MayoClinic.org
Feeling Like Heart is Kicking Me When Sitting
Hello All,
I wanted to post my issue here and see if I can get some community wisdom around possible suggestions on what it could be, or to confirm my best theory around it.
The problem that I am encountering appears to occur when I am in a sitting position, which is basically all day when I am working. This does not seem to occur when I am lying down or standing up. If I am completely honest, it might occur during these times, but at a completely reduced intensity, at a point where I feel I am making it up/seeing ghosts for a lack of better expression. I have noticed this for a couple of years now, let's call it 3, and it seems to go away, but recently it has returned and seems to have stuck for good, to the point that I want to track it down and get a good diagnosis for it.
For further context, I am a 44-year old male and have recently lost 40lbs. What's interesting is that I did not notice this issue when I had the extra weight. That is, this issue seems to have gotten worse with the more weight that I have lost, which is perplexing to me.
The issue is that when I am sitting down, I seem to feel a kicking sensation from my heartbeat, and it feels like it's in my back, but affects my upper body. At its worst, it will almost give me motion sickness and invoke a headache, although this is rare.
Further, it seems this sensation occurs while I am breathing, and seems to occur around the time when I have completely exhaled, either breathing in or out. Around this time, it simply feels like I am getting kicked by my heart, and it feels like this is occurring in the area towards my back. What's frustrating is that there isn't an exact time that I can reproduce this. It "just happens" and is annoying. This doesn't appear to occur when I am completely exhaled. That is, when I completely exhale and do not breathe back in I do not feel this issue. Of course, I cannot hold this very long but during this time the "kick" does not seem to occur. So, there's that. It seems like it happens during an active breath when I am sitting, and when I am at the point of being exhaled, either going in or going out.
For further background, I have had an EKG done and I do have a right-bundle-branch-block detected. I am wondering if this is resulting from this, which I have been told by cardiologists is a benign condition.
Additionally, I had an echocardiogram done in February, and everything looks fine there. What prompted the echocardiogram was that I was having an irregular heartbeat occurring when I laid down. When I say "irregular heartbeat" I mean the BPMs were the same (around 40-50), but I would get a "double" beat per instance. It freaked me out BIG time! It was like having a heart attack without any pain or additional symptoms. It turns out that this was occurring because I was taking 2x 500mg Naproxen (so 1g) for over 4 days, I want to call it, for headaches (migraines). I did not know this was the culprit at the time, but I had this occur again in July and I was also on Naproxen for 4+ days and it was then that I connected the dots. I stopped the Naproxen then and have never had a problem since then so that appears to explain that scary incident for me. Although it is very concerning that I can "trick" my heart into such a condition with a simple intake of what is supposed to be a painkiller. It makes me wonder if there's another latent/unidentified issue here.
Anyway, on to my best theory on what is happening here with my annoying condition here. My best guess for my mystery annoyance is that I have a compressed nerve at the base of my neck. It was discovered in my 20s and was told that it could lead to problems in the future. I am thinking that when I sit down, it puts pressure upon it in a way that is making these sensations occur. When I had more weight, the extra fat was "protecting" my nerve, and upon losing weight it has exposed the nerve/configuration in such a way that it is causing these sensations.
Consequently, my thought is that if I continue to lose weight, it will further reconfigure my neck in a way where this will go away. That's a joyous/optimistic thought, I know! That's my theory at least. It's just weird that I didn't have this at a higher weight but now it's all that happens at a lower weight.
In any case, I am focused/committed to my weight loss. I used to be 180lbs in my 30s and that's where I am aiming for again. With the pandemic, I have gotten a pretty good routine and works pretty well when I stick to it. I am hoping that losing the additional weight will further reduce any pressure in my configuration to reduce/alleviate/rid of this annoying guest. In the meantime, I wanted to "get this out there" to see if there is anything else to possibly be aware of and/or consider. FWIW, I did mention this to my doctor but we are focused now on my blood pressure, which is a whole other ball of wax (please see the thread on Weening off Metoprolol for further details).
Alright, there you go. I think I got all the facts out there. I feel like this is a confession, LOL. It's nice to be able to write all of this out in detail as it is very difficult to do with a busy and involved 20-minute session with the doctor. In any case, thank you to any out there for any insight/suggestions you can provide.
Hello @mdm123
I have been following your posts and I'm impressed with the thought you've put into this perplexing problem. I'm wondering if you've considered consulting with a GI specialist and/or a neurologist?
As someone also from Michigan I would recommend University of Michigan. They have a renowned heart center. Also being a research medical center they have a great background in understanding about unique heart issues. I mention a GI specialist since these symptoms seem to follow a meal. The neurologist might be helpful in sorting out any nerve related problems.
I would be interested in hearing more about this. Will you post again?
Thanks for the support @hopeful33250! It is much appreciated. As for consultations, I have not thought either of those things. That's actually why I wanted to post here in this forum, to possibly get insight and suggestions on either what this could be or what I should do.
