Ever since I was in about 6th grade (i'm in 10th now) I've been having some sort of heart thing. I'm not sure what it is, and I'll try and explain it as best I can. But you know the feeling when you swallow bread (especially pancakes an waffles) too fast, and it kinda hurts to breath in or swallow for a while until it goes away? Well, since about 4 years ago, when I wake up in the mornings, that's how it feels in my heart when I breath in, so I have to take really shallow breaths for about an hour or so, some mornings it is worse and while it feels better during the day, the feeling is still there. Also, I get winded really easily, just climbing up stairs or something will make me run out of breath and my heart begins to pound really hard, and in gym when we'd have to run, I felt like I was about to pass out. Sometimes, when I get anxious (mostly in crowds and stuff) I get short of breath and my arms get really tired. Even while I was typing this I felt the same way, it's passed now. And sometimes (like just a few minutes ago, which prompted me to come on here and ask about this) I get a feeling in my heart like when a joint, like a knucke or knee pops, it lasts for about 10 seconds then it passes, this has only happend 2 or 3 times, but it never happened before until a couple months ago. I went to the doctor last spring and had some blood work done mainly to test for anemia, and nothing was wrong there, so I was sent to the hospital to get some asthma tests done and it didn't appear that I had asthma. I haven't had any more tests done yet, and I don't know if I want to if it's just going to end up the same way before, I want to know what kind of tests should be done before I go in and have a bunch of useless tests done again. I have a history of heart disease on both sides of my family. On my dad's side, it is mostly just high blood pressure. And on my mom's side there is some (I'm not sure of it all, but one is low blood pressure) and my mom has a palpitated heart, though she's pretty sure she wasn't born with it; it came about when she got a really bad fever when she was younger. I have a lot of the same symptoms of that condition, such as what happens to me sometimes when I wake up in the morning. But she says that hers really only acts up when she has a lot of caffine, so I stopped drinking caffine for a month and there wasn't a dramatic enough improvement for me to think that that was the problem. And when my brother was 4, he had a hole in his aorta that had to be patched up, his heart is in the center of his chest instead of the left causing one of his lungs to be smaller. And now my other brother is saying that he thinks that he may have some problems, too. But he's a smoker, so it's most likely something that has to do with that because he never seemed to have many other problems until he started smoking a few years ago So, that's about all the information I think I have about my condition and history. Does anyone know what it might be? And what type of test I should have done, if any? Any kind of help would be much appreciated. It's been kind of confusing us for a while now.
Thanks so much!

One more thing, whatever this is seems to get worse sometimes then calm down for awhile. It's really only been since last spring that it was getting bad, but hasn't seemed to be getting any worse since then.

I don't know what the problem is, but it sounds like you should get more tests done (not sure which, maybe an EKG? I'm not well-versed in this area), and I have a feeling doctors aren't really rushing to do anything because you're so young and maybe they figure it's nothing. I would think that, given your family's history, they would be a little more concerned.

tabbydog, since you've mentioned that your family has a history of heart conditions, a thorough check up is probably warranted to ensure that you are indeed healthy, and to put any doubts that you have about your health to rest! It doesn't matter how young you are - if there are symptoms such as yours and knowing your family history, any self-respecting doctor must take note of your condition and not just put it down to the "over-active imagination of youth"!

I would sugges the following when you talk to your doctor/cardiologist:

(1) note down your symptoms, when they occur, how often they occur, how long they occur
(2) how do you feel during the times when you have these symptoms?
(3) is there anything you can do to lessen the effects of these symptoms?
(4) what brings these symptoms about? Examples include stressful situations, after food, when you awake from sleep, etc.
(5) do you take any medications?
(6) what tests have you done, and what were the results? It helps if you bring the test results for the doctor to review
(7) do you suffer from hypertension/hypotension?

It's more likely that if you're organised like this, doctors will know that you're indeed serious about this condition and have attempted to look at it objectively and will help you diagnose it.

Having said this, if it is indeed a heart related condition, the doctors will probably want to run through the following "basic" tests before proceeding to the more "specialised" ones:

- ECG/EKG
- echocardiogram
- stress test
- chest/heart X-ray

If these symptoms occur often, my advice would be to seek a doctor's opinion soonest!

Hope this helps!