Does anyone else get?

Hi all,

I've done some searching but can't seem to find anything, so I was wondering if anyone else gets chest pain after AF?

Thankfully, I've been without AF for about 2.5 weeks now, since stopping the potassium and getting on the right kind of magnesium (plus stopping Hawthorne berry supplementation), but I do still get the odd ectopic beat, or short run or very heavy fast beats (no more than a couple of seconds). The odd thing is that the AF, and even now these other occurrences, frequently result in very sore pains in my chest. The pain can also sometimes be in my shoulder, back, arms, neck and jaw. Both my GP and cardiologist are convinced I'm not suffering from angina, so I've no idea what it is.

I've had virtually every heart test known to man (MRI, Myoview, Ultrasound, treadmill test, ECG's etc), and they all suggest my heart is fine, apart from the AF and ectopic beats, yet I still get these very sore pains in the upper parts of my body after the AF or ectopic episodes. I'm now in a position where the GP doesn't know what to say anymore, and the cardiologist also doesn't seem to want to know, but I'm still getting really unpleasant pains in the upper areas of my body, and no one can give me a clue why.

I wonder if a pain Doctor would have any insight. The AF maybe somehow causing indirect pain by irritating the nerves associated with your pain. Is there anything else different with your episodes, as to your body positioning while you are sleeping during the episodes, or do you have increase physical tension during an episode?

If you get very violent hard pounding episodes at times it can bruise the heart a bit against the rib cage and cause some pain in that way. I have had that back in the days of hard core drug-induced tachy brady from an otherwise well meaning but clueless cardiologist who had me taking extra doses of Toprol every half hour I was in AFIB until I converted ... that on top of Digoxin back in the old days... it set up a nightmare of low speed by hard pounding Brady which would suddenly kick start into high speed pounding AFIB/Tachy that left me feeling like I had gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson in my chest area.

But that was a long time ago thank heavens.

Shannon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2015 05:41PM by Shannon.

Gary - With your treadmill test, did you have the Thallium contrast dye?

What do your other lab tests show about blood viscosity...as we've talked about in the posts on 'thick, sticky blood'?

Testing for fibrinogen, Lipoprotein (a), High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein and the LDL small particles (if on the high side) could give a clue as to the source of pain...in that thick blood doesn't flow easily or readily under normal conditions, but if then if you are in AF or ectopy, blood flow is somewhat restricted and pain would be a symptom especially if in the coronary arteries which may cause radiating pain.

Check out this report by cardiologist, Stephen Sinatra [www.drsinatra.com]

If you haven't had those tests, I'd definitely make sure you get them done soon as pain is a symptom that something is not right.

Jackie

MY extra PAcs or PvCs, weird ectopic or whatever the hell they are occassionally does give me a pain in the chest. I also have left arm pain occasionally. I just try and get over it. With Flecainide when I get my heart rate up to around 130 I get a very sharp pain at the onset of LBBB. MY EP acted like this didnt make sense but I did show him case studies of that being a condition and convinced him by announcing exact onset on a treadmill.
I often feel like the chest pain occasionally on those odd beats is similar to a pain I get when I have bad reflux so maybe it is nerve related somehow, irritation or inflammation

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Shannon's case sounds quite like what I'm experiencing. When I get these episodes it definitely is after one, or a series of, very hard beats, almost like my heart has one or more massive lurches, so Shannon's post certainly resonates.

To answer Jackie. No, I was not injected with anything when I had the treadmill test, but was when I had the cardiac myoview. I'm not sure if it was Thallium dye though. And yes I have had cholesterol tests done, which I was told were on the 'hight side of normal' but I never did see the specifics of the actual LDL counts.

Gary - these are not 'cholesterol' tests.... they are other markers that would indicate a tendency for elevated blood viscosity or the 'thick, sticky blood' we want to avoid.

Jackie