Chest pains from stress

I was having a lot of heart palpitations throughout my last pregnancy. Once the pregnancy was over, I was still experiencing them. I was trying to give my body time to get back to normal, but things seemed to be getting worse. Several EKGs showed an abnormal T wave, and a short PR interval. These can be serious things when paired up with other symptoms like fainting (syncope) and a fast resting heartbeat (tachycardia), which I don't have. I've just been experiencing chest pains with stress that last for one to two minutes. 

I was told by a physician's assistant, and my primary doctor to follow up with a cardiologist. I watched when the pains came for several months, and what brought them on. It was always stress, and not breathing or physical exertion. So these were good signs. 

When I saw the cardiologist, he did an echocardiogram of my heart (ultrasound) and told me things looked good. I do have two leaky valves, he said they just don't close all the way, and that's ok. The doctor told me that I just have a lot on my plate right now, and that my body is giving me chest pains. He asked if my neck had been tense. It has been very tense and I can feel knots in it. He told me that sometimes the neck tightness can cut off blood circulation to the heart and cause me pain. He said some people get headaches due to stress, some get bowel problems, and I'm getting chest pains. 

Anyone that has chest pain should be evaluated by a doctor, but I thought I would share what happened to me to help give info to others that may be experiencing this. Signs and symptoms that should not be ignored are, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, fainting, chest pain that does not go away after a few minutes. If this happens to me or anyone else, we must go to the hospital emergency room. The doctor felt I was a bit young to have cardiovascular disease at this time. He didn't see any plaques/clogs on my echo, so he felt it was probably just stress. 

Red tape from agencies that are supposed to help

We can hire someone to help with Andy, but they have to go through four different training classes that can take months, with the dates and times they are available. Andy's grandmother did the classes, and it took several months. After she was done, the agency kept telling me they lost her paperwork, they didn't know who she was, they didn't have her direct deposit forms, after I had mailed them out several times. I eventually had to send them electronically, which I was trying to avoid, because we've had our identities stolen recently. We are trying to be careful, but this agency made it impossible to do so. Once Andy's grandmother was watching him, it still took months for her to get paid, due to all the constant red tape.

Do we want to go through this again with someone else? No. No one wants to come along from an ad and be told to do all this training, and then I'd have to hide the fact that the agency keeps losing their paperwork, and it would just be such a mess. We feel like even though there is "help" out there for us, we really can't access it. We haven't really coordinated for Andy's grandma to watch him either, because she is already watching the baby for us. Things have just been a lot for us lately, and it's been tough.

Trying to find ways to de-stress

Andy and the baby have been going to bed early, so it gives me time to study, or we can try to do something fun. Last night, I told my husband to take our ten-year old daughter Gabby out to a movie. It was a 8:30pm show, and they were home by 10:30pm. I was studying for my final exam kid-free, so it was nice. I also watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy, which was nice. I have a lot of shows to watch that have been recorded. 

I'm also trying to exercise on our stationary bike in the basement if I can, a few times a week. I've been having trouble with heart palpitations that come on with anxiety, and not getting enough sleep or water. I've read that it is common to start having heart arrythmias/ heart rhythm issues after the age of 40. I also know we've had 8 long years of chronic stress with all of our worries about Andy, so I wonder if the two could be related. I never exercise anymore, due to lack of time. I stay in shape due to a fast metabolism/ genetic reasons, but I do need to get my heart rate up more often in a healthy way.