Currently I am not entirely excited about making more appointments during a pandemic, but I do have a follow-up with my doctor in January with the Metoprolol and will probably mention it to her to see what she thinks.
Another consideration is that I could possibly and simply be out of shape. I know I didn't have this when I was able to run a lot on the treadmill. However, I overdid things and have been nursing both a hamstring and calf strain, so taking it easy until they start cooperating again. The hamstring is better but the calf is grumpy, even when I am not using it (have a cycler I am using instead). When I was running, my BP was consistently 110/70 and I was off the Metoprolol. I also didn't notice the kicking.
One final tidbit, is that this eating issue could also be related to my workout regimen. I workout and then eat this big meal, so it's sort of a double-whammy. Yesterday it took about 4.5 hours before I scored a 116/70 (down from 125/76). It's a long time but I wonder if my body is simply zapped from being subjected to 80-90 minutes of cardio/training followed by an ordeal of food.
In any case, yes I will be sure to update this thread when I learn more. Thanks again for the interest and support. 👍
Hey all, I wanted to check in with this issue. To start, I am feeling a little sheepish here as it seems my little condition was due to some self-infliction. I mentioned that I had cut caffeine out at one point to see if that would reduce the sensations, and that didn't seem to help. Well, I decided to give that another go but this time in a more sustained effort, just to see. Whereas the first time, I had only cut 3-4 days, this time I did 3-4 weeks. It seemed to do the trick. That is, I do not suffer the kind of kicking that I used to now that I cut back on the caffeine back to about 100-150mg a day. I am ashamed to admit how much I was doing before, but let's just say it was way over the maximum suggested amount of 400mg daily.
I will say that I still get the kicking sensations from time to time now, but they are extremely subtle and I am not sure I would notice it if I hadn't been trained with the "full" dosage effect, if that makes sense. I am almost willing to say that if I cut out caffeine altogether that it might go away entirely, but I still also sort of worry if there is something else at play here.
So, that's the "good" news… the bad news is that I saw my primary physician yesterday and I was hoping to have a good blood pressure reading, but alas I had no such luck. I had cut the caffeine, and have lost 5lbs in the past 2 weeks now that this nagging hamstring issue I've had has finally healed and I can FINALLY run again. At home, my readings have actually been really good: 112-118/67-72 in the mornings but I can get them as high as 125-130/75-78 during the day. Still, not terrible, especially the lower number. My heart rate has been scoring between 45-55 as well.
I even had a while to collect myself in the waiting room, so I was sure my reading would be better, but nope. The bad news in the office was 153/87 with rate of 68. With the elevated rate especially, I am pretty certain that there is a case of nerves here, or officially whitecoat hypertension. I also want to say there's also a related case of social anxiety as I am never social these days and mostly "in my head" while WFH, so when I am actually social I am woefully "out of shape" and it translates into these readings. My physician wasn't having any of it and was pretty focused on introducing more medication. Luckily, I talked myself into another 3-month stay as I want to see what that blasted machine says at my target weight of 185 (15lbs away now).
As an aside, there was something that was said during my session yesterday that sort of got my attention. My physician said that the recommended reading for blood pressure is now 120/60. Which was a first for me. Can anyone back this up? I know that hypertension was dialed back to 135, but I haven't heard anything about 120/60 which is making me raise an eyebrow.
Finally, there appears to have been a mixup with my cardiologist. I was thinking they were going to call a referral but apparently since I have seen him already in a prior consult, I can make the call myself. I haven't been too enthused about making any more appointments than absolutely necessary during this pandemic, even if they are via telephone (telemedic I think they are called?). There is still the condition of eating and having an elevated BP for hours after such, but the readings never get high enough where I am really worried.
So that's the latest in my world here. I am basically fully healed now and taking it easy in getting back on the treadmill and losing weight again. Going to give it another 3 months and then take it from there. My readings at home are pretty good but getting them read at the clinic continues to be a nightmare. As a parting thought, I am thinking of seeing if I can get a 72-hour leased blood pressure monitor and get some readings there before getting talked into any more medications. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, however. My primary interest is in seeing what that mean clinic machine says at my target weight after 3 months of training.
In any case, I will update here with any new information. I appreciate the well-wishes and interest in my case here. Your support is very much appreciated!
Get a new doctor!!!!
Sounds crazy.
120/60 is NOT good.
Diastolic too low.
My PCP and cardiologist both are happy when my diastolic is in the 60’s. It has been in the 50’s but I was dragging through the day with no energy. If you have a blockage of any size and A-fib then the slower heart rate is to prevent stroke among other things. I function well with diastolic in lower 60’s. We recently cut back on the Metoprolol a little at a time until my energy level was acceptable. Metoprolol plus Eliquis have worked well for me.
@mdm123 I have never heard that about the lower number. All my doctor's say mine is good and it's usually around 120's over 70-80s. But it sounds like you like running and it wouldn't surprise me to see it that low. I've heard that before from.a.friend who was a marathon runner also his heart rate was also low like 50s.
Have a Blessed Day
Dana