Symptoms and anxiety....help please.

Hello Everyone, I haven't been on the site for a while....but I have a question that my cardiologist has not been able to answer to my satisfaction and so I turn to all of you who have so much experience and compassion.
I received my PM 11 months ago for bradycardia, sick sinus syndrome. No other cardiac disease and generally healthy. After several months of adjustments, my HR, now set at 65 seems right for me. I am able to exercise as much as I want and in general feel pretty good.
Occasionally, and thankfully with less frequency, with no precipitating factors that I can identify, I get a specific set of symptoms - first sternal pain/tightness, then fluttering in my throat, sometimes GI symptoms, followed by a sense of almost fainting and then tremendous anxiety...sometimes I can work through it and sometimes I end up taking a little Valium, 2mg. During the 'event', my HR only changes a little (up), I am not short of breath. The following day I feel like I have been hit in the sternum with a bat and have an overall sense of not feeling well. The fluttering and tightness in my throat can last for a few days. The symptoms occur first, then the anxiety. It wears me out and I get a little frightened.
I wore an event monitor for a month and it did not record anything. I had a stress ECHO which was fine and the PM is functioning well....and yet, this did not happen to me before the PM.....my cardiologist suggested Yoga (I have been practicing Iyengar Yoga for a few years already)....
I'm not sure what to think and wonder if anyone has had a similar experience or any advice.
Thank you all so much for being out there.

3 Comments

Let's use the

by donr - 2013-04-02 01:04:35

Skye: You surely know the "Duck" test. If it has a bill like a duck; quacks like a duck, has webbed feet like a duck, etc. it probably IS a DUCK!

I've been there many times. Know the feelings very well. Based on what YOU report, sounds like a bit of anxiety - but you already guessed that & are looking for others who might agree.

A question: When you take the Valium, does it help you get over the way you feel? Have you tried taking it when the feelings just start? Instead of waiting till you get the actual anxiety feeling?

My experience w/ the anxiety bit is that it can perfectly mimic the symptoms that lead to requiring a PM. IT can give you the symptoms you have described.

I know what you mean about not being able to identify the precipitating causes. Your conscious mind may not be able to recognize them, but your SUB-CONSCIOUS mind surely can. I'd say to start looking for ANY common occurrences that happen just before this all starts - does NOT have to be consciously stressful. May be ANYTHING that your SC mind can witness & react to. Could be innocuous beyond all belief.

Do you find that your muscles in your back & stomach area get extremely hard & tight during these attacks? That will cause you to feel the way you report on the next day.

Wish you the best in your search for an answer.

Don

Sounds familiar to me!

by johng - 2013-04-02 11:04:08

Skyepacer, I think perhaps Don has got it right. I recognise the symptoms, as you describe them (from memory),
This was the most difficult thing for me to overcome about the whole Pacemaker experience.
Now, I realise that taking action (for me, a Valium), as soon as I felt the start of the Anxiety attack, convinced me it was a mental condition.
It only took a few weeks before the problem disappeared.

Hang in there, IT DOES GET BETTER!
Johng

Diagnosticians

by Yakkwak - 2013-04-02 11:04:49

Anti-anxiety meds can be addicting. You apparently have no clear diagnosis right now, are taking anti-anxiety's, and seeking feedback about this from a forum? Might I suggest you not take the chance of running into some arm-chair quacks on-line and, instead, get a professional opinion? While it may be one of the anxiety disorders, it can also be something else entirely. The problem with all this is that if you walk into a dr's office with a pre-conceived notion, it DOES tend to sway how they diagnose you. This is particularly true if the assumed dagnosis is waaayyyy out of their area of expertise ( they had maybe one or two courses that mentioned it in med school). I think the answer to your question should be, it could be related to the PM, but if your doc had not definitively diagnosed you, seek further (PROFESSIONAL) help, until you are satisfied your needs are being adequately addressed. Blessings!

You know you're wired when...

You have rhythm.

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I'm 35 and got my pacemaker a little over a year ago. It definitely is not a burden to me. In fact, I have more energy (which my husband enjoys), can do more things with my kids and have weight because of having the energy.