Fluttery heart/Breathless?

[Cherrytart]

Does anybody get a weird fluttering in the chest/heart area and fell like they can't catch a breath, before having a fainting episode? Happened to me yesterday.. now i am Really worried im going to have a heart attack.it is awful, I am normally quite ok on my meds, still get dizzy and such but not to the stage of passing out, not passed out or a few years, but the other day I was talking to my aunty and mum in the kitchen, and my heart went all fluttery, i felt as if i couldn't get enough breath and then i started to go, i knew i was going to faint and i managed to lay down on the sofa with my feet up, as my eyesight went funny and hearing. I just don't remember ever getting the fluttery heart and breathlessness before.

[LittleClapham]

I get a flutter before fainting too. Yesterday my heart rate was abnormally high all day so I knew fainting was coming! I have Ehlers Danlos syndrome, so my heart was scanned for any serious abnormalities and it came back normal, so try not to worry that there is anything bad going on with your heart. I also get episodes where I am literally gasping for breath before I faint. I am planning to see a doctor as I think I have POTS but I am monitoring it on my heart monitor for a week to see if there are any patterns.

[SyncopeTrust-STARS]

Some individuals will experience pre-syncope. This is all the symptoms of fainting - feeling hot and cold, disorientated, nausea etc. This does allow some people (like yourself) to take steps to prevent actually losing consciousness. It may be this fluttering frightened you, which in turn provoked the feeling you were going to faint. You can always discuss it with your practice nurse or GP whom, I am sure, will reassure you.

[Hidden in reply to SyncopeTrust-STARS]

Hi,

Do you have a BP monitor with pulse reading facility? I ask because I have had "fluttering" recently too accompanied by a feeling of weakness and de-oxygenation.

"Fortunately" (!) I had a BP and heart monitor handy when an episode came on and I managed to record my pulse and BP during the episode as it happened whilst I was sitting down and I didn't feel at all faint.

My pulse felt as if it was going very fast and I found that it was going at about 89 bpm, but my diastolic BP had gone quite low - approx. 60. I reported this due to my own health circumstances which includes bradycardia and ectopic beats.

A holter monitor might record any "flutter" which may or may not be relevant. Have you had any cardiac investigations?

The flutter may be innocuous as the others suggest, but if you are worried you could ask to be checked out.