I think a little background might be useful. I'm 23 and I haven't been on Tegratol (sp?) for 10 years and I have been (apparently) seizure free. They think the cause of my seizures had been from a fever I had as a child of around 106 and I was put on Depakote (sp? sorry) first for a year at age 5 and then Tegratol through age 13. I say all of that to get to my concern.

Starting in high school I noticed my heart would "skip beats" or race while sitting in class for no apparent reason. With exercise it only got worse, causing fainting spells in gym and an abnormal rhythm for hours later. I've been to cardiologists but my EKG's are always normal. Starting around senior year it disappeared and I never thought much about it again until now. I'm a junior in college and the palpitations have come back. I feel no more "stressed out" than any normal college kid, in fact I'm getting an A in organic chem which makes me less stressed about my classes. I'm really tired of the diagnosis being "it's just stress".

Last semester it got to the point where I saw a cardiologist again because I was fainting in my tae kwon do class (which I had to drop because of it and am really missing). Finally they ran a test that didn't involve another useless EKG. The Echo Cardiogram turned out clean so there's nothing structurally wrong with my heart (which is good to know). I was hooked up to a 24 hour heart monitor but wouldn't you know it my heart behaved like a saint for those 24 hours resulting in little to no data and another diagnosis of "you're just a college kid and it's just stress".

I gave up and things seemed fine but now it's back again and worse than before. I got so dizzy from a spell of palpitations while driving that I very nearly ran into the back of an 18-wheeler driving home this evening. I'm wondering if the medications may have caused some kind of brain damage that makes my heart misfire, because frankly it feels like the heart muscle is trying to beat without getting a coordinating signal to do so. What it really feels like is my heart training for the next Summer Olympics by doing flips in my rib cage. Or maybe my heart is having seizures? I just don't know and I'm looking for anyone with similar symptoms who might have an answer, or who can at least validate me by saying it's not just stress and that what I'm feeling is very real.

I'd say thanks for letting me get that off my chest but I'm not a big fan of puns. (or am I?) Though in sincerity, thanks in advance to anyone who takes a moment to read this.

-Brian.