u/xxerdyyz

I have atrial tachycardia and am on 60mg propranolol ER every 12 hours. This ECG reading was taken at 11:00am after holding my breath for 15 seconds (I know, not a good idea). I am well aware that the tracing in the last 10 seconds is likely artifact mixed in, I’m more interested in the segment from 14-19 seconds. Anyway here’s why I did it: at around 5am I woke up out of my sleep with a sinking feeling in my chest which turned into around ~10 PVCs in a row, then after that it felt like a machine gun in my chest. Just rapid fire, and it burned or felt tight. Then, I focused on controlling my breathing and it terminated abruptly after about 6 seconds or a little longer. I was screened for sleep apnea months ago with just a WatchPAT and I’ve had 3 patch monitors before starting the propranolol. I’ve had far more PVCs lately than before but my heart rate is perfectly under control now. I seem to only get these consecutive PVCs if I’m expending too much breath or forget to breathe (i.e. yelling at my deaf dog outside to come back to the house, talking too much without pausing to breathe, etc.). I told my cardiologist about the PVC episodes but he didn’t ask many questions and was not concerned. However, I also hadn’t caught these exact episodes on my watch before. These episodes make it hard to breathe, as if I fell on my back and had the air knocked out of me. So idk now I guess I’m concerned about sleep apnea and perhaps an additional arrhythmia. I do have a deviated septum as well. Do I go right back to my cardiologist and ask for a holter, ask my PCP for another patch monitor, ask neuro for a sleep study, or what? Idk what the next step should even be considering I was just at my cardiologist and PCP earlier this month.🫩

2 weeks old, female, born at 8lbs 5oz. So this is my cousin’s newborn, she took her to the closest ER earlier which does not have a pediatric unit. She is having mild chest retractions under the ribs. The ER discharged her and said everything was normal and that they aren’t concerned because she doesn’t have a fever and “sounds normal.” They didn’t think chest retractions were a “sign” to go to the ER. Basically they kind of made my cousin out to be paranoid despite all 4 children showing signs of some type of respiratory illness. The other kids have a productive cough and are fine beside that. I guess I’m coming here to ask should I keep urging my cousin to go to a pediatric ER, or was a regular ER good enough? My cousin is visiting from out of town so she’s out of luck as far as seeing her regular pediatrician. And yes, I was given permission to post, she doesn’t have Reddit.

I know these are barely out of range, but these are far from my normal numbers and it’s weird that the hypokalemia appeared to be the only important factor (glucose high due to eating right before the episode). It was never classified as acidosis, but tubular renal acidosis is the only thing I could find with a remotely similar trend, and well I got help as soon as symptoms started. It hasn’t happened again, but til this day I still have zero clue what caused this. Symptoms included irregular heartbeat (bigeminy, trigeminy, singlets, and couplets of PVCs and PACs). Heart felt like the same rhythm as when you put shoes in a dryer lmfao. I thought my heart was going to stop. Anyway, my forehead and tongue went numb. Just super weird and still no explanation a year later after seeing numerous doctors. I was well fed and hydrated. Also, 2 days later I returned to the ER, because my HR reached the 150s upon waking up, causing my arms and legs to go numb, it just kept getting faster and faster and I soaked my bed in sweat, I thought I was having a heart attack ngl. Anyone want to point me in a good direction as to what type of specialist could deal with whatever the hell that was to make sure it never happens again? It was scary asf and of course my rhythm was normal when I got to the ER. The only remaining clues were these labs.

Current diagnoses:

• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (euthyroid, unmedicated)

• Pituitary cyst/adenoma (pending further imaging)

• Secondary fibromyalgia

• Mild hypermobility

• Chronic inducible urticaria

• Iron deficiency without anemia

• Hoffa’s fat pad edema

• Enteritis (thickened bowel loops)

• Ectopic atrial tachycardia

• POTS (borderline tilt table test)

• Dysautonomia

• Syrinx (T7–T11, 1mm diameter)

• Suspected BASCULE syndrome

Huge news for everyone and a very long read, stick with me here.

This is not medical advice and serves solely to inform patients/doctors about new and ongoing research related to a symptom cluster. This is not a diagnosis and anyone reading is encouraged to discuss this research finding with their doctor if they feel that the research reflects their leg discoloration patterns.

So I know a lot of us go through this SPECIFIC PATTERN (https://doi.org/10.1177/2050313X231152062) of leg discoloration and we have never really had a term to describe it other than possible livedo. Well it’s NOT livedo, NOT acrocyanosis, NOT urticaria, and most of all NOT normal. This is actually consistent with a newer finding called BASCULE syndrome. Please disregard if you know for a fact that you have livedo or acrocyanosis. BASCULE syndrome is heavily under researched, and under diagnosed. Basically, most doctors really don’t know about it and researchers don’t know what causes it. I found out about this, this week, reached out to a researcher, and now I’m going to publish my own case with him, and honestly at a later date I might pursue an exploratory paper about anecdotal cases documented on web forums and social media. I feel deep down that there is an underlying connection beside just POTS since I’ve seen this discoloration in those of you with EDS, POTS, dysautonomia, and/or autoimmune conditions.

