Pain when heart beats

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Specializes in critical care; community health; psych.

I know I'm stressed out with school and work so it could be anxiety but over the last few days I've noticed that I have pain (3-4 on pain scale) on my heart beats. It's not unusual for me to get strange symptoms because I have mixed connective tissue disease that causes generalized inflammation every now and then. ASA does seem to help.

Ever hear of this? No, I'm not having a heart attack. This isn't the first time I've had this symptom. Ideas anyone?

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

Myocarditis? With a history of connective tissue disease, it doesn't seem out of the question. Get thee to thy practitioner!

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

Totally agreed!

I noticed while in RN school that I felt my heart skip beats and though I was just being silly and diagnosing myself...wrong..PAC's and serious ones! I had to cut down on coffee big time (OUCH!), and relax as much as humanly possible (yeah right..RN SCHOOL!?!?!). I am okay now, but I do feel it from time to time! Thank goodness I went with my instincts and talked with my doc!

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

I agree, you need to see the doc about this, if nothing else, then for your own peace of mind.

I couldn't study with those symptoms. Can you?

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Get an EKG :)

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I actually had something very similar to this. I had pain in my left chest, just as you described. Without self diagnosing myself, I went to the doctor over the concern, they did an EKG and asked me tons of questions (I do have a family hx of heart problems) and found that it was most probably due to the stress of starting work as a new graduate nurse, too much stress and not enough alleviation of the tension.

She recommended no caffeine, loose some weight, try not to take anything so seriously (yeah right, on a med-surg floor?) and exercise more regularly.

So far I have done all the above, including transfering to another unit. I have not felt any more chest pains in about two months.

Definitely go check it out, everyone's individual in their problems and you don't want to overlook a serious problem, but also, try to relax and not take things so seriously (I know, refer to my sarcasm above but it really does work!) by remembering we're all human and no one is perfect, even though they want us to be.

Good luck and hope all is well with your heart! :clown:

JacelRN

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Get evaluated. I had PVC's in the last 2 semesters of nursing school,due to extreme stress. My dh was deployed and I was going it alone w/a 4 year old during the two most demanding semesters in school. My heart was definately reacting to the stress and lack of sleep. Fortunately for me, it resolved almost immediately after graduating. Get a medical exam/EKG so you can know what is going on w/you! Good luck and let us know how you do.

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