Heart fluttering....

[puss_boots]

My daughter who is 41 has not been very well lately, just generally feeling tired but she is worried about a fluttering sensation around her heart, she says her heart seems to miss a beat then flutters as if to catch up with the irregular beat, she had an ECG last Friday and doc said her heart was fine. Today she says has been worse and is going back to the doc on Friday. Meanwhile has anyone any experience of this, perhaps Squad could throw some light if he is around.

[ladybird49]

Sorry to hear that puss , is she under any stress ? x

[sara3]

I've taken over from Sqad now, lol!!! (I'm not a doctor, nor medically trained btw!)

I'm the same(ish) age as your daughter and I have an ectopic heartbeat. it means that sometimes my heart races like crazy (thus thud thud) then stops briefly and restarts itself. apparently it's not a sign of anything sinister.

I'll see if I can find a link..

[boxtops]

Yes - I get this too, it feels as if the beat goes and sometimes it momentarily makes me catch my breath. I have had checks and ECG etc., and the GP could find nothing wrong. I find it gets worse if I am tired, or surprisingly if I have eaten too much.. odd but true. However I do find that thinking about it makes it more likely - almost as if I am watching out for it. I know a couple of other women who get these symptoms with no apparent reason, and although it's scary, it seems to be "just one of those things". Please tell her not to worry.

[sara3]

http://www.patient.co...ealth/Arrhythmias.htm

[puss_boots]

Hiya ladybird49, well she leads quite a stress full life, she is a solicitor and has 3 girls all of school age, but she is a toughy and usually just gets on with things, but she is definately not herself. We went to her house on Mothers day and she could hardly get off the sofa she was so tired.

[puss_boots]

Thanks for that link sara3.

[puss_boots]

Thanks also to boxtops for your answer.

[honky-tonk]

I have been having same problems for some years now. I went for a ECG and was told i had Etopic Heartbeats and cut out the caffine. In the end i got my GP to refer me to a Cardiologist as i couldnt cope with the flutterings. Cardiologist told me that my blood pressure was to high and had messed with the electrodes in the heart so with blood pressure tablets and flecanide to regulate my heart beat things got a lot better. Have been off the flecanide for a while, as i only had to take them for 2 years. Flutterings are back again so i had a ECG at my doctors, the reading wasnt very good at some time i may have had a heart attack so now off to see a Cardiologist next week. Best thing for your daughter to do is when she gets these fluttering sensations to go straight to A&E for a ECG.

[Eve]

Awww bless her!

I have a naturally fast heartbeat, possibly as I tend to have low blood pressure so someone said it has to beat faster to catch up so I get wierd sensations sometimes, especially when I'm stressed (comes with the job).

I know no-one could probably drink as much coffee as I do but a lot of caffine can cause problems, coke and such as well as coffee.

Could they do some kind of trace on her? When I saw a GP about mine a while back they offered me one, where you wear a monitor over a certain period rather than an ECG of the heart at one time.

They put a lot of mine down to stress and they were proba

[Eve]

oops... probably right.

[Androcles]

A couple of years ago, I had some quite bad attacks of this and spent two periods of two weeks in hospital on a heart monitor. The consultant finally diagnosed that I had had a viral infection which had attacked the heart, Myocarditis. see http://yourtotalhealt...eart-myocarditis.html It comes out of the blue.

I would be OK for a while and then my heart would go into spasms. It took me nearly a year to recover and still have some arrythmia.

She should go back to the doctor and get it checked out further. It probably is not this and most cases recover but there is the occasional one where it can get more serious, but mine started just like hers.

[puss_boots]

Thanks to you all for your answers to my post, all very poitive thanks, Glad in a way that her symptoms seem quite common, will post on here what the doc says on Friday.

[carlton23]

She may have to wear a heart monitor for 24hrs, which is what I had to do, and then I had to have a shock treatment to regulate it. Unfortunately that didn`t work so I ended up having an pacemaker planted in my shoulder which seems to have done the trick. That was in 2003.

[lotsafun]

hi ive experience the same sensations your daughter has and ive found cutting down on caffine did help (i used to go through about 14 cups of it a day) to two or three a day. also i was tested for aneamia which came out that i was so i changed my diet and started eating more leafy greens etc.

[Bbbananas]

This sounds quite normal to me - I've had a heart condition since my early teens (have just recently had it operated on & I'm 48). Fluttering is quite normal and ectopic beats (missed or 'extra' beats) are fairly common in a 'normal' heart. The ECG would have shown up anything worrying. They can be caused by a variety of things such as caffeine, stress & worry - and of course if your daughter is worrying about these, then it does become a bit of a vicious circle.
It does sound like ectopic beats & fluttering rather than any sort of tachycardia (rapid fast heartbeat - mine used to go up to 200+ beats per minute) so I really don't think there is anything to worry about - a MOT at the docs won't hurt, and he may send her to a cardiologist for reassurance.

[LoftyLottie]

Agree with Salla. My heart does this when I am tired and stressed. I did see a doctor about it years ago and there were no problems with my heart at all.

[Bbbananas]

As someone who's had a heart condition since I was 21 (Although I've recently been told it was congenital; I must have been born with it, although I wasn't aware of any symptoms til I was 12), and also in my job at a doctors surgery, I have always took a keen interest in heart conditions and have built up quite a Layman's knowledge (I don't profess to be an expert by any means).
Your daughter is more than likely stressed, tired and worried. She should see her GP for reassurance, but I think it will turn out to be all quite normal puss. x

[Clanad]

All very useful and informative directions, however, don't overlook the possibility of Hyperthyroidism... have a friend here in the U.S. that experienced precisely your symptoms. Took the Drs. quite a while to come up with the diagnosis. The testing included an EKG that suggested he had experienced a heart attack! However, further testing discounted that possibility. The friend went, in the interim, to another Dr. for a simple insurance physical and that Dr. found (rather quickly through routine exam) an over-large thyroid. An aha! moment ensued and testing confirmed hyperthyroidism. As soon as treatment started, all heart related (an tired feelings) symptoms went away. That was nearly 10 years ago... Best of luck!

[DEN53]

Puss - I agree with Clanad - get a blood test for thyroid function - over active thyroid can cause heart fluttering - I talk from experience.

Also it can be acid reflux - even though I have had my thyroid removed I do still get a fluttering sensation, which I now realise is acid relux.

[puss_boots]

Thanks again for all your responses, my daughter has read them all. She is having blood tests now, so we shall see what these tell her.