The Mystery of the Heart Flutter

Over the past several years, maybe four, I have been feeling a strange sensation in my chest.  It feels as if one is squeezing a small balloon full of water in a hand, and the feeling of the water squeezing through the fingers and "popping" back into the balloon as you open the hand.  That rushing feeling is what I feel in the chest.  It started as an occasional sense, maybe occurring one every few months and it began to be more frequent.  I got a little worried about it a few years ago and I went to a cardiologist to get tested.  Unfortunately, the sensation never occurred during the tests and all the tests came out normal.  On several occasions, I have motioned this to my regular doctor, Dr. Blanchet, but all ECGs that have been taken have come out looking normal.  Last Fall, after another normal ECG, Dr. Blanchet suggested that it may be something else, possibly gas coming out of my stomach.  He asked me to try some medication for gas but I did not take it because I am certain that it was my heart and not the effects of gas.

In November and December 2019, the frequency and intensity of these sensations increased to a point that I became concerned enough to seek another cardiologist.  I called Dr. Blanchet's office for some recommendations and made an appointment to see a third cardiologist in five years.  We had scheduled a trip to Mexico over Christmas and I traveled with these intense sensations in my chest.  These sensations were not painful, nor were they debilitating, I just felt the fluctuations as if my heart were pumping the blood "backward."

I went to see the cardiologist and I was very disappointed in my initial meeting with him.  Again the ECG was normal since I did not have the sensations I described to him.  although I told him that the chances of feeling them were much higher if I lay on my left side.  I had noticed when I lay in bed that if I lay on the left side the feeling is more likely to happen and it would be more intense than when I have them when I am sitting or standing.  His comment was that he needed to make a series of tests.  That in itself did not bother me.  What bothered me was his follow up comment was that he needed the tests to determine what I "did not have."  I indicated that given my symptoms could he direct the tests to see if he could determine what I did have instead of trying to eliminate what I did not have.  He did not seem to be happy at my challenge of his testing procedure and he indicated it was a scientific approach to understanding the problem.  I indicated to him that scientific research, as I understand it is formulating a hypothesis and then test to see if it was true.  He did not respond and proceeded to schedule an echocardiogram and the installation of a monitor for a month to see if they could catch these "sensations" I was feeling.

When I went to have the echocardiogram performed and the monitored installed, the sensations in my chest were quite frequent and dominant.  The technician, doing the echocardiogram was not a very good observer and I asked her if she had noticed the fluctuations that I felt in her monitoring of my heart.  She indicated that she had and she called them "Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs).  It seems, however, that she was only trained and interested in the echocardiogram test and was not interested in the PVCs, and in fact did not report them to Dr. Edouard R. Daher, the cardiologist.  I refused to have the monitor put on me for a couple of reasons:  First, to me, the purpose of the monitor was to show that the "fluctuations" in my chest were not in my imagination and were detected by the technician performing the echocardiogram.  It was the first time they were detected by an instrument.  Second, the monitor was to be attached for a month and I had scheduled a trip to Mexico for three weeks and I could not see the sense of being wired and of carrying a monitor all over Mexico.

During the follow-up visit about a week later with Dr, Daher to review the results of the echocardiogram, he indicated that the muscle in the upper chamber was extremely developed and he had no idea as to why that was.  I asked him if it was related to the PVCs that the technician had detected during the echocardiogram and it was the first time he had heard that I had PVC.  The Technician never reported it.  He asked me why I did not have the monitor installed I told him, My purpose was to demonstrate that PVC existed and they were shown during the echocardiogram.  since he did not have any of that information he insisted that I have the monitor installed.  He also asked me to schedule a Heart MRI.  Again I told him that I would do it when I got back from my trip.

Meantime, the fluctuations or PVCs have become more frequent and more intense and I feel them about a fourth of the time that I am awake.  I'm scheduled for the heart MRI on Wednesday March 25th at 7:30 a.m. at Troy Beaumont in Royal Oak.  I am also due to have the heart monitor installed that same afternoon.  But I am only going to keep it on as long as it is necessary to detect and get a measurement of the PVCs - a lot less than one month.  In fact, I believe it should only take a day or two of monitoring at the rate and intensity they are occurring.