I get a palpitations sometimes felt in my throat. It usually feels like one heart beat felt in my lower throat in the soft spot between my collar bones. It never repeats itself. It's just one beat. Usually it is really light. But I have had bigger ones. What type of palpitation is this?

Also I've experienced a couple in my life a large thump in my chest while laying down on my back.  The first time I was 16 and on a stimulant so I completely know why that happened. The second time it was while I was severely dehydrated and happeend a couple times in one week. So I also know why it happened them. But the last two are a little more of a mystery. Well the second to last was during a time when I was drinking quite a lot and maybe not eating the best and not drinking a lot of water. Maybe that is why. The most recent one I had was just two weeks  ago. I have been eating better but that day and the day before  I hadn't drank much water. I also had mostly quit drinking but that day had one and a half alcoholic drinks. I was laying down feeling peacefull and tired as I had stayed up way to late, and there was a large thump in my chest that really scared me.  Since then I went to the doc and they did an EKG and took some blood. She said the EKG looked fine  but she sent it to a cardiologist because she isn't a heart expert. They haven't called, they said if something was wrong they would call but otherwise they would send the results in the mail.

Anyway, I was wondering if the light beat felt in my throat at times is different than the large thumps in my chest that I've felt? I used to panic really badly about even the little ones. I'm on week 3 of 20mg fluoxetine. I thought it was helping the first week but now I feel like I still have anxiety. I've calmed down a lot about the palps but I still feel like, what if something is wrong with me or my heart? Why doesn't anyone I know have this happen to them? Will they ever go away?

I've tried to feel my pulse when I get a heart beat in my throat and I'm   not able to tell if my heart skips a beat. It feels like for a second I'm just able to feel a beat in my throat. Why does this happen? Is it just my blood pressure or something about my body sturcture? Or is something wrong with my heart?

I'm no doctor, but from what I have read here by "our" dr. RLR, it sounds all normal: Your ecg etc. didn't show anything wring.

There is a connection between the digestive organs and the heart through the vagus nerve, which also in some ways is connected to the throat. So "events" concerning eating and drinking can send "wayward" nerveimpulses to the heart which make it do extra beats. Depending on when in the cardiac cycle such an impulse "hits" the heart, the beats can feel more like flutter or more like heavy thumps (if the extra beat gets a a bigger portion of blood pumped out).

From my own experience it is not so easy to conclude on exactly what causes palpitations to happen. It's more long-term-like, I think.
And apart from gi-events, anxiety can certainly make way for these "off-road"-impulses and thereby create a vicious circle. They can also feel different without that being any cause of fear.

So I guess the best you can do is keep alcohol, cafeine, "stimulants" and overeating under control and try to stop fearing you have a heart disease.
Cause the tests showed you don't.

Happy NewYear!

Okay, welcome to the forum and I've read your posting and concerns.

The reason that you sense a variation in the palpitation events is due to precisely when the nerve impulse causing them enters the cardiac cycle.

If the wayward nerve impulse traveling along the vagus nerve enters the heart during atrial depolarization, then you can experience a light, fluttering effect because the atria are smaller in size and force of action, resulting in a quiver sensation. The atria are also above the ventricles and more proximal to the apex of the thoracic cavity. Additionally, the vagus nerve also innervates the larynx, so sensations can extend upward into the throat area.

If the nerve impulse arrives during ventricular depolarization, then the subsequent sensation can be experienced as a more dramatic thump due to the size and forceful action of the ventricles.

The signal can even arrive during ventricular repolarization, or the momentary period when the heart is entirely at rest, actually producing what patients describe as a long pause.

Regardless of characterization, the entirely of events and sensations are the sole result of vagus nerve-induced palpitation events as a consequence of stress and/or anxiety. The chronic mild stimulation of the central nervous system results in the increased potential for wayward nerve impulses to arise and much like the presence of a twitching eyelid or other muscle from time to time, the heart is a muscle as much as it is an organ and likewise susceptible to the same reaction.

The events are entirely harmless and entirely incapable of inducing any type of cardiac event or spawning some type of serious arrhythmia.

You'll be fine.

Best regards,

Rutheford Rane, MD (ret.)