Went to the hospital today

[mum5]

I am due with 3rd baby at the beginning of march.
I had been feeling like my heart was having palpitations, skipping a beat and I felt really out of breath and faint.
The symptoms would come and go, but they lasted all day yesterday and were still present this morning.
Now my m/w office would not be open until Monday morning, and after an hour or so of this , again this morning, I called her, and she wanted me to come in.
So to cut a long story short, my EKG was fine, blood work was great, CBC, checked electrolytes, magnesium, potassium and some other things.
Oxygen was good, everything was normal.
When checking my pulse, they could feel it skipping a beat, but said that it is totally normal, and happens quite frequently, not even in pregnancy.
Has anyone else had this?
I am hoping that it resolves it's self quickly, or it's my body fighting off a virus or something.
It's a most disconcerting feeling!

[IAMommy]

I have had this, but not while pregnant so much. When I was in my early 20s I saw a cardiologist for all of my palpitations and fainting. EKG and everything was normal. They stuck a monitor on me for a week, and after checking those results, they told me this was normal for young women. I do have low blood pressure, so that feeds into it, but I don't see how all of this is normal. I'm not a cardiologist though. Try to stay hydrated and are you eating enough salt? We eat very little processed food, so I get very little salt in my diet and I find that adding some salt here or there helps a lot. I'm about to try adding dulse flakes to some foods for the salty flavor and nutrition.

[at_the_hip]

I have this and it is more noticeable with pgnancy for sure. I found that low iron made it noticeably worse so you might try some Floradix for iron...and maybe even some of the Flora Calcium/Magnesium liquid since those minerals also help with your muscles (including your heart!). It is really frightening...so sorry to hear that you've been dealing with it!

[NullSet]

I had something similar a month or so ago. An evening and the next morning of feeling weird and having a ton of skipped beats when I checked my heart-rate. I had attributed it to the fact that I drank a cup of strong caffeinated coffee, not sure if that was it or not but it went away and hasn't occurred again. At the time I also thought it might have been an anxiety issue for me since I've been prone to that while pregnant.

[chai]

I have had this as well, and wore a monitor for a week because they couldn't find anything when they did an EKG in their office. The monitor picked them up, and I think (can't remember for sure) that they were premature (or late) ventricular contractions? Basically, two beats are too close together, so it sounds like one beat, but really there are two.

In my research I found that this is often neurological, and can be caused by mineral/electrolyte imbalance. For me it goes away if I take plenty of cal/mag (the recommended dosage, daily). Magnesium deficiency is often linked to heart irregularities.

[SamuraiMom]

Have you considered anxiety? I had this with #3 and I read somewhere that it was caused by a "vibrant fetus" , but I figured that maybe a little more quiet meditation might help, and it did. It's just a thought, especially when all test come back normal, sometimes we don't realize that we are anxious about impending big change until our body tells us!

[mum5]

Thanks for all the replies!
I Actually have a great iron count, they checked my mag/potassium levels, and electrolytes, and all were fine.
I am prone to leg cramps, so wonder if that could be it, low calcium?

Anyway, I am feeling much better. I came home from hospital, slept on sofa for a while, went to bed early and actually had a good 10 hr sleep, which is unheard of for me lately.
We have just bought a house ( foreclosure) which was in itself quite stressful, as it was a 3 week closing, with many problems, the house has problems also, which we sort of knew going into it, but the contractor fixing the probs was working a really slowly, and time is of the essence when you are due in 9 weeks, with 2 kids and I was not sleeping well at all at night. So think that that combined with the stress of everything kind of set me off.

I will definately try to up calcium intake, and also get more rest!

[me&3]

Just wanted to chime in to say that I've had this for years - - ever since college days. I think for me it's related to stress and caffeine.

Once it was very bad, and my heart went into a gallop for a while and didn't calm down - - I called my sister who actually has some heart issues, and she told me to "bear down" iykwim, and lo and behold - - it worked! Very odd.

[SuzieQ3417]

Originally Posted by me&3

Just wanted to chime in to say that I've had this for years - - ever since college days. I think for me it's related to stress and caffeine.

Once it was very bad, and my heart went into a gallop for a while and didn't calm down - - I called my sister who actually has some heart issues, and she told me to "bear down" iykwim, and lo and behold - - it worked! Very odd.

Just wanted to reiterate what everyone else has said - this is a very common problem, particularly in pregnancy, and is usually completely normal. The palpitations are most often PVCs (premature ventricular contractions) or PACs (premature atrial contractions). They're worsened by stress or caffeine (basically anything that releases adrenaline), and hormonal changes (add yet another to the list of the "joys" of pregnancy )

The "bearing down" is referred to as the Valsalva maneuver - it can help with certain arrhythmias by temporarily slowing the heart rate...glad to hear it helped with yours!

[mediumcrunch]

Ever since baby #3 my heart often has 'issues' with me being pregnant. I get tachycardic, sometimes for hours. With one pregnancy I took beta-blockers. It helped a little but I've never bothered with them again. It has been something I just lived with except when it happened along with chest pain, after having my PICC pulled, last pregnancy it landed me in the hospital for a week. :P Their primary concern was a pulmonary embolism which was pretty well ruled out with a VQ scan.
here I am, 15+ weeks and it is happening again. Significantly worse if I eat simple carbs. It makes a HUGE difference. If I stay away from sugar, pasta, rice etc...it isn't nearly as bad.