Worried about scary episode with heart

[fairycake]

Yesterday at about 12am in the morning i had a really frightening & weird episode

i was going to have a quick bath i was bent over the bath when i had a sharp pain in my heart area, then i stopped and had shortness of breath, i sat down and said to my partner i really didnt feel well i felt funny. It hurt when i inhaled. Then i started to feel really cold although it wasnt that cold in the room. I started shaking and i felt so strange i felt like i was losing consciousness, my partner was kneeling down in front of me trying to talk to me he said look me in the eyes and he told me later i couldnt do this i was staring off into space and he said my eyes were rolling up.

I felt out of it and my heart started racing fastly, I was trying to stay calm and it wasnt a panic attack i dont suffer from those. Then i felt a bit hot and really dizzy so asked my partner to take me to the front door for some fresh air. Then i remember kind of collapsing to the front my legs kind of gave way and my heart started beating incredibly fast. I was terrified i was going to have a heart attack or something. I felt like if i had been left any longer i might have lost consciousness my heart would have given in.

I begged my partner please get me help!!!! so he rang an ambulance and he said later on i was really shouting but at the time i thought i was just talking. Then i remember really shaking not just shaking like you do from being cold but really trembling, i remember vaguely the ambulance staff were walking up the drive and i was aware my hand was shaking alot, like back and forth in the air and my legs were like squirming about on the floor.

I could hear them asking me questions but i could not answer them i was like zoned out. I couldn't get up and needed pulled up. They then monitored my heart in the ambulance and my partner said that my heart rate was about 113 bpm, it had slowed down since i got in the ambulance. They then asked lots of questions and took me to A&E, where they gave me an ECG, Heart blood test, blood test, urine sample and chest xray i was in there from about 1am to 6am and the tests came back normal.

They couldn't explain what it was and basically just said take painkillers. I have fainted before when i was younger but this did not feel like a faint. So i dont know what to do, i am not sure what this was? was it a mini-seizure or tachycardia? or to do with PCOS?

I think my PCOS has been getting steadily worse recently, my hirstism is really bad, and my hair has been thinning something i had never suffered from before, also for a while now i've felt like an elderly lady, i am aged 30 and slim, active but get tired and out of breath from walking up a small flight of stairs. And i have had alot of vertigo/dizziness and sharp head pains recently. I have also put on an extra stone.

I am not currently taking any medication for this, i have just moved and am trying to register with a new doctor. I really do want to get myself on some medication to control this but am not sure what is best? I have been on dianette for a few yrs before but came off it and i was on cilest.
I havent had any blood/hormone tests done for a couple of years so probably should get them done, 9they always came back mostly normal)

should i be asking for a brain MRI (because of pituatory growths?) i have never had one but have had an adrenal gland MRI, MRI of ovaries, transvaginal scan which showed 11 cysts on each ovary.

Can anyone advise please? i would really appreciate any info or similar stories. What does this strange episode sound like?

thanks :0)

[Cloudyrain]

Hey hon, sorry for what you went through.

I hate to say it, and you might not want to hear it, but it really does sound like a panic attack. I know, you don't get those, but it's not like s disease, sometimes they just happen.

The thing with panic attacks is that people think it's just sweating and shaking and heart racing when something specific happens (like when people see a spider and have a phobia) but it isn't always like this.

I had exactly the same as you a few years ago, and there was no reason for it really, other than the fact my life was in quite a difficult patch. I had been for tea with my best friend and was just driving him home. I was feeling a bit hot but them 'BAM', I had to pull over the car, couldn't breath, cold sweat, blue lips, heart racing, I couldn't talk properly and thought it was a stroke. My friend put me in the back seat and drove me to the hospital, but we didn't get that far, he really thought I was going so pulled in at a chemist and they got me in the recovery position. I can't really remember that much, but like you was in the ambulance, then being rushed into a&e, all the tests, and being released as everything normal.

When this happened to me I repeatedly denied it was a panic attack, and even my friend who was with me thought it was a stroke, but looking back I know it was. Although when it came on I was actually in a good mood, I had been having a tough time, and it sounds like you are having a tough time too. Sometimes the brain just needs to have a release, and when all the happy hormones are flowing, and are released too quickly, it can cause these acute panic attacks. It's basically like the banks of a river bursting, once it has burst and settled down things get back to normal.

Hope you are feeling better now, and I really hope I haven't upset you. Obviously Im not a doctor, and am only giving you my experience, but I hate to think of you worrying about needing an MRI or something. It is probably a good idea to see how you get on and definitely go to the Dr if things aren't right, but please try not to worry xxx

[Kasha]

It sounds like it could be a few things tbh and i think your best bet might be to have a trip to your GP. Yes, it could have been a panic attack, but it could also have been a little episode where your heart was in a different rhythm, which obviously must have resolved spontaneously. It could have been a non specific pain- maybe you just pulled yourself as you bent over the bath, that could have caused you to be a bit short f breath (pain can do that to you, amongst a whole load of other responses) Yes, the cold sweating etc could just have ben a panic attack as well. But the thing about panic attacks is they do minic other, more serious conditions, as they cause you to release lots of adrenaline andother hormones in prder to deal with the problem that is causing you anxiety in the first place. It is interesting that they haven't suggested that it could be to you so maybe they aren't convinced it is.

I doubt it is to do with your pcos, unless it is anxiety led and was a panic attack, pcos does sometimes mean sufferers have increased anxiety levels. It could be related to your thyroid, which i believe is common to have problems with when you have pcos. I was tested for my thyroid too. So it might be worth asking your gp to look into that. They won't have tested for thyroid in a&e as it is not am emergency test and isn't available quickly enough either.
The problem with a&e medicine is that they don't have long enough or the resources to fully investigate people, and that is compounded by the fact that whatever did happen to you was fairly transient. The ecg that thry took (heart trace) will only show what is going on in your heart at that moment in time, unless damage has been done to the heart. If you had a tachycardia that resolved it wouldn't show up. If your heart rate was 113 in the ambulance i would lay a bet it was a normal rhythm just a bit quicker than normal, which could be because you were distresed. The only way to know for sure is to catch it when it happens, which means it either has to be prolonged enpugh to be still ongoing when they see you or if they catch it on a 24 hr or 6 day event recorder. You'd have to get your gp to refer you for that if he felt it was appropriate.
I'm not sure that asking for a brain scan would necessarily be appropriate. I think you would have to have other symptoms to justify it. Its not just the cost implications but theybare reluctant to order tests like that because of health related issues, it is exposing you to a very powerful magnet.

So my advice is go and see your gp, tell him what happened and hopefully he will have received correspondance from the hospital, with results etc. And if it happens again then get yourself back to a&e. But i'm sure they told you that. Hopefully it was just a one off thing and i hope you feel better now.

[Hols969]

My boss had something similar recently and it was a fibrilation. They attached a monitor to him for a week and found out that, without him knowing, his heart was doing this. He suddenly got it though and sweated, got dizzy etc and generally felt pretty unwell (we actually all thought he was having some sort of panic attack or something as the symptoms are quite similar). He is pretty fit generally, eats well (maybe a bit stressed tho) and he is now on medication to control it and hasnt had it since, he only had it the once like this tho so something triggered it off.

As Kasha says, i would follow it up with the GP.

[Hols969]

How are things going fairycake?