Palpatations

[racingheart77]

Anyone else get bad palpatations. It usually happens when I'm running. Sometimes it's a fluttering feeling. Sometimes it's like a really hard thump in my chest. Sometimes it feels like i can't breath. But they only last for like a second. I hear it's nothing to really worry about but can anyone tell me how to stop them?

[Mistri_The_Squirrel]

I am on a med that can cause hyponatremia (low sodium) and have found that I don't have strong palpitations very often now that I supplement with salt and electrolyte drinks.

I don't know if that's what you need, but those things have helped me...so I just thought I'd throw it out there.

[Pistol]

Palpitations are usually harmless but very scary. I had them extremely bad in the beginning before I was on proper meds. Now I take a combination of meds which helped greatly. Especially beta blockers helped them, some more and some less. Which meds are you on?

[RecipeForDisaster]

Yes this is one of my worst symptoms. Metoprolol dulls it somewhat, but I also have a lot of annoying PVCs that get worse if i take more than 25mg. My usual palpitations are continuous and very annoying when trying to sleep. 

[Emily22]

Vagal manoeuvres eg Valsalva technique etc can really help. Also ice on back of the neck, drinking iced water, splashing cold water on face. 

[Peter Charlton]

Here are mine from last night.

Eating is making me feel so desperately ill, I have given up breakfast as it ruins my day,  take me hours after eating for my heart to calm down enough so I can sleep. feels like little explosions going off in me and my heart actually hurts.

[Bluebonnet08]

Peter- where did you buy that ECG waveform?  How do you interpret it?

 

[Peter Charlton]

20 hours ago, Bluebonnet08 said:

Peter- where did you buy that ECG waveform?  How do you interpret it?

 

I had these strange feelings for a year before somebody said I really should see a doctor as it might be my heart. So I did, two years later the NHS still hadn't found anything as the feelings never co-incided with their 24 hour holter monitor, then I read you can buy your own ECG so I did, that way I could record what was happening as I got the symptoms. Turned out I had Ventricular Tachycardia so maybe the best £150 I ever spent.

I bought it from Amazon, the model is called a "Prince 180B". Its interpretations are rubbish, but the actual graph absolutely matches the ECG graphs in the ambulance rides and my cardiologist has said these graphs are show him are incredibly useful.

Printing them off is a little convoluted, I have to download from the machine to my computer, the programme is supplied, but to print, I have to chose "save as an XPS document" when it says to chose printer, I then have to use an free online programme to convert to JPEG, then I can print that off.

As for interpretation, there are plenty of instructions on the net to show you what an normal ECG should look like, then you could search for say  "Ectopic beat ECG" in images, and see what one matches yours. For instance, I just searched PVCs ectopic beats on images, and see a match for my previous image, though I get as many PVCs as normal heartbeats, you will see a normal heart beat on the first image I just found on the net, until the sixth beat which is a PVC, though of course its your doctor who will give you a definitive diagnosis. 

The other picture called My VTwas what my heart beat looked like when I was having Ventricular Tachycardia.