Hi there. So a few months ago my heart started noticeably skipping beats. It’s accompanied with a “funny feeling” in my chest and a small pain. It also makes me cough and need to take a deep breath. It happens more when I lay down. But It isn’t all the time.
I called my Dr who initially suggested it’s anxiety but it’s happening when I’m home and relaxed. I eventually managed to get a blood test and an ecg but by the time I got this appointment the symptoms weren’t current. So I managed to get a 24 hour ecg but again it wasn’t present that day. I haven’t seen a copy of that ECG just got a text message from him saying there’s nothing to worry about.
So my GP has me pinned as a Hypochondriac and is very dismissive. I have managed to record the blips on a phone app. I’m aware it’s not accurate but it shows every time I feel my heart skip. It’s been getting more apparent and I’ve been experiencing the symptoms for a full week and it’s gotten more frequent the past day.
Does anyone know what this could be? We have a family history of atrial fibrillation and my dads had heart issues too.
And how do you get your Dr to believe you when it can be sporadic?
Thank you
Faith x
Edit- I’ve been on propanolol for 2 months and hasn’t stopped the skipping beats. I have bought a kardiamobile ecg monitor and attached a photo of what the skips/flutters actually look like. If anyone could analyse these that would be awesome x x
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These are usually called ectopic beats and are a fairly common and not usually an issue. It is normally two beats very close to each other followed by a pause, which can feel like an eternity, before the heart beats again. I have had these since my surgery last year and agree, can be uncomfortable. They are more often brought on by stress or even a happy situation, but sometimes they just happen.
If you are worried speak to a different doctor, but sadly there is very little they can do even if these are detected. Keep an eye on them and certainly make an appointment again if they become more frequent. Often they just disappear of their own accord.
Thank you so much for replying. I’m so curious as to why they’ve suddenly started and would definitely like my Dr to validate that this is happening. I hate how it feels it is really distracting and kinda like the hiccups.
Would them being every 3/4 beats for about an hour be something to be concerned about?
It is a BHF group but one of the group rules is not to give unqualified medical opinions.I'm sorry you've had such a lot of trouble with ectopics.I have these and short runs of arrhythmia....not quite afib according to the consultant.I had a 5 day ECG after a 24 hour one didn't show much.Even so, since there wasn't deemed to be enough arrhythmia, I was discharged back to the GP.For years mine was put down to anxiety....often is with women I'm afraid but you have a family history and also you mention a small pain as well.Try to speak to another GP and show your phone recordings.That said, try to keep calm as anxiety makes things worse.Come and join us at the arrhythmia alliance page and/or the afib group where you'll meet others with dodgy electrics like us.😁
I had the same. My consultant told me he saw it all the time. Ectopic beat. He showed it to me on my ECG. Told me there was nothing to worry about. As soon as I told him I felt butterflys in my chest he knew what it was, but you need to be told by a professional to be put at ease.
When a GP can't pinpoint a cause for a problem, they run through their list of tests, and if they all show nothing, then they will treat you symptomatically (ie treat the symptoms, not the cause). Unfortunately there is not much in a GPs armoury for treat ectopic heartbeats.
Also, telling you there is nothign wrong and to go-away is (in my experience) one of the "tests" they do. If you go back with the same complaint then that's a 'test result' in itself.
I had the same thing until my doctor showed my results to a cardiologist. I was scared that I could collapse and die any minute. Thankfully, the cardiologist said that it is a benign condition.
My daughter has had these ectopic irregular beats happen to her many times. It started when she was in her twenties and she’s mid 30’s now. I’ve experienced it happening to her and it sort of surprises her and she’ll immediately hold her breath, and it feels scary for her when it happens. She doesn’t know what triggers it. Sometimes it can happen as a one off and sometimes a few times during a day. Tests don’t show any concerns.
