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6 hours in A&E...
5 years ago
General
Well that was... not the day I had in mind.
Short version, round about midnight, my heart decided I was running a marathon. Up from my usual 55bpm to 95 and clattering against my ribs. I know enough about anxiety and panic attacks to say "you know, all of these symptoms fit that, and I don't have any extras". But still. I've never been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and it was really not much fun while it lasted.
It abated quickly, as such things are known to, but left me with a lingering "holy cow my heartbeat is so loud" feeling and a lot of adrenaline. By 4am, I called the health advice line, and at 5am they told me to get in a taxi and go to A&E.
From whence I have only just got back. They took two ECGs, listened to my heart, and did some blood samples, and concluded... there's nothing underlying that they can catch or diagnose. As the doctor put it, sometimes hearts just go into different patterns for a while, sometimes ectopic beats happen, and both are usually harmless unless they're happening a lot. But yes it can feel disturbing at the time.
I'll probably get a monitor to wear for a day in the near future, but otherwise... I just have to kind of deal with it and hope it doesn't recur. But if it does, go back to A&E.
Meantime, pushing 30 hours since I slept... sooner or later the adrenaline is going to wear off.
Short version, round about midnight, my heart decided I was running a marathon. Up from my usual 55bpm to 95 and clattering against my ribs. I know enough about anxiety and panic attacks to say "you know, all of these symptoms fit that, and I don't have any extras". But still. I've never been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and it was really not much fun while it lasted.
It abated quickly, as such things are known to, but left me with a lingering "holy cow my heartbeat is so loud" feeling and a lot of adrenaline. By 4am, I called the health advice line, and at 5am they told me to get in a taxi and go to A&E.
From whence I have only just got back. They took two ECGs, listened to my heart, and did some blood samples, and concluded... there's nothing underlying that they can catch or diagnose. As the doctor put it, sometimes hearts just go into different patterns for a while, sometimes ectopic beats happen, and both are usually harmless unless they're happening a lot. But yes it can feel disturbing at the time.
I'll probably get a monitor to wear for a day in the near future, but otherwise... I just have to kind of deal with it and hope it doesn't recur. But if it does, go back to A&E.
Meantime, pushing 30 hours since I slept... sooner or later the adrenaline is going to wear off.
Guess I'll just wait and see what happens. Not having a physiological cause is a good thing; running fast for a bit doesn't do hearts any harm, it just feels weird.
And exercise... does work. Been about 18 months since I started doing walks 5x per week, and there's a big hill at the start that used to make me pause on the way up - now I never have to. Once I'd gotten over the arrival shock today, the second ECG was met with "oh yeah, that's quite slow now" x) Sadly my stress reaction still spikes my blood pressure... Gonna need to get back on doing regular readings and potentially talk to the GP too - although it's not at all uncommon to read way higher in hospital than you do at home.