I can feel my heart beating

Re: YES, VERY NORMAL

by bionicgirl - 2017-09-29 05:01:29

Hi TraceyLynne..

yes it's normal, two months ago everytime I went to bed I could hear my heart beating very loud.

By the way..you're not experiencing any coughs, are you?

because 2 weeks ago I felt my heart's beating so loud (plus I'm having bad cough). Turned out I had penumonia, that's why the heart's felt so loud.

Sorry, didn't mean to scare you :( if you don't have any coughs, then it's normal :)

Yes!

by donr - 2017-09-29 10:16:12

Normal.  There are two issues involved - GRAVITY & SENSORY DEPRIVATION.

Gravity I already knew about when I got my first PM.  read about it on a humourous sign in a medical clinic way back when.  Someone asked why they coulld feel their heart beat when they went to bed - the answer was "You are lying on your left side!"  Why?  Simple - the heart id kinda floppy because it is not really held in place by a lot of things.  Its Arterry & vein structure at the top is the main suspension. the bottom just hangs in there & responds to gravity.  When you roll over to the left, the bottom of the heart (Called the apex in polite company) sags down toward the ribcage & you can really feel it beat along those ribs.

My Cardio added the sensory deprivation while we were discussing the issue early in my PM hosting duties.  He described it thusly:  You crawl into bed, turn off the lights & all other sounds, less the alarm clock.  This is back in the days of the "Big Ben" spring driven, wind up variety.  Then you lie there, still wide awake, trying to go to sleep.  So what is there to distract your senses?  NOTHING.  No light, no sound.  Well, there's Ben.  But there is also the good old heart, pumping away.  Suddenly you hear its every beart, every anamoly.  Shades of Edgar Alan Poe!  Or was it Nasthaniel Hawthorne?  Matters not - you hear the Tell-Tale Heart thumping away!  It's coming to get you!

Here's the solution - turn on a small night light and a quiet radio playing sometrhing to grab the attention of the ears.  Even a device that plays soothing noise - like a wave generator or a fan. 

Another solution - get a job in a forge room at a sheet metal plant.  After several weeks you will develop tinnitus & generate your own internal ringing in the ears - that will also distract you.

Final solution :  Go a few rounds in the boxing ring w/ Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano or Sugar Ray Leonard.  Wind up like Cauliflower McPug or Packy East.  Hey!  sombody answer that telephone!  Boy, a big flock flew over that time.  (Sorry for the ancient history - had my 81st B'Day last Wednesday.)

Donr

Be Still , My Heart

by Gotrhythm - 2017-09-30 14:46:11

Talk about feeling your heat beat! For years before I got a pacemaker, I could feel my heart beat all the time, and you could actually see a pulse right below my breat bone. I quit mentioning it to doctors after being told a number of times that is was "normal."

Well, after I got my pacemaker, for the first time in at least five years, I couldn't feel my heart beating. What a strange feeling that was. I started asking friends if they could feel their heart beat. They told me no. I thought to myself, So, this is what feeling peaceful feels like.

What does that have to do with you? Well, I have a lot of experience with feeling a heartbeat, and yes, it's worse when you go to bed. And I learned ways to manage, if not the heartbeat, at least my reaction to it.

1. Manage your attention. The more you dwell on it, the worse it will be. Donr's advice is good for helping you to get your mind off it, but anything to focus your attention elsewhere is good. I would mentally recite poetry. Imagining letters or numbers appear on a compute screen as you type is also good.

2. Think positive. Your heart is beating, and you know it because you can feel it. That's good. It means your heart is working and you are alive.

3. instead of resisting it, make it your companion. See #2.