The Dr on many occasions has told her this can happen and not to worry about it. He advises that it can help to synchronise this if you walk up and downstairs or run on the spot to sync the heart into rhythm. She has sometimes wondered whether it’s a reaction to food triggers ( she has various allergies like asthma) but is also wondering if it could be stress related.She is only aware of this happening when she’s sitting down - watching TV for example.
If in doubt could you get a second opinion from another Dr in the practise?
I think I need to push for more answers with my Dr but it’s awkward with how it can be sporadic. This is the most consistently it’s been happening but I’m away with work so can’t get to my gp. But sure with making appointments I wouldn’t be able to see them for weeks.
Oh the good old anxiety card. Been there done that. Please push your gp for a referral to a cardiologist. I had such symptoms and non of them caught on ecg or holter monitor.
I have atrial fib and svt plus pauses and ectopics, anxiety doesn’t help but in my case it’s a heart issue. My dad had af too. Please revisit your doctor and push to see a cardiologist, preferably and EP. They will get to the bottom of it for you and give you any necessary treatment. If it turns out to be anxiety then so be it but you need to know exactly what is going on. Best wishes.
Thank you I am waiting on a call from my GP to argue my case and also contacted the BHF nurse via email now. I know it’s not anxiety or if it is I don’t know I’m anxious haha 😂 I wish I had an ecg at home so I could record it and prove it. It’s definitely getting worse.
Hope you get the response you need, I bought a Kardia ecg recorder and it’s proven so much along the way, what can’t speak can’t lie as the saying goes. May be worth investing in one.
No one tells me it’s anxiety anymore. However anxiety levels rise when the heart goes off on one but that’s no surprise. It’s our hearts misbehaving no small deal.
Sounds very like ectopic beats I was having a few weeks ago.
Eventually evidenced on a 48hr tape and by the time I got the tape they were nothing like as bad as they had been. Still picked them up though on a handful of occasions and the cardiac nurse and cardiologist confirmed they were nothing to be concerned about.
You kind of feel the pause, a flutter then it’s like you’ve gone over the crest on a roller coaster and left your stomach behind... or that’s how I felt anyway.
Definitely worth pushing for a longer tape just for peace of mind. I don’t think I’d have got a tape if I hadn’t had HA at start of March though, due to Covid.
I didn’t have these before I had HA, and the suggestion was they had come about as part of the healing process.
I haven’t changed my diet to deal with these, although things have changed since my HA, but it was suggested that caffeine, alcohol, spicy food and a few other things can seem to make them worse so maybe worth trying some variations to diet.
Just my experience of what sounds very similar to what you are experiencing.
That’s exactly the feeling I get. I will definitely push to get more investigation. It’s just made harder with covid. The GP has asked me to buy a blood pressure monitor to do a home reading (not very happy that I have to pay out but my health is important). X
The BP monitor I have has an alert that picks up irregular beats, it does nothing more than flashes a light to say “irregular beats” and of course it has to be while the machine is monitoring you to pick that up. Knowing your BP is however invaluable and I’ve found it a good gauge of how I’m feeling generally. It was an Omron machine I bought and wasn’t too expensive, around £40 from memory and it’s become a habit to use it most days.
Mine were only ever sporadic, I’d go to A&E if it was constant. I didn’t go to A&E straight away with chest pain then got severely told off when I did go for not presenting when I was actually have a HA. Don’t mess about, get it checked.
Oh gosh! I will go today. I am actually away with work until 6pm so I know I should prioritise my health but would rather go in my home town incase I have to stay at all x
Hi Look up CardiosmartI was recommended this by a heart nurse it can check your hearts ecg when you have an episode.Have you checked your blood pressure? I had similar issues and although I still have episodes they are much less due to meds given for bp. Good Luck
I have these and mine are related to peri menopause - I was just wondering how old you were as possibly that might be why they were happening? I’m 48 and many other menopausal women experience them as yet another symptom.
