Please hold my hand, worried sick about DH

[OhThisIsJustGrape]

Bit of back story: DH's dad died in his fifties from a heart attack. DH's brother died at 39, he'd had an op for a heart valve replacement but they think there was a problem with it and he dropped dead a year after the op.

This was 2 years ago and I have nagged and nagged DH to get himself checked and he kept saying he would but never has

He mentioned, very casually, a couple of weeks ago that he'd had palpitations but they'd not lasted long and he was fine. Then Friday night he was eating dinner and I saw him stop and put his hand on his heart. I said was he having palpitations and he said yes, but played it down. I said I was ring the gp first thing Monday.

Saturday night he told me that he'd felt 'weird' that morning - he really couldn't describe what he'd felt but he knew it was in his chest and his left shoulder ached too. Obviously alarm bells were ringing by this point for me and I did shout at him for not telling me so we could've got him checked out ASAP. He'd just taken himself off to work.

He does get a lot of indigestion. He smokes and drinks. He also has a very stressful, manual job working 60+ hours a week. He is 35.

I've got him an appt tomorrow evening with gp but I'm just so scared. He isn't.

Sorry, went I bed early last night, was exhausted.

My blood ran cold when i read your post Ilovedaintynuts of course you are so right. Can I just ask though - are you a medic or do you have personal experience of this? I'm struggling to get DH to see that there could be further checks that could be done, he has been brought up thinking that what the dr says, goes. I'm sure that 99.9% of the time that's correct but I don't want him being that tiny percentage that wasn't checked properly.

Anyway, he still has the palpitations and has said he'll go back in a week if they continue. How can I make him see that he needs to go back sooner?

The other thing he is concerned about is that the dr will think he is just panicking because of what happened to his brother. He isn't, he really isn't like that but I think it's stopping him from going back sooner incase he is made to feel he's making a big deal out of nothing.

Ok this is my experience. Dizzy spells resulted in being sent to A&E.

Had chest X-ray ECG oxygen levels taken.
Nothing conclusive.
Referred to cardiologist.
Had 48 hour ECG echocardiogram.

The dizzy spells turned out to be vertigo due to inner ear prob but they did pick up a minor heart condition which requires annual review and annual Echo with regular BP and cholesterol testing.

2nd a request for 24 ECG, he is probably best seeing his GP to ask for this or alternatively making the appointment directly with the nurses if he can self refer. Will need to have two appointment, obviously :) one to put on, one to take off.

When i had mine the nurse said to me as she put on the wires etc - "oh, you do know this is a cure for palpitations don't you" i gave her the face but it pretty much was, because once they realised that they were innocuous then i stopped worrying, less worry = less anxiety chemicals in blood stream, less confusing messages sent to heart, sorted!

I was like your DH, started having palpitations, its horrible, i felt like my heart was trying to get out - mine were caused by an ectopic (extra) beat, which was weird because it felt like my heart was missing a beat then flapping to try and catch up. It did make me feel weird but i think the weird feeling was anxiety. I was terrified as i was having them over and over, all weekend. By monday morning i was convinced i was dying, went to docs, he ran ECG and believe me, palpitations are obvious on an ecg trace - i was a vet nurse and one of my jobs was running ecgs so i was ready to spot any discrepancy, but well the needle nearly flying off he page pretty much gave the game away!

I was advised to STOP DRINKING, give up caffeine and chocolate and not exert myself too much until i had a 24 hour trace because they didnt know the cause. I was due on holiday in scotland with the intent of climbing some of the way up ben nevis and pissing it up the wall - couldnt do either of those things but the palpitations kept on coming. Got back, had the trace, they were lessening now - turned out to be these ectopic beats, which are very common, pretty much all of us have them, but i was having loads. But anyway, the doctors were happy with things. So i went on, and by this time they had calmed down.

This wasn't a co-incidence! It turned out that the cause was my hay fever medication . I don't know how i realised this, my hayfever is very seasonal, june is my worst time, then it would play up if i were around horses, i used to ride so i think i needed to take some meds, and my palpitations started again. Thats what it was - I also can't take night nurse without my heart going on a route march!

I would say to you not to worry at all, really i would, but obviously there is the family history so it is worth crossing the Ts. Lots of defects would show up on a simple ECG trace so it was a positive thing that was all normal.

I would say, get him to cut down on his drinking and smoking if he can (just to see if there is a difference) and to cut out caffiene completely - if i have a strong coffee and i am partial to a bit of rocket fuel, my heart goes boom di di boom boom boom, but i recognise what it is, it doesn't scare me and for some reason, i quite like the feeling. I don't drink too much coffee though for this reason.

So, thats a 24 ECG to ask for, and possibly an ultrasound. Do you know what sort of heart defect your BIL had? If it was likely to be heritable? some valve defects are indeed genetic (but not all, and this doesn't mean your DH will have this but it needs investigating). I'd want an doppler ultrasound, to put my mind at rest. It is not likely however that a valve issue would present as palpitations (i dont think! im not a doctor! well not a medical one anyway )

try not to worry thouh, im sure your DH will be fine