bigtrouble

Heart rate speeds up, feeling chest discomfort on left side(which is something I often feel), chest pain, feels like a heart attack coming up, dizzy, sweaty forehead, something on left side of chest shaking like a cellphone on vibration (possibly a muscle contracting and releasing). Sometimes, I feel all shaky, chest and arms but looking at my hands, they don't really shake.
Yes, It can happen that I feel suddenly cold. I look at my hands, which often look too red or yellowish. I do remember that a couple of times, I felt goosebumpy in the back of the head.

Time = They last about 30 min.

I think that no matter how many words I use, someone who hasn't experience it won't understand it. I remember reading a nurse say that she had met patients describing such symptoms, then she had dysautonomia herself and really understood what patients were going through.

I don't have exacerbations from the procedures themselves, the only thing that sometimes bothers me is if I'm having a day with a lot of adrenaline surges, it's hard for me to lay still for so long - I need to fidget.

However, keep in mind that the novocaine that dentists prefer to use contains epinephrine, which is pure adrenaline. In normal patients, that can cause tachycardia, shakiness, sweating, etc which can be particularly problematic for some POTS patients. I'm prone to adrenaline surges, high adrenaline levels, and have severe intolerance to any stimulants (caffeine, etc) so I get the novocaine without epi - this is usually carbocaine or mepivicaine. All dentists are able to accommodate this request, as the use of novocaine with epi is contraindicated in many other conditions, so they should have plenty on hand. It's just kind of a pain for them because they have to use more non-epi novocaine to get the same effect as the novocaine with epi.

I did mention to my dentist that I take a betablocker for tachycardia and palpitations. Novocaine is one of the first chemicals used in the old days. He says they use lidocaine now with epinephrine.

They can use mepivacaine (aka carbocaine, aka polocaine) instead. The effect seems to be 2 or 3 times shorter. The effect goes away in 2 hours. I had to go multiple times for different teeth and it was always 2 hours.

I don't find making the decision itself difficult. What I do find difficult these days is getting my thoughts organized so I can get to making the decision. I find my mind jumps around so much more these days. I can sit down to do paperwork and it becomes overwhelming to sort what to do first, not out of procrastination or uncertainty, but more because my mind is thinking about all of it and therefore not doing any of it. Does that make sense??

Yes. For example, I wake up in the morning and trying to get ready. I think I want a glass of water, I need to make a sandwich, I need to pack this and that into my bag, I need to brush my teeth, etc.

Putting things in sequence becomes difficult. I do a little bit of one thing, then another, then another.

I have been having difficulty with memory. Also, concentrating on a subject and properly expressing them has also been a problem.

This isn't a constant issue. It happens when symptoms come back and it isn't even every single time.

This is something that has effected my job (obviously).

I could also add that eating would cause heart pounding, usually 30 min after eating and it lasts 30 min to 1 hour.

Again, this is a symptom that doesn't happen consistently.

Are you actually getting an arrythmia? My heart rate use to be always 92-97 while doing nothing. I had some periods in 2014, where for 14 days, my heart would stop and then the next beat pounds hard. It also feels like a suction in the chest, below the sternum. It would happen about 10 times a minute, all day long.

I imagine this was PVC. I didn't go to the ER since I was sick of going, so I don't know if it was PVCs for sure. I was wondering if the bisoprolol was the cause back then.

It can happen still today on a very rare occasion (1 or 2 per day).

Are you comfortable with 49 bpm? I'm wondering if it causes dizziness.

From what I understand, veins have valves that act as a door ways so that blood flows in one direction but don't quote me on that. Perhaps I am thinking of bats, which is what makes it possible for them to hang upside down for hours.

Hello. Thank you for all the reponses. Sorry for the delay. I get home and I watch a little TV and I'm already extremely sleepy due to the clonazepam 0.5 mg.

For about 3.5 years, I have been having dysautonomia symptoms. Example: doing minor physical activity causes chest to pounding. It was **** and betablockers like metoprolol and bisoprolol helped. For the nausea, I took some over the counter drug.