Hi Pebbles16, I am interested to know more about your peri-menopause symptoms. I am 49 and started having daily palpitations about 7 months ago. I made some lifestyle changes but I suspect its my hormones causing the chaos. Do you have other symptoms? Were you able to control the palptitations?
Oh gosh, many other symptoms but mostly under control now with HRT. Things like brain fog, low mood, hot flushes, joint pain, insomnia, anxiety...the list is long! The palpitations are a relatively new one for me and after going to the dr and having an ECG which showed nothing I’m pretty sure mine are linked to low oestrogen levels. If you want a symptom checker Dr Louise Newson’s website has one - she is a menopause specialist and is absolutely brilliant, there are lots of useful factsheets on there, it’s menopausedoctor.co.uk . Also on Facebook Diane Danzebrink The Menopause Support Network is great and if you search posts on there for palpitations there is some useful advice. She also has a website menopausesupport.co.uk which has a resources section containing a symptom checker which lists 33 common symptoms. I would urge you to read up and research as I am in a much better place now than I was 18 months ago. Hope that helps, message me if you want to ask anything else.
Hi I had heart surgery 2 years ago and was fine then last week starting getting missed beats and then Friday sent to a&e as hot pain in back all tests done said missed beats were nothing to worry about. Then from fri night to Sunday night did it non stop. Went to own GP mon had another ecg ssid nothing to see and will arrange another 24 hour tape...date given 27th August ! Happened again last night took extra betablocker calmed down a bit. Just wears you out and dont know how it can be nothing to worry about unless you experience it yourself. Good luck and let us know what answers you get.
Thank you. It’s gotten to be constant now and it is definitely tiring and worrying too x I am a little tempted to go to a&e to get it recorded because my GP is still not believing me it happens as it didn’t occur on my 24 hour ECG x
Yes I agree!!! Get it checked as its ongoing & getting worse. Hopefully it's nothing to worry about & also good to put your mind at ease as worrying causes aniexty & could be making your symptoms worse. Good luck 😊
GPs by now know these ectopics will not happen when monitored.
I'm having missed beats about 3 per minute as I type this. Every morning straight after my weetabix it will start and stop at mid day. Every ectopic is accompanied by a short sharp pain.
I have had every test available to find the problem to no avail. It no longer worries me but is an inconvenience more than anything else.
My Cariologist explained the ectopic beats that I was experiencing like this... (see if I can get this right)...
The heart sometimes does two-beats close together. This empties the heart of blood, so on the next attempt there is nothing to pump out, and you get the empty collapsed feeling in your chest.
'Nothing to worry about' because over the time of the three beats you have still pumped the normal amount of blood.
Compounding this is the brains attempt to 'ignore' the feeling of your heart beating in your chest by synchronising when it expects to feel it, and negating it out. If the brain does this and the heart beats at a different time, you feel both the early beat and the empty beat as a "ka-thump!" in your chest which can feel big, troublesome and painful. It's your brains way of saying "Whoa - what happened there, fella!?!"
You instinctivly hold you breath to remove any unnecessary movement in the chest while your brain "listens in" to get back in synch.
I hope I have described that correctly.
The Doctor saying "nothign to worry about" is special medical language for "I know what you mean, but I don't have anything in my book to treat it"
1000% is what is happening to me. But it’s every 3 beats now. It feels like hiccups in my heart. I think it’s going to stay that frequent I’m going to struggle... or get used to it. When I lay down it’s so much worse it makes me feel really ill.
