Pounding heart

[Paleowoman]

My heart is constantly pounding these last few days. How do I know if that is simply due to anxiety or if it is to do with my BAV stenosis ? On echo two weeks ago my ejection fraction was 79% and my heart muscle very looked good, no hypertrophy - the valve area size is only 0.9, but I'm a thin woman. I'm due to have surgery at the beginning of January. How do I know if the pounding isn't due to the force my heart has to pump with to get the blood through the stenotic opening ? I don't have any pain or breathlessness or any other symptoms. But this pounding is making me feel very anxious - also blood pressure is slightly up, still within normal limits but around 120/80 which is higher than I usually have.

 

[neil]

best thing to do is ring your gp and go and have a chat with him, mine was brill and was a calming influence on me,

 

[knotguilty]

When I heard the news that I had to have surgery, all of a sudden I had all kinds of things going on. Especially my heart pounding. I would bet it is just your nerves. I would try to relax and be busy doing something to get your mind off it. You'll be ok Paleogirl.

 

[Agian]

Sounds like anxiety. But even if it is your heart, it'll be fixed soon. You do worry a lot, but that's ok. I'm the same.

 

[Paleowoman]

Thanks everyone. I'm seeing my GP next Wednesday....I'm seeing loads of nice doctors...can't believe how nice they are (except the surgeon !).

Interesting that you had a pounding heart too, knotguilty. It seems like anxiety is the logical explanation (as Spock or Data would say) - I will try and do something, I wish I could do my weight lifting, I feel like I have so much energy and I can't use it. I will go for a long walk this afternoon.

 

[big_L]

Mine was particularly noticeable when I lay on my left side. So annoying that I quit trying to go to sleep on that side.

 

[Paleowoman]

Mine was particularly noticeable when I lay on my left side. So annoying that I quit trying to go to sleep on that side.

Oh yes - I avoid sleeping on my left. But I can feel it all time time, like right now while I'm typing.....

 

[maisiejane]

Oh yes - I avoid sleeping on my left. But I can feel it all time time, like right now while I'm typing.....

Hi Anne,
stress does some weird and wonderful things to our bodies as does the regurgitation, I some times think that I have cracked it, that I know each and every symptom then Pop, he comes another I didn't know about and then the pounding heart starts, I also get weird head and neck pains, funny its my right side that I cant sleep on coz that starts the palpitations, I seem to have a period of time when I am completely symptom free then other times when I get a variety. Don't you just love it eh? Your surgery is just around the corner and it isn't surprising that you are feeling a little stressed, poor you, you have been co-ordinating all of your medics, having to stroke the ego's of the demi gods (surgeon) as well as trying to hold it together at home, come on Super woman take a break! get that hubby to give you a bit of pampering, get your self out for that walk and try to relax. (Wish I would take my own advice) lol. Deb x

 

[clay_from_nj]

Funny you bring that up, Anne. That is one of my pre-surgery symptoms that I have just about forgotten about. I used to have a very hard time getting to sleep at night due to the pounding in my ears whenever I lay down. I would have to sit very quietly or just read in bed to let it "calm down" before I could get to sleep.

 

[Paleowoman]

Hi Deb - yes I'm getting head problems too and they are most weird - I'm getting those noises in my ears like you get before you're going faint EXCEPT that they're there ALL the time and just the same, whether I stand up or do some work, just done a load of housework, or whether I lie down or put my head lower than my heart, the noise is the same ALL the time. Along with the pounding heart ALL the time, whether I'm relaxing on the sofa or tearing around doing work. When I looked up symptoms of anxiety, for example here: http://www.livingwithanxiety.com/anxiety-physical-symptoms.htm those symptoms are there. I don't feel weak or sick and my blood pressure is slightly higher than normal so another thing that tells me that I'm not experiencing the beginnings of fainting since that would give me low blood pressure.....wouldn't it ?

I don't know how to stop this. I took some lorazepam, just a tiny dose 1/2 mg, the other day and I got side effects from that so I don't want to take it anymore...besides some of the side effects of lorazepam are heart palpitations and tinnitus !!!

Isn't that strange you get the palpitations on your right side - is your heart on the 'wrong' side ;-)

 

[maisiejane]

Hi Deb - yes I'm getting head problems too and they are most weird - I'm getting those noises in my ears like you get before you're going faint EXCEPT that they're there ALL the time and just the same, whether I stand up or do some work, just done a load of housework, or whether I lie down or put my head lower than my heart, the noise is the same ALL the time. Along with the pounding heart ALL the time, whether I'm relaxing on the sofa or tearing around doing work. When I looked up symptoms of anxiety, for example here: http://www.livingwithanxiety.com/anxiety-physical-symptoms.htm those symptoms are there. I don't feel weak or sick and my blood pressure is slightly higher than normal so another thing that tells me that I'm not experiencing the beginnings of fainting since that would give me low blood pressure.....wouldn't it ?

I don't know how to stop this. I took some lorazepam, just a tiny dose 1/2 mg, the other day and I got side effects from that so I don't want to take it anymore...besides some of the side effects of lorazepam are heart palpitations and tinnitus !!!