Since Aug 14, 2015, I was hit by some major chest pain. It feels like veins getting squeezed. I have had it on occasion during the ~3.5 years. Since Aug 14, some days I was better and some days I was a total mess and then it became daily! It wasn't clear at first but it looked like work was triggering it. I do tech support over the phone. Later on, I started getting neck pain and tighness in head muscles. It looked like I lost a lot of weight (10 kg), perhaps in a few months. It started to look like anxiety/stress although I don't feel any anxiety.

The clonazepam made quite a difference. It was hard to tolerate those symptoms. I was doing it for 1 month (Aug 14 to Sept 17). I was ready to quit the job!
I wish I knew what was going on inside me exactly. Is it excess epinephrine? Do I have some kind of sensitivity? I hate the fact that they test blood and urine and find everything normal. Why don't they test for epinephrine?

How does it help you? What are the side effects?

Oddly enough, I developed this symptom the last 2 weeks.
I wake up 6 times in a night (I sleep 2 hours, I wake up, sleep 1 hour, wake up, .....).
It is easy for me to fall back to sleep. I don't know why I wake up.
I sleep about 8 h.
I feel EXTREMELY sleepy during the day.
I am beginning to suspect I developed anxiety recently. At work, I get chest tightness and pain (believe me, it is quite uncomfortable). I don't really feel much anxiety. I had neck tightness 2 times.

I am able to control the chest tightness a little.

Hi Katybug,

What is an ENT?

I have had twitched in my thumb but that is rare. It happened twice to my left thumb and once to the right.

My left arm has had muscle twitches a bunch of times.

A bunch of them in various locations on my abdomen.

Most twitches seem to be on the left side of my body.

It is definitely something that does not come from the heart. It is perhaps a muscle.

I went to the clinic because it has been 1 week that I have been feeling pretty bad.

It feels weird in the chest plus I get these micro vibrations at times, left side of chest. It use to last 1 sec or 10 sec or 1 min. Now it goes on for hours.

Does anyone else get these?

I get them in other parts of my body as well, but most are temporary. A long lasting one is on my left leg, the calf.

I was able to show that one to the doctor because the left leg one always happens (1 per second) and it is visible, you just need a flash light and illuminate with the right angle.

At the same time, I was feeling dizzy. Turns out my blood pressure has gone down (106 and 73 while it used to be 125 and 78).

So, I'm trying to get my blood pressure up.

The doctor also refered me to a neurologist. Oh boy, the rendez-vous is 3 months later!

72 days? I had insomnia for 1 week. Slept at 11 or 11:30 PM and woke up at 3 PM. Once awake, I could not go back to sleep.

It was difficult to work since I felt like a zombie.

I know someone from work who sleeps 5 hours per day. At work, he drinks energy drinks, coffee and coca-cola mixed, takes caffeine pills just to stay awake.

A non-drug solution would be to watch TV. There was a research that it makes people drowsy.

Or perhaps listen to music.

Other symptoms that I see as somewhat related are I have a harder time visually going from very light to dark, like it takes my eyes longer to adjust. My visual system is also very sensitive to changes so i don't wear glasses but if I look through a camera lense only for a few seconds my vision can feel off for 10-15 minutes afterwards, and I get after images a lot and flashes of lights can cause after images that stick around in my vision for a while.

Yes, I have this problem as well. I think it is called persistence of vision. If I look at blue light, it is like the blue cones are still firing when I look away. It can take 5 min to clear. Bright lights are a problem.

When I was much younger, I remember how fast my vision would restore itself. It was something like 5 to 10 sec.

Anyway, this is a symptom I can live with.

The dizziness, nausea, chest pain, chest vibrations, feeling weird is hard to deal with and it effect my work and quality of life. I would describe it as ****.

Luckily, I haven't had blurred vision issues. I wear glasses all the time.

