Mysterious Heart Incident!

Morelli23

Hi all,

This one is a bit of a strange one, hopefully you guys will have the answer!
I'm a 30 year old, relatively fit and healthy male, no serious medical history and no family history of heart problems. I was at a wedding on September 15th of this year, had a big meal, with a few glasses of red wine over the course of the day/evening, and maybe 5 or 6 pints and a shot or 2 after the meal. Not a huge amount of drink for a wedding, and going home that night I was relatively sober.

The next morning my life changed.

I was woken at about 9am by what I can only describe as severe fatigue in my chest. It wasn't necessarily pain, but it was unbearable. It was centered in my chest, and radiated to my back and down both my upper arms. I literally could not get comfortable, and I could barely breathe. At first I thought it would pass, but as time went on, it got worse. Bad enough for me to think it would be wise to visit A&E. I knew I would be seen there more or less immediately, as I work in the hospital in question! To say I was exhausted is an understatement..I literally couldn't hold my arms up, I had no strength left whatsoever, and I felt extremely anxious, with a sense of impending doom. My poor wife, who was 8 months pregnant at the time, drove me to a&e, where I vomited at the entrance (drink related, possibly, I don't know), seen a nurse, she did a trace on my heart, immediately called the doctor on call, who rushed me into resus, put me on 100% oxygen, gave me GTN spray and aspirin for a heart attack. As you can imagine, this news probably gave me another heart attack! The nurses, docs and my other work colleagues were absolutely shocked that I was here, presenting with a heart attack, when I'm clearly a fit young man. A cardiac specialist took over my case from then on, and I have to say, without him, I would have been climbing the walls with worry. He told me it had to be pericarditis, as there was no way I could be having a heart attack at my age, but he arranged to treat me for everything, rather than nothing. He noted there was slight clubbing of my nails, but i think they've always been that way. He did an echo, which showed that my heart was beating fine, all chambers pumping as normal, did a test for cocaine, which came back negative, and arranged for an angiogram to be done the next morning. I was sent to the coronary care unit overnight for monitoring. I was absolutely fine overnight, with only a racy heart, probably due to nerves, and my irregular heart beat gradually returned to normal. The blood tests they did in resus came back 'elevated', which indicated I did indeed have a heart attack, so the angio went ahead as planned. The results of this were perfect, no blockages, build up of plaque, chambers perfect, NOTHING. the consultant later told me that since there is no family history of heart problems, I should never have a problem with my heart if my lifestyle continues as is. Phew! So it must have been pericarditis then, doc, right? Well, apparently the 'levels', as he said, in my blood test, dropped back to normal too quickly to be pericarditis. So what was it? I asked if it was the alcohol, they said no. I asked if it was stress, as both my parents recently passed away, they said no. These things can only push your heart over the edge, it needs to have underlying cause. The only thing they said could cause such symptoms with no apparent reason was a stimulant drug like cocaine or speed. They were absolutely convinced I had taken something the previous night, even though the drug test came back confirming I hadn't willingly taken anything, or been spiked with anything. It's an absolute mystery, and I'm pretty terrified that there's something going on there that has been missed, and I can't help but focus now on my slightly clubbed nails, and wonder if they really have always been that way, or if they're cause for concern.

Anyway, sorry for the long babble, but it's pretty worrying to think there is no reason for this to happen, yet it did. My wife and little baby girl are doing great, and I often think of what could have been had I not gone to a&e that morning, or not gone to the wedding the previous day!

Thanks in advance for any help!

sam34

hi op,

I'm afraid we don't offer suggestions on potential diagnoses etc. thread closed.