Hi Bubsie,

I have also had painful ectopics in the past. The only time I've had a painful one is when my heart rate has already been going fast. The most painful one I had was when I had just walked up a hill, my heart rate was probably about 160 and then a pain in my chest hit me. It was a deep, crushing pain and it happened exactly with the skip that I felt, like I'd been hit in the chest. It lasted for a blink of an eye but it was very scary. I know that if it had been a prolonged pain it would have been very bad. I'd been having lots of trapped air in my stomach at the time and I think the skip was caused by that. I was terrified because it was actually deep and crushing, coming from inside my chest.

Another time I had a similar painful skip, where I felt a sharp, shooting pain come out of my heart and up the right side of my neck. Of course, I don't know if it did actually shoot out of my heart, but it felt different to any other pain in the chest I've ever felt. It felt like it originated from deeper inside my chest and almost "felt" like it came from my left ventricle. It's hard to explain, but it "felt" like the shape of that particular heart chamber... don't ask me how I know this. It was equally scary and I was convinced it was a problem. I believe it was actually a nerve, as I recall from somebody else's thread long ago, RLR said that the "shooting" pain coming from a persons chest and down his left arm was actually pain from a nerve and not the heart. Of course, the pain was not my heart... I am only 22 after all.

Several months later I had an echo, so I have no place worrying about my heart now given that I've been cleared in that department.

George.