The doctor refused to help ..aibu here?

[sallybally335]

I've been having a irregular heartbeat since may.
I was getting around 50 extra heartbeats a day (PVCs) a day
Doctor sent me to cardiologist and they did a monitor (this only picked up 3 that day ) and heart scan which was normal.
Since then I'm now getting thousands a day and back and rib pain with them.
I went to doctors today and she said she wouldn't refer me back to cardio as I was only there July.
Aibu to complain to practice?

You’ve posted before haven’t you?
Have you taken the setraline yet? Sought other help for your excessive health anxiety. Because you’ve been checked by a cardiologist already. They’ve said this is anxiety.

No I didn't, fenellas because no one else told her she wasn't being normal and was attention seeking. No wonder there's still a stigma around MH illnesses with responses like yours. People can be attention seekers and have an illness, like you say. The two aren't mutually exclusive, but one of the things about anxiety is that the sufferer will sometimes need ALOT of reassurance whilst at the same time they'll be trying to get the 'real' diagnosis because their bodies are telling them there is something else drastically wrong.

It is awful isn't it @SallyBally335.

The reason the one thing doesn't change is that the PVCs are there but they are normal and not a bad thing. Everything else is anxiety.

I'd get one symptom, say globus, get it checked out, get reassured, understand it, work on my anxiety and then behold my body would trick me and next time I was anxious I'd do something else! And that had to be a real disease, not anxiety!

Yes, twitching your eyelids is another anxiety thing. There are so many, so so many. Adrenaline acts on so many bits of your body as does your vagus nerve so there are loads of different physical anxiety symptoms you can have and they are real powerful symptoms. They aren't 'in your head' or 'made up'.

The Sanjay Gupta video is brilliant, I don't think most doctors are good at, or have time to explain this sort of thing well.

OP why is it harder to believe you have anxiety than something that many experts are unable to diagnose??

You say it's just palpitations, but then list many other issues including trouble swallowing, tight throat, tight ribs and back, insomnia etc. All symptoms of extreme anxiety.

I realise that you are extremely resistant to accept that after overcoming agoraphobia you may have mh issues again. But your symptoms started when you went to leave home, then 10 minutes before, then sooner. Can't you see a link to agoraphobia?

You can't wish anxiety away. You can't deny it into a physical illness. Acceptance is the first step. Taking your medication is the next.

Repeatedly hoping that posting on mn will suddenly come up with a diagnosis that is something you are comfortable isn't going to work. You are either getting the majority of posters agreeing with the experts that it's anxiety and sharing their similar symptoms which you refuse to accept, or armchair diagnosis of others illnesses which you will cling to. Please go back to your gp, because you need more support to face your mh issues.

I think it's because in my head I'm convinced it's something life threatening and the fact all of it could be anxiety ...makes me think I'm giving my sense a false sense of security

then I started thinking imagine if they came all the time..then they started.

You're describing anxiety. Textbook anxiety.

Over and over again in a variety of ways you are describing anxiety in action.

makes me think I'm giving my sense a false sense of security

Totally understandable. But that's also anxiety talking, and you need to be firm with it and correct it.

Op have you heard of this guy-

www.youtube.com/channel/UCh6HDKcLwJioBBRSprqfezA

Try some of his videos. He got me through some very dark times with my own health anxiety. Definitely worth a go!

That was my problem. For months I couldn't accept it was anxiety. Once I did, I began to get better. It's a vicious circle of thinking you are so unwell, getting anxious about your symptoms and then making yourself iller. For me, propranolol does help, but just recognising anxiety was 90% of my recovery. Best of luck.

I have this, it feels like I’m going to die but I’m not. I’ve been checked lots of times. I switched back to slow release propanolol and it’s life changing!

Sally I am a psychiatric nurse, read my earlier posts again and perhaps follow my advice. I don’t think posters are being that helpful suggesting it could be various conditions, this is all feeding into Sally’s current anxieties. And for the earlier poster who said

“It's dreadful that MH services aren't better as these are the services you need.”

