Hello,

I have strange tightening in my chest and my heart palpitates and skips beats even when I'm at rest, sometimes I feel it in my throat. I've had several EKG's, blood tests, an Echo, a stress test and a holter monitor several times. The Drs. tell me everything is fine. The echo showed very trivial MVP. Am I just being anxious or could they still be missing something?

Thank You for you replies

Have you had these episodes while wearing the holter?

Yes I was feeling the palpitations when I had the holter on, but they said everything looked fine. So with everything I've had, do you think everything is OK?

Well yeah I'd say so - I'm pretty much in the same boat as you but I feel hard spasming in my chest - I was 99% sure it was my heart. I have had about 3 resting ecgs, 1 treadmill ecg and also a holter where I had the thump and I recorded the time - the doctors said the readings didn't change.

What I'm trying to say that these pains, spams, whatever aren't always caused by your heart - you've had extensive tests and they've not found anything at all (apart from trivial mvp) - have you tried another angle? It may be your esophagus or chest muscles - anything! Extra beats are very common and the tests show they are benign so stop worrying about it.

Are you sure you don't get the palpitations, get anxious and *then* get the tightening chest? Anxiety can cause all of these symptoms. There are no more tests that you can have so the bottom line is accept the results and move on. Hard to do - I know.

Steve.

Thanks Steve. I was wondering if it was anxiety. I used to have anxiety attacks but haven't really had any for 2 years. I thought that they were long gone. I would probably think it were something else if my chest and ribs didn't hurt, along with my shoulder and or elbows when it happened. You're probably right. I need to stop worrying about it.

Yeah well I know it's difficult - the unfortunate fact is that a lot of us (me included) will be convinced that the worse case scenario is what we have.

If you think about it literally you have had probably 6 tests - every single one says that your heart is fine. Need I go on? ;)

Also, when I was in the same boat, someone said to me "what is the point in having all of these tests if you never believe the results anyway?"

Wise words...

Steve.

Steve

Not only wise words but very true. BTW if you were wondering about the name change my hubby decided to prove a point to me so he asked the question. Point taken and appreciated.

Chris

Sound a lot like you suffer from health-anxiety. Or heart-anxiety in your case. You are becoming more and more aware of your heart, and it's freaking you out making the symptoms worse, or at least making them seem worse.

Are you a constant pulse checker by any chance?

The reason I ask is because I suffer from health anxiety, especially with my heart. And one of the things I do is constantly check my pulse and BP. My BP is high due to this anxiety causing even more anxiety! It's a vicious cycle.

If you've had all those tests performed and all were normal, then your heart is normal. Non-acceptance of the doc's positive is a big sign of health-anxiety.

Hi Junior,

Thanks for the response. Yes, actually I do take my pulse quite often. It's kinda what I use to calm myself down.

I'll tell you why I'm like this. I suffered from pain for years, I had Drs. say go see a therapist, it's all in your head. I starting having anxiety attacks because I knew I was in pain and noone would believe me. After SEVEN years, I heard oops we made a mistake. The other thing is my grandmother whom I was very close to died from heart disease She always said it hurt and nobody believed her either.

Is this enough to cause this health/heart anxiety?

Chris