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Your Query 2 days ago
Age:34, Gender: Male
This is a long query but please read it through and give me your best opinion as I'm worried sick.
Ok so I'm a 34 year old man from UK and I have severe anxiety and panic disorder In fact I think I'm having a panic attack right now!
This all started in 2011 when I had high cholesterol I was put on 40mg atorvastatin and was given a coronary calcium score to ensure there was no build up in the arteries of my heart (results were zero arteries completely clear) now it's 2016 my cholesterol is normal and I'm not medicated.
Anyway, I 2013 I was rushing up and down a flight of stairs moving a tenant out of a property and fealt Ill I attended A&E and they performed an ECG, from that hospital I was taken to another as they had said there was an issue with an inverted TWave and though they fealt i wasn't having a heart attack at that point they wasn't sure if I'd had one in past. At hospital I was given blood tests and another ECG, next morning I saw a cardiologist who said my ECG was clear and it was likely due to stress also my bloods had been tested for troponin levels and was found to be normal so I was discharged with no further action.
I was fine until loads of stress this year ended me back in A&E about 2 or 3 times both of which I had ECGS which I was told were normal and that my bloods were also normal it was likely chest pain caused by a mixture of GERD and Anxiety together, not satisfied I saw my GP a few weeks later (April 2016) and they told me all was clear, blood pressure was ok, cholesterol was good but testosterone was low. I requested another ECG in surgery 'too ease my anxieties' however on doing this ECG it gave an automatic diagnosis of 'possible past peri infarction' immediately my demeanour changed And began worrying I asked my GP if I should be worried and he said too me that these small ECG machines tend to over interpret things and from looking at the heart trace he said it was perfectly normal just a little fast but not concerned. Due to anxiety I couldn't accept this so my GP forwarded my ECG to a cardiologist registrar who also reported "I very much doubt this man has ever had an MI but if he's still worried refer too a cardiologist" anyway I wasn't satisfied so yea I was referred to a cardiologist in May 2016 he performed an ECG, did my BP and spoke to me about my family history and past checks (including coronary calcium score) he reassured me that it was definitely anxiety and that I should get treatment for that. Satisfied o left it at that until recently!
Again my chest pain has flared up and I was again taken too A&E, this was on 6th September this year.. basically I had a panic attack (at least that's what they now called it) and my BP was high my blood sate were good but my blood sugars which are normally 4.4 / 4.9 were 8.9! First paramedic performed an ECG and reported an issue with Q waves and a t wave inversion so I was taken by a different ambulance to accident and emergency on route the new paramedic was a paramedic practitioner and said my ECG looked fine and the q wave thing was only in one lead so nothing to worry about and as ambulance was bouncing down road he performed another ECG (which I've attached to this question) of which he said was still normal!
On entrance to hospital I had another ECG done and my BP done which by this point was 148/100 bit was told this was ok as I was anxious and shaking, my ECG was shown too a consultant and I was told it was ok and to wait in reception too be seen by treatment area. A few hours later of waiting and I was seen in treatment by another dr who again performed another ECG and said 'it looks same as your last ECG from when you were last in hospital and was absolutely fine' I went home satisfied however a few weeks later and I've been digging up my garden, pulse up too about 138 I immediately rushed to GP surgery as I had right sided chest pain he said my blood pressure was fine and though my heart was fast it sounded fine he also performed an ankle blood pressure which he said would reflect quality of my coronary arteries and said my ankle BP was fine!
Couple of weeks later again (in fact last week) I had a large meal at pub then immediately went shopping I fealt my pulse racing at around 138/140 whilst walking round shop and on return to my car within a minute my pulse returned to normal so again went to see GP who was a different one and said 'your heart sounds absolutely fine just a little fast' and that it wasn't unusual for my pulse to increase shopping immediately after a meal. Satisfied again I went home.
On Monday just gone I went to work at a psychiatric hospital and had to respond to an alarm so rushed (walking rushed) to a seeders part of hospital and back however on route I had pain / discomfort in my lower sternum for a few seconds On return to ward I was working on I used pulse oximeter and it said my pulse was 138 and oxygen around 97/98 however at one point and only for a few seconds it went to 93 however I don't know if this was postural or. Or as it went back up too 96/97/98 shortly and my pulse reduced quickly back too 108 within seconds. I left work that night and haven't worked since though I've had two panic attacks at home since
What's worried me tonight is my pulse that usually goes up immediately after eating a meal hasn't gone up and has remained around high 70s mid 80s it rose to around 90ish about half hour to an hour after eating but by then I was already panicking and checking my pulse and blood oxygen (which has been 96 / 97 normal for me) my pulse now whilst writing this is 88 and I do have a very small pain almost like a burning behind my sternum and sometimes slight to left of my sternum I'm not sweating profusely but when I burp I'm burping up food as well ! I feel I've had a panic attack again as I fealt shakey when I started writing this (not so much now) and if I had to rate my pain out of 10 I'd say it's only a 1 or 2 at most!
A few figures
My normal resting pulse is between 68/70bpm my sleeping pulse is around 63 but can go down too 54/55 BPM
My highest recorded pulse whilst active is around 138 and if I walk upstairs from a laid position my pulse will increase too around 124 but will drop too 88 within one minute when I lay or sit back down upstairs.
I'm just so scared of this being my heart as opposed to anxiety, considering all my clear tests and the fact I've had this a while yet still alive typing this are my gps and cardiologists right?
I have no family history of heart disease and no members of my family have had a MI I am overweight but my cholesterol is normal and my BP is normal
What are your thoughts???
Lastly I don't know if this could be connected or if it can help reach a diagnosis but anytime I eat food I regularly burp food back up for example I ate fish pie about an hour ago, just burped and burped up fish pie as if it hadn't even been digested this happens quiet often and with drinks / fluid as well also this morning I found it painful (ish) when swallowing water???
I've attached a number of attachements for your reference my highest BP was after i stressed my heart running up and down stairs 4 times too see how my body handled it other bo reading is few minutes later resting