The first step is following the advice of your GP- who has physically met and assessed op!

It's weird how many physical symptoms you can get from anxiety. My friend has health anxiety and its awful fot her. At one point she was convinced she had bowel cancer, instantly she got loads of stomach symptoms consistent with bowel cancer.

When she thought she had a brain tumour she had headaches, strange smells etc. Very real physical symptoms.

I am 100% sure you have anxiety!
You don’t have anything wrong with your heart at all but you won’t believe me because that’s what health anxiety does, it makes you believe you are very ill and if it wasn’t your heart it would be something else.

The only way you will get any relief from how you are feeling right now is to see a therapist that specialises in anxiety disorders.

Sally like I said to you, it’s actually going to be a better outcome for you if it is anxiety health wise. Acknowledging the anxiety helps you take control of your own life. I posted to you earlier, I was anxious. I have come home and injected and had dinner and feel better but I am ready to accept that my anxiety is worse because I am all alone and being alone is scary. I feel better when I am able to distract myself but it doesn’t last long as it’s not addressing the real issues. You need to really look into what triggers your worst fears and how to manage them. Have you ever spoken to anyone about this and has counselling?

I be also honest the best place for me to ever and ONLY get medical advice is NHS choices. If I feel anxious I will read over the symptoms and ‘what to do’ and then either I have to accept it’s not ‘acute’ therefore I am alive and do not need urgent medical help, or I should ask my GP or it’s anxiety. But I am accepting of my anxiety and know it’s chasing me, so it’s easier to manage. You need to get out of fight or flight mode you are in and the medication can help you with that

Op I have seen these issues in both clients at work at in my own family. I've read all your posts and I can I can feel the panic building as you add in more and more symptoms. You have had all the medical tests you need to discount cardiac / thyroid etc issues. You have severe health anxiety. Please, take the sertraline, refer yourself to IAPT and get some CBT. I know you're afraid of going to back to when you were agoraphobic, but you know how disabling anxiety can be. Until you start to deal with it, it will not get better.
And dear god, do not buy a Kardia! I despair at the suggestions of some people on this thread.
Good luck.

Op you are having palpitations , palpitations aren’t pvcs they can only be confirmed by an ECG .

Don't PVC only show up on an cardiac monitor or an ecg, how can you get an accurate ecg from a fingertip reading on a Kardia.

I’m guessing that it was you who posted before.
You need to go back to the GP and discuss your extreme anxiety. Because that’s what this is.

Some practical things you can do which helped me: hold your nose and keep your mouthr closed and blow out, something to do with the vagus nerve. Also bearing down as if you need to pass a bowel movement.
Cutting out alcohol and caffeine.

@ichifanny and @cheesywotnits PVCs are palpable. PVC stands for premature ventricular contraction...the contraction causes the palpitation.

Could you affordto see a cardiologist privately?

I think if you're having thousands per day they've pretty much proven to not be particularly dangerous...

OP

It's very ,very definitely anxiety.

you need to stop being upset/ashamed that you suffer with this, its like any mental health condition and as real medically as anything else.

I suffer with it too.. I had the same problem with the palpitations last Christmas, bad enough that I took myself to A&E after it going on all day, and they were lucky enough to catch it on the monitor while they were doing a trace on me.

By the time I got to the cardio team and a 24hr monitor it had all but stopped, they put it down to anxiety.

I didnt want to believe them as I've had anxiety for over 18 years, I KNOW my symptoms, but at the time I was under SO much stress with a marriage breakdown, my body decided to throw in the palpitations, chest pains and breathlessness for good measure.

Please try the sertraline, I used to take it and it DOES help, immensely.

Lulu what would the benefit of that be? She's had all the required tests. No issues were found.

Hardly anyone has heard of the vagus nerve - the cardiac specialist my friend was seeing certainly hadn't;

Oh of course a doctor would have heard of the vagus nerve. Your friend is either telling porkies or has misunderstood.