Thank you so much for that information. I’m going to go to the hospital later and maybe if they could loan me that monitor. Although it’s been so ongoing that if they monitor it there I’m sure they will see it. It’s getting very tiring if I’m honest I woke up to it and went to sleep with it and it’s a very strong feeling. Which I’m sure you know yourself x
Faith, it is sometimes soooo difficult to get Drs to believe you. Many patients do not have the terminology at their finger tips to explain their symptoms to either GPs or Specialists hence get "persuaded" in many cases by the doctors they are suffering from excessive anxiety or some form of hypochondriacal event. Many of us know that this is NOT true and we have very acute symptoms that have just not been recorded at the point of investigation. We have ECGs and Holters and many other complex tests, however it is just so frustrating that during those tests, nothing shows ! 24 hours later after being told negatively "this and that", we have episodes. There are a few on here who are experts on Angina incl Vaso and vasc / prinz etc and their advice is superb, enlightening and very up to date. There is unlikely to be anyone on here who has endured 45 years of ectopics, or so called skipped beats (misnoma) atrial tachycardia, Atrial Fibrillation, SVTs and other forms of arrhythmia than myself. After all those years and 2 ablations (successful) I now find myself with a type of angina as yet to be determined. Yet another appt with Senior Cardiologist on 4th Sept when I will put to him Milkfairy points she raises plus those points raised and explained by others to see if he is on tune with all the different "Anginas". I digress a little, but a good friend jolted me a little by saying " goodness, Angina" "how long have you got". Nothing like having a cheery questioned asked. Do ask me some straight questions as I have been a patient of some of the most famous cardiac electro physiologists in the world. You should be fine I am sure.
hi yes i do i have had the same as you and i had a revel device fitted it was apainless procedure and i was out of hospital in a morning hope this has helped
Hi, I’ve suffered with this too and everytime they tried to monitor it would stop. I think it was linked a bit to hormones and was definitely worse lying down. Eventually I worked out some foods made it happen/ worse but no doctor found anything wrong. My GP told me to get up and walk about when they started to raise heart rate a little bit and they will stop, and that mostly worked! You should always get checked out specially if you have pain too. Good luck 🤞
Years ago I hadt he same problem which was also put down to anxiety. AN ECG missed it, a 24 hour monitor missed it; I was given a monitor for a week but was so allergic to the glue on the pads had to stop after 3 days- also missed it. Sent for a stress test which also showed nothing but fortunatelythey sat me down to recover with the leads still attached and lo and behold, after a couple of minutes I had a whole run of missed beats and they could finally see where it was coming from. I was told they were completely harmless ectopic beats. I think your best chance of catching them is to ask for a monitor for a full week and while you are wearing it,make a note ofhe time each day that you feel it so they can match that to what the monitor shows. Take that reading you just posted to yoru doctor and tell him you are aware what he's thinking and you kow it's not accurate but it proves they ARE happening and you want a full week's monitor.
Thank you I think that monitor will be the best idea. As for GP listening to my heart they don’t do face to face appointments anymore so that probably won’t happen x
I had similar and had to keep on ‘reminding ‘ my GP who eventually referred me to the cardio doc, I was given a 24 hr monitor then a stress test and then I had a loop recorder fitted, shortly after that I had to have a pacemaker. So it’s worth making a nuisance of yourself, you know your body better than anyone .
hiya i inow what everyone means about ‘flutters’ when ectopic beats happen.. but does anyone experience a rather painful thump sometimes?.. would that also be down to ectopics?.. thanks
Hey it’s called ‘Instant Heart Rate: HR Monitor’. I can’t vouch for the accuracy but it does show my flutters in perfect time so know it does show the heartbeat.
Hi everyone. So I’ve been given a prescription of 40mg propanolol. I’m on like day 4. Taking before bed as suggested in the pamphlet. But my stomach is ruined and having really bad diarrhoea will this go away?? It’s causing bad cramps and stopping me going out xx
Hi everyone so an update is I took propanolol for almost 2 months but they still happened. I think it may be hormonal. But I also bought a kardiamobile ECG monitor as my GP promised to accept the readings. And can not see in depth what my beats look like. They are still hurting and regular x
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will this go away?? It’s causing bad cramps and stopping me going out xx 
Anxiety or heart problem
Anxiety about Ectopic Beats?
Ectopic beats developing?
