Hi guys,
This is hard to type but i dont know who to talk to.
I've been suffering from tachycardia and precordial catch since i was 17.
My first episode was when i was 17, at work, when out of nowhere my heart rate shot up to about 200bpm. at the time this put me on my knees gasping for breath and left me extremely frightened.
My employer phoned an ambulance and i was taking to A&E and monitered on an ECG. over 2 hours, all test were normal.
When i was discharged i was made to feel like i was bending the truth or fabricating some sort of lie. Before this day I had never even given my heart a second thought, I was young, fit and oblivious to heart related issues.
After i was discharged and ensured by the specialist cardiac doctor that my heart was fine i went about my ways, but i was changed. I knew what happened to me wasn't normal.
11 years later and i still experience these episodes of rapid heart rate. They happen at completely random times. At work, on the sofa at home ect. when it hits me, it takes over my whole body. My breath is hard to draw and each inhale doesnt seem to quench my bodies thirst for oxygen.
the longest one ive had was about 3 minutes, at work, when i was forced to lay down on the floor and concentrate on my breathing.
i am a normal, 28yr old male. I eat a standard diet and my exercise is above average.
I dont go to the gym. I am a carpenter in the building trade and do alot of manual lifting for 8-10 hrs a day, 6 days a week. Up and down ladders, moving very heavy objects ect. (I have never experienced an episode when enduring strenuous physical activity, nor do i get out of breath)
My GP seems to dismiss everything I say becuase of my age and occupation.
I'm certain something is wrong, i feel my heartbeat, all ways. No matter what time of the day or what i'm doing, it's all ways there. It's so strong when i hold my phone out to show a picture to someone my phone pulses to my heart beat.
Now, i dont know if after the episode i had in my early teens ive become super tuned to my hearts function or not. It has gotten to the point where i go to bed and if my heart beat softens and i can't feel it, I feel like its stopping.
I'm not really sure what to do, I'm convined there is something wrong. Should i pay the money to have an extensive heart check, privately?
Look foward to your feedback
Lee.
P.S
Regarding the precordial catch syndrome:
This has been plauging me for several years. I have self diagnosed it as it is a very peculiar condidtion.
It is a sudden needle like pain in the chest, normally at the location of your heart, left side of the chest. The instant pain is excruciating and is one of the most common causes of false alarm heart attack reports behind muscle tear/pain.
This can be very terryfying to those who do not know what it is. The most common way to determine this condidtion is when the pain starts any breathing you do, will increase the pain 10 fold. Thus initiating panic with shallow breathing.
This condidtion is NOT heart related. it is escaped air from the lung that gets trapped between the ribs.
I have overcome this condition now after many years of self medication. When the trapped air hits, and you are overwhelmed with the needle like pain, scared to breath deeply becuase of the intense increase in pain, dont......
if you force a deep, fast and commited deep intake you will force the trapped air our, and sometime hear the pop that goes with it.
It is scary the first few times but within a split second as the pain intesifies, the pop happen and the pain dissapears instantly.
I thought i would share this imformation as after 4 years of worry, i found the condition via the internet and the solution by myself when doctors thought i was making it up.
note: the condition is compltely harmless and the pain you feel is trapped air on the ribs, a bit like trapped wind.