I’ve had heart palpitations for at least 6 months now, possibly as a long Covid symptom. When I sit in the bath it’s like a T-Rex is stomping around outside—you can literally see the ripples on the surface of the water with each heartbeat. Some other symptoms too but this is the most noticeable. I’ve never had any kind of heart issue previously.
Autoimmune issues run in my family—both my father and sister have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. There is some evidence that long Covid symptoms can be a manifestation of latent autoimmune disease that was triggered by the viral infection.
In any case, I really need to do something about this but I’m not sure what kind of clinic would be appropriate. I feel like lots of blood work will be involved. Anyone have experience with this particular medical issue? Any recommendations for Tokyo-area clinics?
5 comments
Please check out the medical resources on the [wiki!](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/wiki/medical)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/japanlife) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Do you have an internal medicine doctor you regularly go to? First step is normally to visit them. They’re like your GP, many can do an EKG and simple blood test to check for heart and thyroid issues. If they can’t find anything, they might refer you to a larger hospital. You can just take yourself there, but many will charge extra for not having a referral letter and you often have to wait for quite a while.
Long covid is unfortunately something that’s still being researched, so you’ll be searching around for quite a while if that really is what you have. There’s a Facebook group called Long Covid Japan where you can seek more advice from others going through it in Japan and potentially ideas of where to go for medical help.
Edit: Also found this list of hospitals/clinics that seem to treat long covid: https://geneasyura.github.io/cov19-hm/longcovid.html
Go to a cardiologist. A good doctor will take a family history and you can mention the autoimmune diseases that run in your family. I suffered from heart palpitations too, went to the cardiologist, wore a holter for 24h, then he analyzed the results and took next steps.
I wouldn’t mention long COVID off the bat or come with a diagnosis though – you may be right about it, but doctors usually don’t take it well when you come with a ready-made diagnosis, you’ve got to let them do their jobs.
I had long covid with Delta variant. Was delayed after I thought I was healed and suddenly hit me like a bat. One of my symtoms was also palpitations and also heart pain.
Spent ridiculous amounts of money getting checked with everything coming back normal. Really frustrating. No one seems to believe in Long Covid out here. Eventually my symtoms subsidded after around 1 year. I hope you find somewhere. 🙏🙏
I think rheumatologists are the docs who deal with autoimmune disease.