i was just wondering if anyone else has this. i can't really figure out if it's a heart issue or a GI issue. it happens when i am laying down. sometimes when i'm asleep it will wake me up. but today i kept trying to fall asleep and it would happen over and over again and now i'm just fed up.
i will feel a weird electrical shock type feeling in the middle of my chest. a bit above my sternum and a bit to the left. it's like someone is running electricity through my chest. it last approximately 1 second. it also feels like something inside is being 'wrung out' at the same time. a squeezy feeling, but very light and short.
i feel pretty calm when it happens, i don't notice any extra heart beats, no loud beats, no other symptom. i felt my pulse after one of these and it was pretty normal and quiet. it seems to go away when i sit up. i've been jolted awake i think from these episodes. usually with an adrenalin rush. deep breathing will make it go away, i also swallow alot of air and sit and burp and reburp myself insanely after. it feels like i'm letting pressure out (but don't think i really am, just swallowing more air).
right now, i am sitting here writing this, the last bunch of these happened about 20 minutes ago, about four in a row within 15 minutes. right now my chest feels like it is slightly electric. i know that's a weird description but the only way i can describe it. kind of shivery and light.
does anyone with heart problems experience this? if you have any kind of weird beats, do you actually feel it?
i actually went to the doctor today, he's running an ecg on me tomorrow and im getting an xray, but he says he's pretty sure it's a hiatal hernia.
thanks
Just wondering if you ever found out what was causing this? I am going thru something similar and have had no answers so far. I feel like I am dying sometimes when I fall asleep...I am terrified.
Hi Pumpkinseed,
I've experienced something quite similar twice these past couple of days - a "wave" of sorts (hard to describe, but quite similar to an electrical discharge) going from my diaphragm to my neck through my chest cavity.
It took a couple of seconds each time for the wave to pass, but it left a very weird feeling in my body. I got dizzy even if I went to bed and tried to relax, my legs started shaking and of course a bunch of crazy thoughts started roaming my mind. A while later my upper chest was in pain - the first couple of pairs of ribs felt like on fire (I have a pretty high threshold for pain so I did not take any pain killers) and my left arm felt numb and a bit sore here and there. Plus at times the chest pain radiated to the back, or so I think, as I felt sharp short pains in several points between my shoulder blades.
I did take my ativan (for anxiety) shortly after having the symptoms I have described, and about 1 hour later I felt better, except for the chest pains.
Please let us know what your doctor told you. It might be of help to many others.
Hope you fell better!
Alex
have you ever been checked for gall bladder problems? i do have a medium sized gallstone and the pain in the back is a definite symptom. (could be other things too of course).
i take a benzo for anxiety too and when i have these events happen the benzo does take away the numb and sore arms (it's always my left arm too! makes me paranoid about heart attacks but i think it's just cuz i type on the computer too much!)
i started taking 5htp for anxiety and it's really helped with overall anxiety doomy feeling and panic attacks. i have only had one in the last eight months, due to, you guessed it, a bad gall bladder attack which i thought was a heart attack.
hope you feel better soon!
Last edited by PumpkinSeed; 08-31-2011 at 02:12 AM.
Has anyone figured out for sure what these sensations are??? Im going mad
it's most definitely gastrointestinal. i cant say for sure on your side, but for me it is.
some things you can do to help.
don't take NSAIDS like ibuprofen
don't eat before bed
sleep in the fetal position
try propping up your upper body with pillows or lift your mattress to an angle.
i've had ulcers and stomach erosion, others have had hiatal hernias.
