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At various times over the last few years I suspect I've had palpitations. Maybe once every 3 months, exclusively during the night after curry/beer/wine. I wasn't clued up enough to check my pulse to be sure but the sensation is pretty obvious.
Two months ago I had palpitations during the day. I assumed I was having a heart attack and went to casualty. They did an ECG and were very concerned but after putting my on a drip it stopped and they concluded I was just dehydrated (Which I was.) and told me no further action was needed.
Last week I had palpitaions during the night, no beer/curry involved. Went to the doc and he said it was probably nothing but worth capturing the palpitations for him to view. They've given me a "AliveCore" device for three weeks to capture it. Clearly the chances of catching palpitations are pretty much zero in that time, so I'd like to have something in place at the end of the 3 weeks.
Buying my own AliveCor is £100 which seems a bargain in exchange for not dying. However there seem to be so other options which might do depending on what the Doc needs to see:
Options seem to be:
1) My Samsung mobile will take my pulse from my finger.
2) Output from a Garmin ANT+ chest HR monitor.
3) Try to induce palpitations by having a massive prawn jalfreizy and not drinking much fluids while I have the AliveCor monitor.
4) Can I request the ECG that Casualty did for me? Will that even be in my records? (The GP can't request this.)
Will 1) or 2) be adequate for the doc? Is 3) as mad as it sounds, actually *trying* to make my heart go wrong? GP said don't do 3). Nurse said do 3). 😀
Obviously I will be asking the GP, but STW might have some advice in the meantime.
We've just gone though all of this with GtiJunior aged 19, the end result was inconclusive as the different tests didn't reveal anything wrong or the reason for the palpitations, apart from vigorous exercise and suddenly bending down. In the end they won't do anything and anyway he seems to be growing out of them; I got a lot when I was a teenager as well and now I only get them when I lie on my left side and compress my ribcage.
My cycling buddy is a physician and on two occasions out on the road he stopped the palpitations by performing a carotid synapse massage on my son, see Youtube and Google.
3) Try to induce palpitations by having a massive prawn jalfreizy and not drinking much fluids while I have the AliveCor monitor.
I'd be doing this. But if your doctor isn't worried then you shouldn't be either. If you had any issues they'd have flagged up on the ECG at A&E. Don't forget it's not just dehydration, electrolyte imbalance has a part to play too. Diplomatically speaking, if you've made it this far in life without dying from a heart defect you're unlikely to pop your clogs in the near future.
Alternatively, find a gym that has a defibrillator, pick the closest treadmill and go for it until you fall off the back*.
* I did this when an ECG machine (incorrectly!) auto-diagnosed me with long QT syndrome. YMMV etc.
If you can afford it, I would just buy one. As you say, the chance of an event happening in the next three weeks is slim and, in my experience (as a patient), a GP or consultant can't do much without having conclusive proof of palpitations/arrhythmia.
Try not to worry too much (anxiety itself is a significant cause of palpitations). Palpitations can happen for many reasons and, as Flaperon says, it doesn't mean you're gonna drop dead at any moment.
Cool username Bro.
Arent palpitations anxiety based?
So the stress of the massive curry/beer fest you had would induce some form of palpitations.
Stop eating crap and drinking beer ?
Just a thought.
in my experience (as a patient), a GP or consultant can’t do much without having conclusive proof of palpitations/arrhythmia.
I'm suspecting that's all that's required here. If proving that it's really happening is required solely to get the doc to refer me to a specialist/scan it might make more sense for me to pay for the scan/specialist rather than pay for a way to capture the 'proof' which leads to the scan/specialist.
Somewhat annoying that A+E and my GP don't share records.
Stop eating crap and drinking beer ?
Already have. Lost 3 stone since Feb and run 5k 6 minutes faster as a result.
I'm still Out of Breath, though.
Well, let your body cope with the massive weight loss and regain some of its more normal daily process.
Good effort mind, admire you for that.
Personally, I'd ask to keep the alivecor for 5 weeks... IF you're still having them, feel unwell, and it's NOT yet recorded, you could be fitted with a 7 day, or implanted monitor...
DrP
Well, let your body cope with the massive weight loss and regain some of its more normal daily process.
It's a very tempting conclusion, but the palpitations pre-date the weight loss so I'm not placing all my hope in that. (Assuming what I felt before *was* palpitations - I never actually checked my heartbeat.)
