A long, fear stricken & tiring journey
Posted , 4 users are following.
Hi everyone, new to the forums here & i just wanted to share my story & hear any advice anyone has to give.
Monday - plot 70 finish fix
Tuesday - plot 77 fix
Wednesday - 69 final
This story is one that spans nearly 10 years of my life now & im still no further to a conclusion than I was 10 years ago.
It all started when I was around 17 when I developed symptoms of heart palpitations, shortness of breath & a heavy, full feeling in my chest.
The worse being originally a sensation of suffocation & not being able to feel as if my need for air was satisfied, even when resting & no physical exertion. All this was accompanied by regular feelings of a hard heartbeat in my chest & many chest flutters. Needless to say as a 17 year old boy this absolutely terrified me & I went on to spend the next 2 years in an absolute state. I would not leave the house, attending the doctors surgery multiple times a week, I was 100% convinced that something was badly wrong with my body.
This had a very adverse effect on my mental health also, I retreated inside myself and became a bit of a recluse. This didn’t help my case with the doctors I would visit. I would be told again & again & again that my problem was anxiety, to which i was 100% sure it wasn’t.
Eventually after many visits to the GP they finally began some investigations - I had all sorts, ECG’s, 24 hour ECG’s many physical examinations, and finally an echocardiogram. Which everything was 100% fine with.
After this it was decided that no further action would be taken & I would be left with the explanation that what I was experiencing were symptoms of anxiety.
So as hard as it was to accept, I went on in life & went from being jobless, at home all the time & decided to move to my fathers house & learn a trade in carpentry. Now nearly 7 years later, I have my own family, my own house & a good job. Rarely experience anxiety, although I have periods where I do get very anxious, but these are very intermittent over periods of months.
BUT - the symptoms still remain this far on.
This is something which baffles me as I am still sure something isn’t right with my body, except I can usually exercise relatively well & have a physical job where I’m exerting myself fairly regularly & have mostly no problems.
There seems to be no trigger for my symptoms, except perhaps after I eat a big meal. Other than that they come & go as they please, now the worst one being a sensation of a heavy heartbeat, and an awfully uncomfortable feeling of fullness & heaviness in my chest.
I don’t know where to go from here, I don’t feel like GPs take me seriously anymore, and I’m suffering on a daily basis, it makes my life 10x harder on a daily basis.
I don’t know if anyone has any comments or advice for me, anything would be appreciated.
Sorry for the long post & thanks for reading.
Joe
0 likes, 4 replies
joem1992
Posted
apologies for the odd bit at the top of the post, it was accidentally pasted.
AlexandriaGizmo joem1992
Posted
I think you have 2 choices, except the experts diagnosis or drive your self crazy self diagnosing yourself and of I'm assuming you haven't done a medical degree or that you are a qualified cardiologist.
Some of us are very aware of our heart rates including systolic beats that feel incredibly weird/scary but are perfectly normal, I was told that it's not a problem it's classed as normal.
I know loads who have the same symptoms and live with it for life, my partner has it quite bad but doesn't even notice it at all.
Make sure you keep exercising and keep well hydrated.
Marina_Dee joem1992
Posted
You admit you are an anxious person and have been for a long time so that is part of your nature and not easy to shake off. Its like when we get into a bad habit which we know we should stop but find difficult. You have gone through many tests and all have been fine so you know there is nothing wrong,and doing a physical job with no problems should enforce that feeling that all is OK.
Dont know where you are in the world but CBT ...cognitive behavioural therapy.... may help you. Can you ask your doctor to refer you?You need to talk this through with someone who is completely unbiased .
That feeling of palpitations after a big meal is quite common......do you use a lot of salt / or eat a lot of fast food/ or consume a lot of carbohydrates like sugar,bread,pasta or even like food with MSG in it. All of these can bring on that feeling. Try looking at your diet. If you do a physically demanding job you may be filling up on the wrong sort of foods.
josh72109 joem1992
Posted
The air hunger you described in the beginning sounds alot like a symptom from chronic toxic mold exposure. I'm not referring to allergies, but mold poisoning. Most doctors are not trained in Environmental Medicine and would not have a clue of where to start.
Many modern medical tests only pick up disease in it's end stages. When it comes to treatment, if they can't drug it or cut it out, then they're pretty much helpless. You are then referred to psychiatry. If you haven't learned by now, many doctors have huge egos. Most have the attitude "if i can't find anything wrong with you then it must all be in your head".
My encouragement to you is to try to find the cause, whether food intolerance, chemical exposure, toxic mold exposure ext...
I've had a similar journey and for me it was mold poisoning. There was mold in our houses attic. Many people thought I was a crazy hypochondriac. It took five years until we finally stumbled upon the diagnosis.