy and attributed it to nerves/anxiety/etc.

 

it all can be so terribly frightening but I hope you can find comfort in that gods forbid if something was mechanically seriously wrong I think it would have long been diagnosed and youd be in treatment for that. Im no dr but i really think youre the victim of a nervous system gone a bit bonkers over this awful benzo ordeal. id say of course stay on top of your health but id also wager your heart itself is FINE - our nerves are just in super excitable mode.

 

Thanks Aragorn for your reply.

 

I have had ZERO palpitations/"heart sensations" the last 2 days. In fact I've had zero withdrawal symptoms at all the last two days and I feel completely healed. I have been having some spans of "feeling healed" days that seem to be occurring more and more.

 

Even with that being said, I had some blood work done and I see a cardiologist in a week. I'm going to go ahead and get the 30 day Holter Monitor so I can have peace of mind. Peace of mind is priceless in withdrawal. I don't want to be "stuck" again wondering and worrying if the heart palpitations return.

 

Sending everyone wishes for continued healing and recovery.

 

-Fortitude

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If it's of reassurance I think you will definitely be fine.  I have about 30 heart palpitations per day.  Sometimes they are the little fluttery ones and sometimes it feels like my heart is jumping out of my chest and the plumbing is totally backed up.  It's like a blubbery, pumping feeling.  I've gone to the ER twice and had cardiology follow ups.  They preformed testing.  There's no issue with my heart however its just withdrawal symptoms.  It gets better over time though its not a straight line.  These don't bother me at this point because I've experienced them too many times to be concerned.  But I have a friend who experienced the small fluttery feelings and he said it freaked him out too.  I'm fairly sure that my heart is fine and that after this is done I won't keep having heart palpitations.  So I have to believe the same is true for you as well.  There's no root cause of the symptoms aside from the PAWS.  So once that's over you probably aren't going to keep experiencing them.  I'll definitely be doing 30 minutes of cardio every day after I'm done with this though.   
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm going to be honest, I did not read your post, I just looked over it to see if I could find the problem with Palpitations. So what is the problem with Palpitations?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...