Question for those who might know... (heart questions)
I have been a long time natural bodybuilder. I started when I was 15 and stopped around when I turned 26. This year has been hell for me. I have gone through a lot of stress, with a girlfriend who isn't helping. I moved across the country, had to interview at a bunch of jobs only to find bull**** positions. But that's not the point of this thread.
I used to work out 3-5 days a week with weights. I was always strong and had a mesomorph genes. I found out when I was 18 that I had high blood pressure. I didn't always take my blood pressure medication as prescribed. In fact, I hardly ever went to a doctor (maybe once every 3 years).
This year, when my girlfriend came to visit me (before I moved back across the country) I stopped working out and when I did, I started noticing that my heart would skip a beat. I would feel like an electric shock in my chest that would prompt me to end my workout early. It all started very suddenly. I started getting paranoid and the skips would happen more and more often. The night of packing up a huge u-haul with all my **** (by myself pretty much) when I was laying down in bed I started feeling my heart flutter and skip beats. I felt this before very rarely. I had to sit up to stop the feeling. Every time I would lay back down it would come back immediately.
Well, after moving back I went to a cardiologist who did an echocardiogram, an EKG, and a treadmill stress test. At this point I was about 4 months out of shape (had not worked out in that long). The EKG didn't find anything (useless cause it only lasts a few seconds). The stress test picked up 1 or two PVCs/PACs. I wasn't able to do the entire 14 minutes I had planned. I think I gassed out around 10:30. During the first few minutes of the stress test I felt the big flip flop in my heart I was mentioning. This was picked up by the monitor. Anyways, I was pretty much having a panic attack mid-stress test.
After the stress test, the doctor had me lay down on a table and a nurse did an Echo on my chest (like how they look at babies in the womb). I sat there for a while and I figured something must be up cause the lady kept going back to the same part in my chest. I was then given a holter thing to wear for a week to pick up anything going on with my heart.
Well, I didn't wear the holter all the time, and when I did wear it, I didn't feel any symptoms. A few weeks later I get the results of the Echo, and I find out I have borderline mitral valve prolapse. It's when one of the valves doesn't close completely. Mines closes, but it has the ability to not close if I am forcing myself.
The doctor assured me that this is a very common thing and that I probably had it my whole life and didn't know about it. He said that I should easy up on the weights and not work out till failure or put up 300 pounds like I used to. But, he said that it's not a issue and that I have the cleanest bill of health he's given to any patient.... yeah I'm sure.
The problem is that I'm still having these skipped heart beats. I have them whenever I start doing any kind of cardio like cleaning vigorously, washing my car, taking a fast-paced walk... I haven't lifted a weight in over half a year so I don't know what that would do to my heart, but I'm scared to find out. Basically, any kind of exercise makes my heart skip beats and makes me panic.
What could have possibly happened in the last half a year that I could go from being a monster in the gym to having heart rhythm issues non stop? I used to do dumb-bell shoulder presses with 125 lbs in each arm.... 10 times. I curled 65's. I benched 3 plates on each side. All of a sudden I can't do anything anymore or my heart starts acting funny. During all this time I was a huge pot head too. I would go to the gym, come back, and roll a spliff. I smoked for as long as I worked out. Around the time I started cutting back on my smoking is the time I started getting these symptoms. I lived in California, so it was legal and I had a card.
I'm not sure I'll get any responses, or any responses worth anything to me, but I thought I might as well try. I'm just lost and I feel like I lost who I am as a person. I've been depressed for a while now and I can't seem to shake it. I don't plan on lifting as heavy as I used to, but I would like to get a workout routine going again. It kept me sane. Now I just sit around and wait for another skipped heart beat. Anyway, into the internet abyss.
