Heart health anxiety flaring up

[bin_tenn]

Hey. It's me. Yet again! I'm really struggling with these sensations I've been experiencing lately. Chest tightness, heartburn, occasional lightheadedness, random areas of pain in shoulders and arms.

Chest tightness: I know, it's probably muscle tension. It doesn't feel like it's "inside my chest". Yes, it's typical when anxious to have this tightness sensation.

Heartburn: Of course, I have GERD. Duh! It's not just heartburn, it's also acid regurgitation. That, if I remember correctly, is most often seen as an indication that it's just reflux, not cardiac pain.

Occasional lightheadedness: This one has indeed worried me a bit, lately. You may have seen my other recent posts. It happens sporadically. It's improved a bit recently, but it's still unpleasant.

Random areas of pain: Well, this is also to be expected with stress / tension. But combined with the other sensations, it can feel troublesome to the anxious mind. Especially when that anxious mind focuses on heart related ailments.

I've been thinking about this a lot, and I really want to believe it's all just anxiety. I know this has all happened before. It still just feels kinda scary in the moment, I guess.

A small part of me wants to go to the ER for peace of mind. Although that may be too much, at least as an initial visit. I do need to see my primary doc again about the beta blocker, so maybe I should go there insgead? Talk about the beta blocker, but also what I'm dealing with recently?

I just hope I can move past this soon. I was doing so well since I quit smoking, feeling great. Then as soon as I temporarily switched meds for BP I feel like garbage and like something is wrong.

I dunno. Thanks for reading. I hope you're all well, as always.

 

[MATD]

Seems you know what to do, see your doc and discuss all this. Switching meds could be the culprit with the light headed feeling or it could be anxiety. Go for the doctor visit, it’s the best plan of action right now. Peace of mind is a phone call away.

 

[Ms.Honey]

Maybe because of the change with your meds you mind is messing with you..
I hope you get it sorted out soon!
I’ve been worrying about my heart a lot lately too.

 

[Belizz]

About BP meds talk to your dr, I think it is important to adjust your meds. It can be just that.
Don't just relate all of those symptoms together and think that you have something serious. They can also be totally unrelated minor occurrences.
Talk to the dr about the symptoms and ask if they can be related to the new meds. Dr should know and ask them openly if the symptoms can be BP meds or something else. You know, they don't think like us, they evaluate things in their minds without even feeling the need to tell us details unless we ask.
Chest pain and GERD go hand in hand yes, lightheadedness can be because of anything and usually alone it doesn't have any meaning.
Hope you feel better soon.

 

[Missy]

Hey. It's me. Yet again! I'm really struggling with these sensations I've been experiencing lately. Chest tightness, heartburn, occasional lightheadedness, random areas of pain in shoulders and arms.

Chest tightness: I know, it's probably muscle tension. It doesn't feel like it's "inside my chest". Yes, it's typical when anxious to have this tightness sensation.

Heartburn: Of course, I have GERD. Duh! It's not just heartburn, it's also acid regurgitation. That, if I remember correctly, is most often seen as an indication that it's just reflux, not cardiac pain.

Occasional lightheadedness: This one has indeed worried me a bit, lately. You may have seen my other recent posts. It happens sporadically. It's improved a bit recently, but it's still unpleasant.

Random areas of pain: Well, this is also to be expected with stress / tension. But combined with the other sensations, it can feel troublesome to the anxious mind. Especially when that anxious mind focuses on heart related ailments.

I've been thinking about this a lot, and I really want to believe it's all just anxiety. I know this has all happened before. It still just feels kinda scary in the moment, I guess.

A small part of me wants to go to the ER for peace of mind. Although that may be too much, at least as an initial visit. I do need to see my primary doc again about the beta blocker, so maybe I should go there insgead? Talk about the beta blocker, but also what I'm dealing with recently?

I just hope I can move past this soon. I was doing so well since I quit smoking, feeling great. Then as soon as I temporarily switched meds for BP I feel like garbage and like something is wrong.

I dunno. Thanks for reading. I hope you're all well, as always.

I agree that you should speak with your doctor about your concerns. You are right that all of this started when you switched meds. Also are there other things going on in your life? Something else might be triggering your anxiety. Just the switching of the meds could have fueled your anxiety.

 

[bin_tenn]

Thanks everyone. To be clear, I was on the new med for only four or five days, but switched back to the beta blocker because the new med didn't work at all.

I'm hanging in there today. I feel generally alright, which is what I've felt like most days, with occasional bouts of these sensations / anxiety. I'm glad to not be having full blown panic attacks, or really much panic of any kind. I'm just anxious / nervous about things that are ultimately okay, anxiety just perceives those things differently. So yeah, it's been much worse in the past, and I'm happy that I'm able to handle this so well, relative to some time ago.

 

[Jennie048]

Hi Bin - just wanted to say hello! It’s definitely been awhile and hope you are feeling better. So glad you quit smoking

 

[bin_tenn]

Hi Bin - just wanted to say hello! It’s definitely been awhile and hope you are feeling better. So glad you quit smoking

Hey, Jennie! It definitely has been a while, huh? Thanks for checking in. I've been doing pretty well since I posted about this.

I went to the doctor to discuss the medication I take, because the Lisinopril that he switched me to didn't work. And the beta blocker doesn't work as well as it should anymore. He switched me back to the beta blocker long term. However, I started taking the two together, and I've actually been getting consistently better (overall) blood pressure readings.

The readings still aren't ideal, but they're consistently better. And I do often get some good readings like 124/75. I'll take that over 140/90 any day.

My plan now is to talk to the doctor and ask if that's ideal in the long term, or if I shouldn't really take them together in the long run.