Question: I am a 47 year old female with large hiatel hernia, reflux disease. I have been on reflux medication for over 20 years. I do have from time to time a flare up when my esophagus will get the burning feeling but I will double up on the medication and use Mylanta to soothe it and it will go away. My doctor insists that I have edema in my legs, but mine don't look any worse than any other 5'1" 171lb. female. My legs do not look very swollen at all, a little cankle but nothing huge. He has me on 40mg of Lasix, but i usually only take 20 to twenty five but not on an everyday basis. I also take potassium when I take the Lasix. I usually only take it about twice a week. I take Omega 3 , vitamin D3 on a regular basis and Glucosamine sometimes. Here is what happened to me. On Sunday 2-12-2012 I was out to dinner with friends. I had one and a half alcoholic beverges and water with dinner. I went home went to bed and was woken up at 4:00 a.m. with my heart pounding out of my chest and breathing very XXXXXXX Since then my heart beats hard and i have to breath deeper. My heart beats fast and hard twenty four seven. It is more tolerable during the day when I am at work or I am occupied. When i go to bed i am awaken by the same thing only the pouding isn't as profound as when it first happened. I am breathing heavier when i am awakened by this. After about 15 minutes it will go down some and I will try to fall back to sleep and it will happen again. Needless to say I am not sleeping much at all. Since this started in the past 2 days I have started to have an arm or my upper torso jerk when I am starting to fall asleep. I went to my doctor this past Friday and I took photos of my esophagus that were taken in an endoscope in 2002. I was told by the gastrointerologist at that time that my hiatel hernia was very large and I had a lot of polups in my esophagus. Some were taken out to be biopsied and were negative for cancer. He told me that I should be o.k with medication. When I told my present PCP about this when i went to him about my pounding heart he dismissed that my hernia or reflux could have anything to do with it. He did an EKG and chest x-ray. He compared this EKG to one he took on me 6 weeks ago and said there was slight difference,my BP was 126/82 pulse was 81 that day. My usual BP is between 117/79 to 111/67.my pulse was 81, my usual is 62 to 72. I went to his office today to have a holter monitor put on and will have an echco cardiogram tomorrow when i turn it back in. I had an echo done with him two years ago and it was fine. He orderd a nuclear stress test for Friday, i had that done in 2007 and it was ok then. He ordered upper GI for the following Friday. I am very concerned about not being able to sleep. Could this be hormonal at all?I stoped taking Microgestin birth control pill about three weeks ago. He has also ordered a battery of blood screenings to check hormone levels, cbc, comp metabolic panel,lipid panel, thyroxine, tsh 3rd generation, estradiol, LH, FSH, CKMS, Mjojlol I, cant make out writing on lab slip, Troponin I, I think is what it said. And urine analysis. Can someone give me advice? As i am typing this I am getting a horrible headache!

If this can be followed up by either a cardiologist or gynechologist i would pay for the answer. I just thought I would start with an internest first. Thank you.

Thank you Dr. XXXXXXX I am just anxious I want answers now. I know it is best to wait until all the test are done. It is just hard to wait. One more thing to add, when i was exercising my right knee was hurting a lot, so i was taking a lot of Advil, a lot more than usual. Could this have any bearing on my condition, could it at least be considered? I forgot to tell him this.