Personally, I’d ask to keep the alivecor for 5 weeks… IF you’re still having them, feel unwell, and it’s NOT yet recorded, you could be fitted with a 7 day, or implanted monitor…
Thanks, very useful.
As a GP I’ve been trying to get our CCG to fund alivecors for us to lend to patients but unfortunately gdpr has put the wind up the IG people as the ecgs are sent to a server in the states and so it’s been put in the too hard pile. (So tell me where you live and I will get my ccg to talk to your ccg😉)
I think they’re a great bit of kit but are basically designed to pick up atrial fibrillation. The app will report your 30s rhythm strip as either normal, AF or abnormal. Abnormal could be anything including just <50 or >100.
The alternative to alivecor would be a 24 hour tape but again unlikely to pick anything up if only happening every few weeks. Cardiology departments can arrange longer monitoring but our local teaching hospital also loans out alivecor devices!
If you can describe the rhythm ie how fast and tap it out then that will help. That’s all we had to go on in the good old days.
I started getting palpitations quite suddenly in my early 30s. It's understandably concerning when your own body begins to misfire and I totally appreciate how it is. I went to the docs. I went back. I went back again... Had more than one ECG, an ultrasound, 24 hour tape, and a stress test on the treadmill. All on separate occasions. None of them really returned anything meaningful, although I had some mild palpitations on the 24 hour monitor.
I've chilled out about it a lot now though. While still a daily occurrence (barely even notice them half the time) they're actually much better than they were say 5 years ago, where exercising at any great intensity would throw my heart out of rhythm for a brief time. An over-indulgence in alcohol seemed to be a big factor in that. So I drank less, and I got fit. Now cycle semi-competitively on an amateur level and mostly ignore the palpitations I do get.
My dad has been treated for arrhythmia and he experienced palpitations at my age, so I'm guessing I'll probably experience the same. But for now, I don't worry about it too much any more. Doc says I'm fine. Internet says it's actually extremely common and I'm unlikely to die. I've done my worrying and got kinda bored of it eventually.
I'd say try to induce it when monitored (although I'm not sure docs always like that), purely for the fact it will help you feel assured that they have recorded something (if indeed they do) that can be measured and assessed in some way. Otherwise you always have that thought that their diagnosis or reassurance is based on nothing more than a guess.
Alcohol, caffeine and stress are the big common triggers. So try to limit those generally.
As a GP I’ve been trying to get our CCG to fund alivecors for us to lend to patients but unfortunately gdpr has put the wind up the IG people as the ecgs are sent to a server in the states and so it’s been put in the too hard pile. (So tell me where you live and I will get my ccg to talk to your ccg)
The alternative with AliveCOR is to output the trace as a PDF, email it to your own address using NHS.net, and drop it into the patient record. Doesn't touch their US servers that way.
(GP IT Support at a CCG, for reference...)
Pyro thanks for that. I was under impression that just using the app to record it sends it to the us. Are you using them in your ccg?
I've not played with it in depth myself, had a conversation with one of our GPs about it and a prolonged glance over it.
Our CCG haven't promoted it, the local Academic Health Sciences Network have - without consulting GP IT, which is annoying. I'm not sure (and can't tell from their website) whether it uploads automatically or whether you could use it on a disconnected device (WiFi off, no SIM) and just export the PDFs via a wired connection to attach to the record.
Are you sure it's not ectopic beats? Feels like your heart is missing beats and thumping in your chest and ears, because some beats are firing early. I had that and was on an ECG etc but they didn't occur while I was wired up. Coffee, booze, tiredness cause it for me, sometimes just for no reason.
It took 6 years to get my attrial fibrillation captured. I had had several 24hr and 48hr ECG which didn't capture anything despite me going full out on the bike to trigger AF. I showed them my Garmin HR recordings showing a HR of 250bpm but they won't take readings from a non Medical device and unlike an ECG a HR monitor does not capture arythmias.
I'm the end Ihad to have an implanted loop recorder fitted. It finally captured something after 6 months (the longest I'd gone without AF since I realised I had it). As soon as it did I went on the ablation waiting list. 8 months after a successful ablation the recorder is still fitted and has shown nothing.
I wasn't given the Alivecor option, sounds better that an implanted one which involves at least 2 minor operations