Ectopic Beats with a Pinch
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Hi,
A year and a half ago, I was overdoing it at the gym, when it happened. My heart rhythm felt like ectopic, normal, normal, ectopic, normal, normal, ectopic. I went to A&E, and they sent me home as they saw nothing wrong. Then every time I exercised, for example a 30 minute football game, it would kick in. For the next year, I had blood tests, ECG, 24-hour monitor, echocardiogram, and 48-hour monitor.
Echocardiogram showed a healthy heart, but 24-hour monitor showed nothing as I couldn't push it to happen. Fortunately I felt the ectopic beats on the 48-hour monitor, and a cardiologist told me it's almost certainly from my anxiety (which I always suffered from but controlled, but had gotten worse from work, and then hit overdrive when the first ectopic beats begun). They could not find anything wrong with my heart.
They will not occur for days, sometimes weeks, then one day I'll have it once or twice. Then another days/weeks break. Then rarely, I will get it for a whole day or two. This occurs every 3 months or so, and has happened three times. I am currently on day 2 now of my latest horrid bout. Happening every 5/10 minutes.
I have been told to try and live with it, and was given propranolol, 40mg 3x a day. It worked a treat, but I decided, after talking to GP, that I wanted to deal with it without drugs. I also spoke to a cardiologist who suggested it would be better if I did, so was weaned off.
But what gets me the most is the pinching sensation I get at the top of my chest/bottom of my throat, half a second before it happens. I wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this, especially the pinching feeling as I can find no one who relates to it, and my GP has no idea what I'm talking about for that specific sensation. I wouldn't call it particularly painful, but it's certainly uncomfortable, and frightening.
My partner was lying on top of me when it happened once, and she said she felt a shooting sensation from the bottom of my breast bone, all the way to the top, where I get that pinching feeling.
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