Isn't that strange you get the palpitations on your right side - is your heart on the 'wrong' side ;-)

Anne,
Ha ha ha everything about me is wrong!!!!!
Good to know others get the strange head thing, what with the thudding heart, tinnitus, constant surreal feeling, I am a walking wreck!, part of me will welcome this surgery, at times I get a tiny bit excited followed immediately by a massive whoosh of fear. I always have more symptoms if I have had a busy week or am burning the candle at both ends, is my body's way of slowing me down and telling me to look after myself a little better. The GP's always tend to deal with the logical side to your symptoms and have a tendency to blame a lot on virus's.
I am not good with medication either and have side effects on anything other than ibroprofen or paracetomol. Let me know what your GP says. Deb x

 

[Paleowoman]

Good to know others get the strange head thing, what with the thudding heart, tinnitus, constant surreal feeling, I am a walking wreck!, part of me will welcome this surgery, at times I get a tiny bit excited followed immediately by a massive whoosh of fear.

Oh gosh - just the same as me ! Well that's reassuring that maybe what's happening with us is 'normal' for people in this situation ? I keep thinking how the surgery will be fine and actually interesting - ha, as long as I don't get intraoperative awareness - and then I get that whoosh of fear which I hate. I think about the op all the time. To be honest I think one big thing with me is that I don't like being forced unconscious - it will be total loss of control over myself and my situation, and handing myself over to a group of people who I have to trust with my life, which I obviously can't do - trust that is.

But I've got ready a little pile of things I'll need to take to hospital so it's all organised. And yesterday I bought some pretty things from WhiteStuff to wear when I get up post operatively, including some slippers as I never wear them at home so didn't own a pair till yesterday ! I'm trying to see positives, no matter how small and insignificant they are.

I'll let you know what the GP says !
Anne x

 

[scott.eitman]

In 2008, my cardio told be I needed surgery. I was certain I did not so he gave me 6 months to wait and come back. That 6 months sucked mentally. Every little thing made me concerned. However, I rode my bicycle a few thousand miles. I came back a 6 months and proved in a stress echo that surgery was not needed. I went back to being less anxious.

It is amazing how suggestions can change how we perceive things that we did not notice prior.

Stay well
Scott

 

[dissident]

I can feel my heart pounding all the time... sometimes it's worse than others such if I try to lift heavy weights or eat a big meal, but it's always there.. I can feel it laying down, I can feel it walking if I concentrate. I have a bicuspid valve with moderate regurgitation, no stenosis, if that helps, and if I exercise when I hit about 150 bpm I can feel it. Bounding pulse is just a symptom of aortic regurgitation. I've been able to feel my heart beating my entire life, indicating some level of regurgitation beyond 'normal' ... but it's gotten steadily more pronounced.

 

[mbeard]

I have the same thing, dissident, pounding heart all the time. I'm going to my cardiologist on Friday and discuss this. It is worrying me. We are supposed to be watching my enlarged aorta every 6 months, with ct scan and echo. Just discovered the bicuspid valve and enlarged aorta in August 2013.

 

[bithead3]

Not sure if I have the same thing going on or not. I am 2 months post-op (aorta root graft and David BAV reimplantation). When I sit still there are no issues, but if I take a deep breath I feel large pounding starting.....kind of like a part of the heart is touching bone or something and creating a huge inner resonance of some kind. It's kind of weird. If I let the breath out then things go back to normal. Normal breathing doesn't make it happen, just really deep breathing.

CJ

 

[clay_from_nj]

Not sure if I have the same thing going on or not. I am 2 months post-op (aorta root graft and David BAV reimplantation). When I sit still there are no issues, but if I take a deep breath I feel large pounding starting.....kind of like a part of the heart is touching bone or something and creating a huge inner resonance of some kind. It's kind of weird. If I let the breath out then things go back to normal. Normal breathing doesn't make it happen, just really deep breathing.

I had exactly the same thing. From what I could gather from talking to doctors and reading online, taking a deep breath in expands your heart and lets it pump even harder and presses it tighter against the other stuff in your chest. With the new repair, your heart is much more efficient and the extra work it was doing just to get the blood around is now a little too much. Also, with a full sternotomy OHS, your pericardium is cut open and they don't close it back up, so that you are missing what muffling effect it may have until it heals up. My pounding gradually went away and now, 14 months after surgery, I can run the equivalent of a 5k and still not get it.

 

[Paleowoman]

I saw my GP today to give him letters from two of my consultants and so he knows the date of my OHS and to discuss my symptoms of pounding heart and noises in ears which I'm getting all the time. He was very good and said he was satisfied that my symptoms are to do with anxiety - he said it's a fight or flight instinct and as such it's very difficult to over-ride, especially in the situation I'm in with impending heart surgery and with what the surgeon said about me going into left ventricular failure or heart stopping ! I said that lorazepam works against the anxiety but the next day side effects are unacceptable, especially as they can include pounding heart and tinnitus. We discussed other benzodiazepines but none of them work on me (pity the lorazepam has those side effects), so he suggested a beta blocker such as Propanolol but was reluctant to give me a cardiac medication at this time. I said I'd ask the cardiologist about Propanolol next week when I see him for the results of my CT angiogram.

My heart pounding sound is much louder when I breath out - the echo technician asked me to breathe out to get better pictures and I could hear the slurping/beating noise louder when I had breathed out rather than in - I supposed that is because when I breathe out my chest is not expanded so my heart is sitting right up against the sternum. I know my heart is snuck right behind my sternum, practically touching it, because I've seen it on CT scan - I have a depressed sternum so I suppose that's why. Goodness knows how loud it will be after surgery if it's already too loud now.