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POTS Heart attack symptoms?


vjester94

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For the past week I've felt like garbage. 

I've been sweating excessively, having chills, chest pain/pressure, shortness of breath, fatigue, and lightheadedness. I've had EKGs and bloodwork, which all come back normal. I'm not running a fever either.

 

Does anyone have symptoms like this that can last for days?

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Hi vjester, I have not had the same myriad of symptoms hat you mentioned, though I used to get really bad chest pressure/ tightness/ pain/ weight feeling/ discomfort that could last for days or weeks, the severity of which could be pretty extreme though all my heart tests would come back normal. I was finally able to find a medication that fixed it. Typically when it happened I would have less lightheadedness, and did not have the shortness of breath or chills and sweating you mentioned.

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Welcome, @vjester94!!

I tend to cycle through a similar set of symptoms each day.  Each day I take my temp and it's fine.  The fatigue hasn't been as bad since I corrected my vitamin D deficiency.  And I don't get much in the way of chest pain, but I used to get alarmingly-strong palpitations before I upped my salt intake.

I have gotten better at staying hydrated, salted and getting some physical activity in, and that has helped....for now.

I hope you will stay and check out the site.  I haven't been here long, but I've learned quite a bit.  And it helps to talk to people who understand what you're going through.  :)

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Hi vjester94, and welcome. :)

I have had episodes like you described in your post that last for days or a week, and have been bad enough to get them checked out at the doctor or Emergency Department.

You mentioned heart attack symptoms in your title. I wouldn't describe mine as heart attack symptoms. When I first started having episodes of chest pain that included pain in the heart area I did read about symptoms of heart attack and other conditions to get a better idea of when chest pain indicates something that needs medical attention.

I have chills sometimes but they don't consistently happen alongside episodes of chest pain.

When I've had EKGs (known as ECGs in some parts of the world) because I've gone to the doctor or Emergency Department with chest pains, I've been told that the EKG looked fine when what they really meant was that the EKG didn't show clear evidence of an acute heart condition.

For example, when I asked for a print-out my last EKG results that "looked fine" (not for chest pain on that occasion), the computer interpretation had labelled it "ABNORMAL ECG" and identified partial right bundle branch block and ST elevation. The computer interpretation had also been based on an age of 50 because my age had not been entered, even though they had my real age of 34 (as indicated by a stick-on label attached to the print-out with both my real age and my date of birth). The two things picked up by the computer interpretation also apply to a 34 year old and are not because of the default age of 50, but further things could have been missed because of criteria built into the computer interpretation system about what is considered to be within a normal range for a 50 year old as opposed to a 34 year old. In my research online into the topic I have come across computer interpretation systems for EKGs which use categories of 'under 35 years' and 'under 40 years' for some conditions, which cover my real age but not the default age of 50 years.

Doctors are generally taught that the two things picked up in my case are probably benign when not accompanied by symptoms, so many doctors routinely dismiss them as normal, and, as has happened to me on several occasions, sometimes don't even bother to mention them to the patient even if they are experiencing symptoms indicative of the heart not working efficiently (which could be due to something serious or something treatable if diagnosed). It might be worth getting a copy of EKG print-outs to look at yourself, if you don't already do that, to see if the computer interpretation has identified anything to look up online or to have a cardiologist look into.

Chest pain in people with Dysautonomia is not necessarily due to anything wrong with the heart. It can be (non-cardiac) muscle pain, excessive activity of the sympathetic nervous system, inflammation of connective tissue where the breast plate connects to the ribs, or something else.

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