I want us to come together, brain storm, and collaborate. Dig up your past and all the subtleties. I feel that there could potentially be an underlying genetic component perhaps if not related to a specific nutrient. Obviously, that assumption can’t be made unless there’s a subtlety/subtleties across the board that connects us all. To solve an issue, you have to find the root of the issue, and what better way to do that than to find the very intersections of our experiences.

Background on me (21 F, pre-medical student): At around age 3-4 yo, I began having joint pain; however, I cried an abnormal amount as an infant, so it may have started sooner. The pain started in my knees, bilaterally. It felt as if my muscles/tendons were being pulled apart or like a deep bruise but traversing the span of entire muscles from joint to joint. As I began to walk, my mother noticed my right knee would buckle. This went on for many years, and til this day my knee still buckles occasionally (when in a lot of pain and feeling too weak to put effort into walking). In early childhood I had trichotillomania, dermatillomania, extra upper and lower canines, narrow palate, translucent soft stretchy skin, bilateral myopic astigmatism, trigger fingers, canker sores, tonsillitis, tonsil stones, mild scoliosis, tight/hard gracilis muscle (even now), dermatographia, intense vomiting specifically the same week I would get flu vaccines, mononucleosis at age 9, wide/prominent thyroid cartilage and deeper voice for a female, mosquito target (always 7-15+ bites despite repellent with large super itchy, painful swollen red welts, possible Skeeter syndrome), super picky eater, and cannot handle spicy food (runny nose, mouth is on fire, even from just regular hot Cheetos). Anyway, my main focus has always been the joint pain which was first in my knees, then eventually spread to my elbows, wrists, ankles, hips, shoulder, and neck. I’m also able to sublux some small tendons in my wrists and ankles as well as my hip. Further, my labia has always torn (microtears) very easily leading to itching and burning for a few days. Vulva gets very swollen and painful with intercourse, even with lube. First menses at age 11 was dark, thick, and brown like poop. Further, my teen years, and even now, involved lots of bowel issues (dark brown or bright yellow, greasy, foul smelling, undigested foods, fat globules, oily, mucus) and my old NP called it IBS. I had Bell’s palsy at age 13, I get “side stitches” and wrapping soreness of my ribcage, neck pain, rib pain, shocking sensation from my left jaw to left base of neck when turning my head up and to the left, when I was 14 my knees wouldn’t allow me to climb stairs for 2 weeks (too painful and only when trying to climb stairs), sharp back pain and tightness between shoulder blades, hands and feet get so cold that they turn purple but other times they get super red and hot, overactive bladder (urinary 20+ times/day), still have acne even on birth control, and I get random bouts of itching. My bilirubin is always mildly elevated, dsDNA on multiplex flow immunoassay fluctuates from 7-10 over the past 1-2 yrs but negative on Crithidia. ANA positive once (1:80, cytoplasmic). RF IgM at 6 while IgG and IgA at <6. Technically, I have low ferritin <30 but normal blood count, normal iron, normal transferrin, and TIBC at 398. Complement C4 is always near the borderline of low (fluctuated between 11-17). Lately, I’ve been getting lots of right sided migraines, difficulty falling asleep (4 hrs per night), feel like my brain is getting slower (probably sleep deprivation), ice pick headaches, lymphadenopathy of the right lymph nodes, swollen tonsils, and I’ve pulled out 30 tonsil stones from my right tonsil over the past 2 weeks (April 2026). I had 2 ear infections between August 2025 and January 2026. I’m awaiting neurology in May 2026. I still want to see a geneticist and gastroenterologist. I’ve already seen 2 ENTs, 3 cardiologists, 1 endocrinologist, 3-4 rheumatologists, and 1 dermatologist in my life.

Diagnoses thus far (still investigating as I’m not fully convinced and am still awaiting further testing): Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (euthyroid, unmedicated), pituitary cyst/adenoma (awaiting dedicated pituitary MRI), secondary fibromyalgia, mild hypermobility, chronic inducible urticaria, iron deficiency without anemia, Hoffa’s fat pad edema, enteritis (thickened bowel loops), ectopic atrial tachycardia, POTS (borderline tilt table test), dysautonomia, syrinx spanning from T7-T11 w/ diameter of 1mm, and BASCULE syndrome.

If you made it this far, thank you for sticking with me🙏

TL;DR: Discoloration of legs is BASCULE syndrome (look it up to differentiate it from acrocyanosis), I want yall to share subtle symptoms that may or may not be significant, I yapped about my compilation of symptoms, shared my diagnosis, and it would be cool to hear if anything matches anyone else to find a potential underlying cause one day.

I will be posting this same message in the Hashimoto’s, EDS, POTS, dysautonomia, and autoimmune subreddits.