I sometimes feel like there is a cell phone on vibration in my chest.
For a couple of weeks, I was getting strong contractions near my left armpit. It causes dizziness at times. One day, my left arm was getting contractions all day, One day, near my eye. One day, it was my thumb on left hand. Recently, I noticed my left calf muscle was getting micro-contractions and a lot. It has been on going for 1 month. The right calf is getting them but less.

It mostly seems to be on the left side of my body, but the right gets it as well.

Hello SeattlePotsy,

What do you mean by tremors and surges? Does you body, hands, feet shake?

What are the active ingredients in the Benadryl that you are taking?

I have also found that exercise helps with brain fog. Even walking outside for 10, 20, or 30 min helps. I don't think that cutting out gluten will help. That looks like a popular fad and a marketing ploy. It seems to have something to do with celiac disease and someone started to thing that it should apply to everyone.

How long does it usually last? Mostly, it lasts a few hours but it is very low pain. From a scale of 0 to 10, it would be 0.5. Then the pain comes back the next day.
I have had episodes where it was extreme (9.5), lasted for an entire day and kept coming back and lasted for a week and more.

I think the stronger pain version tend to last longer overall.

Like you, my blood tests are fine, chest X-ray doesn't show damage, echocardiogram is ok.
I have taken ibuprofen and aspirin. Perhaps they reduce the pain but I am not sure.
I take bisoprolol 1.5 mg per day which helps for the tachycardia and heart pounding, but doesn't help for chest pain, dizziness, brain fog, chest vibrations, weird chest feelings and a bunch of other symptoms.

"I do not take beta blockers so I always worry that my heart is working too hard but I feel like crap on them. "
==What do you feel? Is it because it lowers your blood pressure?

gjensen,

It's good that nitroglycerine helps. How was it determined that it is coronary spasms? What method was used to measure it?

bethanyh,

I figure that the pain is due to muscle tissue irritation, so I take 200 mg ibuprofen. I am not sure if it works.

I have also tried Vapor Rub. The burning sensation that the camphor causes helps mask the pain.

In Montreal.

It is a good idea to check adrenaline (epinephrine). I looked at the form they have and it isn't even on the list. It is one of those forms where the doctor puts check marks next to the items.

I had total cholesterol, cholesterol HDL, triglycerides, uric acid, ALT (GPT), creatine, Na, K, Cl, alkaline phosphatase, TSH, blood formula with difference.

You should try bisoprolol for the pounding heart.

That is an odd one. I get chest pains during the day and it can last for a few hours. It might even be back the next day.

I think it is due to the heart pounding and some vibrations I feel. It causes irritation and chest pain.

What do you do about it?

Hello SarahA33,

In reality, we should all have a family doctor but there is a huge shortage. That's someone who does follow ups and refers you to specialists. Some of them are retiring and no one replaces them.

I thought the heart rate went down for IST patients when they sleep. In some cases, it goes down to normal.

I know what you mean by pulsation in my neck. I use to see it in the mirror and also felt it. For me, it is complicated since I no longer get high heart rates. It usually hovers around 80 bpm. Instead, I get heart pounding plus the other symptoms like a lot of chest pain, vibrations (muscle spasms in chest?), strong nausea, and that #8. Today was another such nasty day from 10 AM to 12 PM.

Calgary is quite far.

How come you don't take a beta blocker? What is your dosage?

Have you been to a doctor apart from that cardiologist's visit?

The simple answer is no.

The way it works in Canada is that you have to go to a clinic. They have general doctors who then refer you to a specialist. That was difficult to get. After that, I got the echocardiogram since I talked about the heart pounding since that is a symptom of mitral valve prolapse. I would say that it is an important test. Not sure why there was so much resistance on their part.

Yes, during my searches on the Internet, I found out about Innapropriate Sinus Tachycardia and POTS. A lot of people were mentioning that the doctors think that they have anxiety, which is what I was getting as well. I said to one of the doctors that my heart rate goes up just by going DOWN the stairs. Then I have to relax a bit. Then I can go back up. Too bad there isn't a machine that let's one person connect to the brain of someone else and see what the person is sensing.