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What Causes Insomnia And Fatigue With History Of Heart Attack?
Question: I had a heart attack 14 months ago with a stent fitted in my RCA. I am 42 years old, fit and relatively healthy. I have had multiple tests done since my MI. I have an implanted Reveal monitor which has shown no evidence of an arrhythmia since it was installed 12 months ago. I had an exercise stress test 2 weeks ago following a period of chest pain and dizziness. The tests came back negative and confirmed I do not have angina and the pain is therefore none cardiac. I am having trouble sleeping and feel very fatigued. For 4 days now I have been suffering from heart palpitations that make my chest flutter every 30 seconds, all day long. I also get a feeling that my heart is slowing and about to stop. Is this just anxiety (I am very stressed about my health), or is this cardiac?
Brief Answer:
Non-cardiac for sure in my opinion
Detailed Answer:
Hello sir and welcome.
Thank you for writing to us.
I have gone through your query with diligence and would like you to know that I am here to help. Many individuals can develop anxiety and panic after such serious life events. I do not blame you, in fact when my older brother suffered an MI at the age of 28 years, I took care of him for the next month and made sure he made a good recovery. A month after watching over him day in and day out, I started developing angina (or so I though it was).
I started getting it repeatedly, several times a day and being a doctor I had to rule out the worst. I took multiple EKGs at my hospital, all of which reported a healthy 26 year old heart. I even decided to do a few other cardiovascular-related investigations, all of which helped out my doctor instincts to rest. But the chest pains still occurred, although less frequently and gradually disappeared. This was just my mind playing games with me and such strong and realistic ones, that they had me fooled.
This of course is slightly different from your situation as you did in fact suffer an MI and I would completely understand if you have the fear of another episode. It is of course better to be safe than sorry, for which I would recommend quarterly checkups, and nothing more sir.
In my opinion, there could be two reasons for such a presentation:
+Panic or possibly even just a game your mind is playing with you. Have trust in your medical care and also go ahead with medical checkups once every 3 months which would easily detect any changes
+Since your episode, you would have been introduced to a whole new lifestyle with a new diet, med medications, some amount of stress from the event, etc; All these factors together can also influence the gastrointestinal system by increasing the acid in the stomach, gas production, etc. So I would also like to rule out a gastrointestinal cause, so please do speak to your doctor about this and initiate medications like (e.g. ranitidine, pantoprazole, etc.) and if at all it helps in reducing your symptoms, then we have found the cause for problems, if not, then this is psychological.
I hope I have explained things in a manner best understood by you. Please feel free to write back to me for any further clarifications, I would be more than happy to help you.
Best wishes.
Non-cardiac for sure in my opinion
Detailed Answer:
Hello sir and welcome.
Thank you for writing to us.
I have gone through your query with diligence and would like you to know that I am here to help. Many individuals can develop anxiety and panic after such serious life events. I do not blame you, in fact when my older brother suffered an MI at the age of 28 years, I took care of him for the next month and made sure he made a good recovery. A month after watching over him day in and day out, I started developing angina (or so I though it was).
I started getting it repeatedly, several times a day and being a doctor I had to rule out the worst. I took multiple EKGs at my hospital, all of which reported a healthy 26 year old heart. I even decided to do a few other cardiovascular-related investigations, all of which helped out my doctor instincts to rest. But the chest pains still occurred, although less frequently and gradually disappeared. This was just my mind playing games with me and such strong and realistic ones, that they had me fooled.
This of course is slightly different from your situation as you did in fact suffer an MI and I would completely understand if you have the fear of another episode. It is of course better to be safe than sorry, for which I would recommend quarterly checkups, and nothing more sir.
In my opinion, there could be two reasons for such a presentation:
+Panic or possibly even just a game your mind is playing with you. Have trust in your medical care and also go ahead with medical checkups once every 3 months which would easily detect any changes
+Since your episode, you would have been introduced to a whole new lifestyle with a new diet, med medications, some amount of stress from the event, etc; All these factors together can also influence the gastrointestinal system by increasing the acid in the stomach, gas production, etc. So I would also like to rule out a gastrointestinal cause, so please do speak to your doctor about this and initiate medications like (e.g. ranitidine, pantoprazole, etc.) and if at all it helps in reducing your symptoms, then we have found the cause for problems, if not, then this is psychological.
I hope I have explained things in a manner best understood by you. Please feel free to write back to me for any further clarifications, I would be more than happy to help you.
Best wishes.
Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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