Heart murmur: severe problems with drugs

[phantomcosmonaut]

My friend has had a heart murmur from a baby. He used caffeine daily heavily for 3 years, stopped, then started using psychedelics monthly for about two years after. Smoking pot almost daily for the last 3 years. Recently he slowed down a lot. He tried cocaine once and he was fine just a few weeks ago.
Tried it again a week later (minimum amount with this batch) then an hour later vaped a gram of some of the highest purity wax all to himself. An hour later he had what he was claiming to be a heart attack; violent body tremors, eyes rolling to back of his head, eyelids flickering, shooting pain in his left arm, chest pain/pressure, pain occasionally extending into his legs/groin. This was NOT an anxiety attack or heart attack. This occurred in 5-15 minute episodes on/off over ~3 hours. We went to a hospital, they said they had no idea what it was, gave him .25mg Xanax, and dismissed him once the episodes subsided over a couple hours. So two weeks later (he had smoked weed a few times since then and did 70mg pure MDMA once mixed with weed) we did 2.6g P.Cubensis. The trip was fine, then at 5 hours after ingestion we smoked a bit of weed and 20 minutes later the same thing happened to him. Rather than going through the trouble of calling an ambulance, since all the did last time was give him Xanax, I gave him .5mg of it and we had him lay down. He recovered much quicker this time which he said was because he was in a comfortable environment.
He never had any problems like this, other than a couple times smoking and once doing 25C, which was only a fast heart rate and he could hear his murmur. He has sworn off drugs even caffeine. But we are very curious as to what this since the doctor didn't even know.

Please read if you can help, sorry for the novel, I don't know how to shorten it.

 

[ComfortablyNumb95]

mmh, how can you tell it was not a panic attack? some of the symptoms you described are tipical of high anxiety lives, and the fact that the xanax made him recover quickly points directly to that direction.

 

[Jabberwocky]

ummm it could have been a seizure at the worst - but if you say you've been to the hospital and they've confirmed its not then frankly it sounds like panic disorder bordering on PTSD linked to cannabis use. the mind is very powerful and once it deals with a difficult episode or experience while under the influence of drugs, even a tiny amount can spark the body and mind to replicating that event - as effectively its attempting to defend itself from whatever chemical you are ingesting regardless of it being dangerous or not.

sounds completely anxiety related frankly. it will take a little while for him to get back to normal - hell - he may never be able to smoke cannabis again unfortunately. i have had a very similar experience with cocaine, the first time i tried i thought i was going to have a heart attack, didn't touch it for a long time, tried it again - same reaction, finally when i did once again i made sure i was benzo and opiated to the gills before going in for a line and voila no panic. i can now snort cocaine with benzos or opiates in me, but it took a long period of readjustment to get used to it (about 2 years) and for what good either.

 

[TheLostBoys]

Yeah, it definitely sounds like severe anxiety attacks.......he recovered both times after ingesting Xanax. If he was having a heart attack or something severe like that, Xanax wouldn't have cured him.

You stated he had a heart murmur........the last he should be ingesting is stimulants......

Having a heart murmur would be scary enough not to touch stimulants.

 

[phantomcosmonaut]

*I did not say he recovered from the xanax*

Both times once it was administered he said he felt more relaxed and his heart rate slowed a bit, therefore "making it easier [for him] to keep the episodes of tremors and shooting pain from occurring as often". But it certainly was not the reason it stopped, it continued a few hours after he felt the effects. Between the episodes he seemed fine, relaxed, laughing at our humor and saying little things.

He felt it come on both times, completely randomly, with a shooting pain followed by numbness in his left arm, and then uncontrollable tremors because of which he literally fell.

If you're going to tell me this was a panic/anxiety attack, don't comment.

 

[ComfortablyNumb95]

^ why are you asking us then? if it sounds like a panic attack then we're obviously going to tell you that.
we are not doctors so we can't make a precise diagnosis knowing those few symptoms.
I'll ask again: how do you KNOW it wasn't a panic attack?

 

[phantomcosmonaut]

1. He has had panic attacks induced by psychedelics and marihuana, nothing like this happened.
2. I was once hospitalized because of a panic attack on LSD, I was given 10mg Valium and it subsided.
3. Although some of these symptoms are that of severe anxiety, which may have played a part in what happened, some of them are completely unheard of regarding panic attacks.

 

[T. Calderone]

There's no way for any of us to definitively give an answer as to what's happened to your friend. If he has a heart murmur, he should see a cardiologist. In the meantime, he should abstain from using drugs. All we can do is guess given the symptoms presented which is pure speculation.