Thread: Migraines, dizziness, chest pains heart racing

I have a great story for you about doctors. It all started with an IUD which due to pain and bleeding got me stuck in bed for 3 weeks. It came out and a week later I went to my doctor complaining of difficulty breathing and high heart rate. Blood tests came back as an elevated d dimer and I was sent to the ER to check for blood clots. Tests upon tests later, nothing. So I was sent home but the next day I was short of breath, my heart was racing, and my hands started tingling. Back to the ER. Repeat the ct scan. Sudden worsening of condition, 180bpm, hyperventilating, unable to draw a full breathe, etc... They could find no problem. They told me I was having panic attacks. I was playing with the heart rate monitor sitting up and laying down, holding my breath, and things like that to see what the readout would say. Yep completely panicking. My husband on the other hand finally held me down and told me to stop freaking him out. They gave me a beta blocker and told me to return if I had respiratory symptoms. I returned. I got referred to a therapist on why I didn't want to leave the ER.... They gave me something for coughing and sent me away. I went to a different ER where they treated me for asthma due to the beta blocker and gave me an inhaler just in case. At this point I am on about 4 meds some of which are just there to counter each other.

The next day I go to my pulmonologist appointment and during check out I start hyperventilating so he checks me in to the hospital for 24hrs with a holter monitor and they do all sorts of lung function tests and look at my heart. It was amusing watching the nurse try to find a vein that didn't already have a hole in it for the IV. They find nothing. I go home again. I spend the next 6 months having tests done on my heart and lungs to find nothing while I continue to complain about breathing problems and am unable to hardly get out of bed because of my heart rate spiking. They try random meds but nothing. I give up. 6 more months go by tolerating it all when my regular doctor finally checks my abdomen to find it distended.

The end of this story goes like this.... The IUD made me inactive so that my not so well functioning digestive tract became constipated and stretched. That put pressure on the complicated nervous system that surrounds the intestines and my diaphragm stopping my breathing and dropping my blood pressure which raised my heart rate. I'm apparently allergic to ct contrast material so 2 ct scans in 24 hours resulted in a reaction that no one caught. I spent another 6 months on miralax when I started having gall bladder and heart burn problems that put me back in the ER and urgent care clinic. My doctor had no ideas except to give me more meds to counter the side effects. A few months later I solved my problems myself by ordering magnesium oxide and stopping all other meds. Problem solved except for the 50lbs I gained while being inactive during all of this.

Yay for western medicine and our wonderful doctors.

I also take seroquel, lunesta, mirtazapine, and gabapentin for insomnia that no one can solve so I know what it's like swallowing all those pills too. Some nights I tell my husband I don't want to swallow all those pills (about 10) and he threatens to strangle me to death if I stop sleeping and scare him again.