Hello, in april last month I was forced to go to accident and emergency because of what I felt was a racing heart beat. At the time I had a quick blood test and egc done which was fine. And whenever I had my pulse checked it was normal. Leading me to think that maybe it wasn’t beating faster just felt like it was. However a month later I had the same symptoms and also now pains on both sides of my chest, lasting a few seconds either stabbing or just a mild ache. The doctor told me these were chest membrane pains and not related to my heart.
I have been to a cardiologist who did blood tests, pictures or my heart and a 24 hour monitor. The blood tests were fine, the pictures were fine but on the 24 hour monitor my heart rate increased to 120 from 72 every couple of hours, but kept to a normal rhythm. This didn’t happen when I was asleep. He said this pointed to stress and tried to give me beta blockers which I refused.
I have a few questions though- firstly when taking the pictures it felt very uncomfortable and I almost had to ask them to stop, when it should have been painless- any idea’s what this could be. Could this slight pressure on my chest have triggered a problem or was it just because I didn’t like hearing and seeing my heart beat?
Secondly-my skin around my nipple vibrates every time my heart beats-should my heart be beating strongly enough to do this.
Finally-do you think this is all stress and not a heart problem? At the same time my cardiologist has organised a stress test which would suggest he isn’t convinced its just stress?
Thanks for your help!