I sometimes feel as though my heart is beating “too hard”! I don’t mean too fast, the speed feels normal, but it pounds so hard in my chest I can feel it thudding in my ears, throat and stomach. It’s very uncomfortable and sometimes stops me from sleeping. It tends to happen if I’m tired, and I’ve nodded off or dozed at an unusual time of day. It’s really strange, like my heartbeat has been magnified in my body about 20 times! It goes off by itself after 6-12 hours.
Another peculiar sensation is what I call my “adrenalin” feeling. I suffer an “adrenalin reaction” from normal dental anaesthetic, when you get a “fake” adrenalin rush and your heart races – it makes you trembly, panicky and tearful but doesn’t last. Anyway, sometimes I get this feeling out of nowhere, for no apparent reason. I can just be rolling along as usual doing nothing special, then suddenly I get this odd rushing heart sensation. My hands go a little bit trembly, my eyes and my body feel weary and drowsy, and my heart seems to flutter along. This can last a couple of hours – sometimes I get a bit of a headache and feel dizzy, sometimes I don’t.
For the record, I have quite low blood pressure and low cholesterol, I don’t smoke (although I have done), I’m about 3 stone overweight at 13 stone and 5’4”, but still reasonably fit (meaning that I can dash up 9 flights of stairs at work and only get a little bit puffed!). I’ve had an ECG in the past as I suffer from frequent and acute chest pains, which are now thought to be spasms of the oesophagus – nothing was identified in relation to my heart, although lots of heart problems run in the family.
Am I about to drop dead or am I just a bit odd?
RE: Any explanation for strange heart sensations?
It might be some kind of arrythmia, dont worry not likely to be fatal, just really annoying.
I think you need to ask for a referral to a cardiologist to check this out. If you get the symptoms everyday they will probably do a 24 hour recording. If it is less often you could ask for an event recorder, which you operate when symptoms occur. I would suggest you avoid caffeine and alcohol for a bit and see if it improves.
Try massaging in the middle of the top fold in your palm (solar plexus reflex), it might help a bit.
Jan x
RE: Any explanation for strange heart sensations?
From your description it sounds like palpitations and with regarded to novocaine (assumed), then adverse reactions are not uncommon. If you tell your dentist this, then I believe there are alternative anaesthetics.
Andrew.