Bamboozle

Hello, people.

I've been having premature beats for about a year now. It feels like skipped beats. Sometimes they are random, sometimes they fall into a pattern, like this: "regular beat" , rb, rb, "skip", rb, rb, rb, s.......or sometimes rb, s, rb, s,.........or rb, rb, s, rb, s, rb, rb, rb, rb,s......you get the idea.

It was scary at first, but after a while I learned to pretty much ignore them. Well, this is what happened just now:

I was very calm, sitting at the computer looking for information about a video game....doing boring searching.....I was in an okay mood. Well, the heart palpitations started up again and I didn't think much of it (shoot, it happens all the time).

This time was different...my heart beat was slow and erractic...I put my fingers to my wrist to get a better feel for what was going on....and it sped up all of the sudden for several beats, then slowed down drastically into a very irregular beat.

At this point I began to panic. My heart was crapping up big time. I was home alone. I went to get the phone and thought about calling EMS. At this point (thankfully), probably because I was so scared, my heart was beating very forcefully but regularly. I decided to call my mom at work instead. She talked to me until a friend could get to the house.

I'm glad I had decided not to drink today. I didn't drink last night, either (although I'd bought the beer, I set it aside.).

Well, looks like I'm going to go back to the doctor. I don't care if it was a panic attack, but I'm going to make sure that they do some more thorough testing this time around so that the serious things can be eliminated. That way I don't have to worry (I worry about everything).

Whatever happened, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. This has never happened to me before. It came out of nowhere. I thought I was going to die. Now I'll probably be afraid to go to sleep.

I had to write this down...I really hope this helps someone.

Mariposa18

I hope everything is okay Bam~Get yourself to the Doc as soon as possible and let us know how it goes okay? Take Care of yourself Sweetie...Oh and get RID OF THAT BEER! lol

Anna

Good for you for going to the dr, Bam.

Let us know what is going on, okay?

doorknob

Bam, it sounds like the panic attack came after your heart was acting up. I'd get to the doctor soon.

DK

Bamboozle

I did...just dumped all 12 down the drain. Phew!

Mariposa18

Proud of you Sweetie =)

Bamboozle

I hope it's only a panic attack (although it was scary as sh!t).

I know, I shouldn't think about it, but I'm going to have to find out if I screwed up my heart because of drinking.

At least I'm a lot calmer, now. I hope I feel better soon. I just took a propranolol that was perscribed to me back in June. First pill (...I know!). I hadn't taken any up until this point because I didn't feel I needed to--it was easy to ignore the palpitations (but I sure couldn't ignore this).

Back to square one...I'll chill out this weekend (I don't have to work, anyway) and I'll call Monday to get an appointment. My family will be here to watch me in case something else happens. It was scary being alone...that made everything worse.

Thanks for being here, people, and thanks to the people who keep SR going. Writing this down helps.

doorknob

What kind was it?

Bamboozle

Bud Select. It's all gone (for once, NOT down my gullet).

The bathroom sink would be drunk right now if it could be...

doorknob

I would have taken it back to the store. The sink doesn't deserve that...

Bamboozle

I couldn't do that...I'm afraid to leave the house. I'm probably being ridiculous.


Tell you what...there's nothing like believing you're going to die and realizing that you really want to live.


...Now, if I can just remember that all the time...

Thanks, DK.

CarolD

Hope all goes well at the doctors.

doorknob

I'll make certain to remind you... and you can remind me that I don't want to stagnate endlessly smoking pot and drinking beer.

Ananda

Bam...glad you are going to the dr and glad you dumped the beer....I was not ever really able to do that without help from someone right there to hold my hand...

please do keep us posted.

least

Please get to your doctor as soon as you can. And keep us posted, ok? Be good to yourself, no beer and no stress.:ghug3

Bamboozle

Ah, now that's a tall order.


I'm trying to be calm, but I keep thinking about it. I never could find a good, healthy way to forget and de-stress.

Thanks everyone for your support. If I don't show up here for a while, you know what happened. Sorry...just trying to keep a sense of humor about things.

Paulos

Heart palpitations......

TryingSoHard

Hi Bam,

Just wanted to add my well wishes and let you know I'll be thinking about you. Check in when you can. *hugs*

USMCEOD

Bamboozle,

First off I would like to say go see a doctor. But besides that, you are probably the only person that I know that explains things the same way I do.

Let me start off by saying that heart palps go along with chronic drinking. It is not that your heart is failing but the alcohol consuption over a period of time have actually effected your brain into changing the way your heart works. It sounds crazy but it's true. It's the same reason why the majority of Alcoholics crave sugar , especially when quitting drinking. Not only is your body changing the way it conducts itself but when you add quitting drinking and the effects that has on your body along with the effects that are in place from you drinking you are all setup for a nice night of feeling crappy and feeling and pondering like you are gonna die. I would almost consider myself to have a paranoid sudden death syndrome. I always feel like I'm gonna die due to my drinking and my artery is gonna burst or my heart is gonna blow up.

It is a known fact that it will take about 2 weeks to a month for your body to rewire itself after you quit drinking. Also I've read and heard and compared results of the notion that it takes the body 90 days to be rewired , your brain to be rewired and your habbits to change for you to feel as though you can live life without alcohol. We all know that ,that battle will continue for a life time but the technical scientific community says at this point you are clean of alcohol and the brain has adjusted to life without alcohol.

Hang in there dude it will be alright. I feel all the symptoms and then some of what you are feeling and have been that way for over 5 years. That is the control this disease has on me. But I will never give up.

Bamboozle

I've never made it a straight three months, but in the beginning of the year I went 30 days and then one day of light drinking and repeated that arrangement for 4 months. The other time I made it a straight 69 days.

These palpitations have a mind of their own. Anything can crank them up. When they first started, I had some really bad days…probably numbering in the thousands of the so-called premature beats. Sometimes being anxious makes them worse. They’ve improved a little…but I still don’t know when they’ll happen. This time it started out like that (skipped beat feeling), but changed into a different symptom/pattern.

As long as the doctor tests to make sure it's not something wrong with my electrical system or the heart, I can learn to deal with it. Ever since these palpitations started a year ago, I’ve been worried about sudden cardiac death. (I know, I read too much about this crap.) Especially after what happened yesterday, I have it in my head that I cannot trust/rely on my heart. I'm probably being worried for nothing, but I cannot help the way I feel. I hope they can get me in soon.


USMCEOD, if you want to talk more about your experiences, feel free. You don't have to. I am writing this down to help myself, but I also hope that sharing my experience will help someone else. I notice that there isn't much discussion about heart palpitations as a possible result of alcohol abuse. It helps to know I'm not the only one. Thank you.