Heart trouble - desperately worried.

[splodge2001]

I'm not sure where to post this as I don't have a diagnosis. I'm a 39 year old otherwise healthy female with some anxiety issues. I did something very stupid on NYE, namely I took MDMA. I haven't taken any since my early 20s. It was a last swan song - a goodbye to youth. Two hours after I got home from the party at 2.00am I experienced very bad palpitations - they were coming in waves and preventing me from sleeping and were making breathing difficult. I was scared. I got up, told DH what was going on - he was angry with me for not telling him about the MDMA. I contemplated calling an ambulance but thought that it would pass soon. My heart rate reached 130bpm. I sat up until 5.00am until my heart rate went down. I put the whole thing down to the MDMA and forgot about it.

Then it happened a week later whilst I was passively watching TV. I called an ambulance, again 130bpm. It lasted a few hours. In hospital they performed an ECG. The rhythm was "normal" sinus rhythm ie. a normal heart rhythm, it was just fast. I was discharged. It happened the following week whilst I was writing an email and I went to A&E. This time I got some beta blockers. I was ok for another 1.5 weeks and then it went off again - all night. Constant palpitations. Since then I've lost countless nights sleep because of the palpitations. I'm hypervigilant, feeling my pulse all the time and I'm have to take sleeping tablets.

I've had a resting ECG and Echocardiogram, both normal and I'm waiting for a 48hr ECG to be performed. I've also had a few blood tests - all normal including thyroid. The view at the moment is that my heart seems normal but that the events need to be "captured" to see what trigger there might be. The long and short of it is that I'm in a mess. Fearing that I might have permanently damaged my heart with MDMA, fearing that the MDMA might have highlighted something that was already there, fearing that it's anxiety and that it'll never go away and fearing the symptoms themselves because they always feel super serious. I feel trapped, in a hole. I'm not sure why I'm even posting this. Reassurance? I want it to be all ok. I want to know that it's impossible for MDMA to trigger a permanent arrythmia.

Are your periods still regular?

I asked that as palpitations can start in the perimenopause stage, your are a bit on the young side for that, but entirely possible.
My daughter, she is only 12, had to spend several hours in resus last week with an extremely high heart rate, at one time they were 180 bpm so I can understand how frightened you are.

I think that you're just overly anxious.
That can make your heart go all a flutter. I know saying don't worry about it won't make you not worry about it but please try not to.

You've been checked out and you are ok. So believe, you are OK.
Have as much rest as you can. Watch a funny film and have hot chocolate and chocolate.x

Has your thyroid been checked?

I had this when my thyroid started to kill itself. I'm now on medication and the palpitations have stopped.

Oh, and I started menopause at 40, at aproxim. the same time my thyroid problems started.

No not chocolate! That's not going to help with anxiety symptoms.

I think you are probably very worried which will be exascerbating any actual physiological symptoms, if that makes sense.

And feeling guilty, and so on.

Once you know you're OK then it will probably ease off a lot x

I had an ectopic heartbeat due to low iron levels but strangely I wasnt anaemic

Oh and avoid other caffeine too. Tea, (unless decaf) coffee etc. Big culprit when it comes to anxiety/adrenalin/panic attacks/palpitations etc

Were you anxious when you took the mdma before the first episode began?

Have you had your thyroid tested?

Thanks for all the responses. Thyroid ok. I suggested to the GP to do an FSH test to see if I was in perimenopause. I wasn't anxious when I took the MDMA but I sure became anxious when my heart went off, particularly as it was at least two hours after I'd taken the MDMA and I hadn't had any problems - hadn't even felt particularly wired either. No periods but I have a Mirena. Mirena has been expired for a year and the periods haven't come back - unlike my last Mirena when I started to bleed again towards the end of the five years. Have a weird sense that my cycle has gone as I used to get breast tenderness towards the end of my cycle and a tiny bit of spotting and that has stopped.

130 is fast, but not that fast. One thing that can push your HR up is anxiety - it releases adrenaline and causes a rise in HR.

Glad others suggested thyroid - I started getting SVT (fast heart rate) when my thyroid went wonky - at the time I was working in a cardiology department so I just did my own rhythm strip.

You really have not messed up your heart, it is probably just coincidence that this started after the MDNA.

BTW normal HR at rest is 60-100 bpm - that is lying down for 10 mins before taking it. If you are small then it is higher naturally so if you keep taking your pulse do not worry about it being 100, and if it is 120 or 130 and you have just run for a bus, again it is normal.

I have had panic attacks. Tachycardia investigated at a&e some years later. Anyway, just wanted to add that you can have panic attacks when and tachycardia when you are seemingly perfectly relaxed. The mind has something going on, bothering it subconsciously, that you haven't dealt with. I'm on beta blockers too. It helps most of the time but not always. My heart rate goes up when I'm constantly monitoring it. Not surprising, really. All my heart tests were normal. My heart rate went to high 140s.

The most likely thing is that you are anxious and that is making your heart rate go up. The more you think about the MDMA experience and whether it has done some lasting damage to your heart the more likely it is that you get a fast heart rate and then you worry and go round and round in circles.

The 48 hour reading will be good as it will pick up what your heart is really doing. If it doesn't pick up any abnormal heart beats or rhythms, just your heart going fast (which is what sinus tachycardia is) then your heart is just responding to your worry.