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?

50 extra heartbeat a day! How would you know? A healthy pulse rate of 60bpm gives 86,400 per day. Not only that ones heart rate varies widely due to a very wide range of factors. To suggest that 50 extra beats, even if you could count them, is significant is nonsense. It sounds more likely that you are getting a few ectopic beats which are very common even in healthy people. Your doctor does not seem overly concerned and I suspect he’s seen many cases like yours.

I wish people would stop all the osmo doctoring, OP has sought medical help, from both her GP and specialists, and have said its anxiety!. You are not helping the OP at all by saying she needs tests for XYZ.

Tbh OP your not he,ping yourself either, and no one can say they have had 12 PCV's a day, its silly to thing you can.

Please seek help to deal with your anxiety and stop wasting NHS funds for a non heart conditions.

Yes its blunt, but sometimes it just has to be!

Im almost positive you've posted this before also

It sounds like anxiety which can definitely effect your sleep. I know from experience. You’ve had some really good advice on here. You need to take it and stop working yourself up. Anti depressants will help I’m sure.

Aren't you the Op also whose sister shouted at you because you were taking panic attacks and have moved in with family until you get better?

This doctor has lots of very reassuring videos about ectopic beats/ palpitations. This one is a good start

Read up to you mentioning your breathing, so apologies if I’m duplicating what someone else has said!

Breathing too deeply will exacerbate these symptoms, look up buteyko breathing (YouTube has some good videos) and practice as often as you can.

I had the exact same symptoms as you, plus others (numbness, arm pain and tingling etc), sertraline has helped massively.

I know exactly how you’re feeling right now, I went to the GP's so many times and was furious as I felt they were fobbing me off and missing something serious.
It took a friend frog-marching me to the GP for me to agree to sertraline, and I wish I’d started it years ago!
I also had propranolol which didn’t help. Try sertraline.

I also read through a massive thread on an anxiety forum (nopanic) about heartbeats, and was reassured by how many had my exact symptoms.

If you've been checked by a cardiologist, and had the 3 day monitor, I think it's safe for you to believe that any palpitations you're experiencing are within normal limits and are completely benign - nothing to be concerned about.

My cardiologist had absolutely no concerns about the large number of PVCs I was experiencing all day and night - and these were confirmed on the 3 day monitor I had to wear to check the frequency of another condition I have (paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia), which can be triggered by PVCs. My cardiologist, GP and A and E doctors all advise me to try to remain calm when it starts, as being anxious about it will exacerbate the symptoms.

I would strongly advise that you take your prescribed medication, it certainly can't do you any harm and can only help you. Reducing your caffeine intake can also help to reduce these normal palpitations that everyone gets. Distract yourself by keeping your mind occupied, so that you don't concentrate on your heartbeat.

I don't think I'd want to be treated by a cardiac specialist who hadn't heard of the vagus nerve. Or by any doctor who hadn't. It's a cranial nerve. Knowledge of the cranial nerves is pretty essential when you're a medic.

I don't think I'd want to be treated by a cardiac specialist who hadn't heard of the vagus nerve. Or by any doctor who hadn't. It's a cranial nerve. Knowledge of the cranial nerves is pretty essential when you're a medic.

Indeed, which is why doctors use the Valsalva manoeuvre/modified Valsalva manoeuvre to try to convert certain heart rhythm problems.

According to their website the Kardia do not pick up PVC, they only detect normal heart rate or atrial fibrillation.

I’ve got a fitness tracker monitor and like a lot of products it’s hard to actually believe what they tell you. One moment my HR is 62 the next 114!

I'm going to take a sertraline before bed tonight.
I've had a nice hour just watching the soaps relaxing.
Gonna make a cup of tea and hopefully sleep better.
I've actually seen 2 cardiologists
Once in 2013 and last year.
I've had 2 Holter monitors
3 echo
About 12 ecg

If there was something wrong with your heart, your cardiologists would have found it.

YOu are suffering classic anxiety.

It doesn't make you weak, or stupid, or hysterical. It's real. IT produces physical effects, many of which you are now feeling.

The doctor is not saying "I don't believe you, take Sertraline and go away"

The doctor is saying "I believe it is anxiety causing most of your very real physical problems. Take Sertraline, it's the first line recommended treatment."

Literally every single update points to anxiety...

You don't get them when with your dad because you feel safe and you relax.

You get chest tightening and can't breathe because you're having panic attacks which often seem to mimic asthma attacks.

It started when you went outside, because outside isn't as safe, and then you started dreading them before you went out and then you kept panicking about them so it became all of the time.

After that many tests THEY WOULD HAVE FOUND WHAT WAS WRONG.

You're not going to die. Your only sickness is uncontrollable anxiety.

I'm a swallowing specialist and everything you report about your swallowing and your throat is globus and is very common. This is caused by reflux and/or anxiety - mostly anxiety. I regularly do endoscopies on patients like yourself so they can see that their throat is fine and how it can become tight when you worry and relax when you don't. Biofeedback can be a really good way of helping addressing anxiety. You need to see it to believe it. I wish you well OP. Anxiety is so difficult to deal with.

OP I had all the symptoms you have. I had a lot of CBT when it got to the stage that I thought I was having a heart attack when going up the stairs and I was in constant fear.

I didn't believe that it was anxiety either. I didn't believe my heartburn, gas, palpitations, feeling like something was stuck down my throat and so on were anything other than a serious health problem that was going to kill me. I got help for my anxiety and I am so much better. I still get mild anxiety over this . I take a propranolol and I soon calm down now, but I also have my CBT skills to help.

I get palpitations when I have heartburn, I get heartburn when I am anxious, I then panic and get worse heartburn. I can end the cycle quite well now but in the past I was just like you. There is nothing you have said that I don't relate to.

I could have wrote your post a few years ago, and in fact I did elsewhere. It is very hard to accept that it is anxiety in the first place, I understand that, but you have been giving the all clear, you have been told it is anxiety and people here have had the same or similar experiences.

My anxiety used to tell me that if I accepted it was anxiety and I did actually die it would be my fault. I felt like I was somehow in control when I was worrying and in some strange way keeping myself alive. Just the anxiety talking and I had to fight that bastard hard.

Please get proper help for your anxiety, you really don't have to live like this

My acid reflux causes this. Vagus nerve irritated apparently. I had a battery of tests including a full echocardiogram. Fit as a flea heartwise. 5cm sliding hiatus hernia.

I speak as one who was carted off in an ambulance once from home and once from work. I work with nurses and they were concerned.

I now take beta blocker low dose, and deal with it pragmatically. It does happen when I am asleep because I am lying down.

I was diagnosed with a leaking heart valve a few years ago and was under investigations for pulmonary hypertension. I was so scared at the time I was having what I thought were palpitations/ chest pains/ ectopics. I too was convinced I was going to die from it all. The cardiologist told me it was due to anxiety I believed him and it went away as soon as I relaxed a bit. I haven't had any 'palpitations' for nearly 4 years now. I would take the anxiety medication you have been prescribed to see if that helps. I hardly think about my heart problem now. It's never going to go away but I have regular echos and I trust the catdoloigists I've seen!

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

I'm pretty sure it's on the GCSE science syllabus 🤔

Another night up with them PVCs.
Beta blockers didn't work.
Had to go to the supermarket..every 5 seconds pvc after pvc
Walking around the supermarket uncontrollably crying,
People must have thought I was crazy

Did you take the sertraline?

I find the slow release beta blockers much more effective than the others, I am prescribed them for anxiety not a heart problem.

I took half a tablet last night.
Don't feel any different