Strong pulse in stomach?
blairmundy
Posts: 219 Member
So when you google this, you get a variety of things from 'totally normal' to 'OMG you are dying of an aneurysm'. So I'm not googling anymore because I'm pretty sure based on what I've read already that this falls in the 'totally normal' range. But I did want to know if anyone else has noticed this, just for anecdotal reassurance.
When I lay down at night and press my fingertips firmly on my abdomen - about two inches above and two inches to the left (my left) of my belly button, I feel a very strong pulse. I know there is a huge artery there but my husband did the same and couldn't feel much of anything. I read that this is more prominent in 'very thin' people. I am not very thin - but I am significantly thinner, so maybe I'm just noticing it due to change? It's prominent enough that you can see my hands and arms bobbing up and down with my heartbeat when they are pressing on my abdomen.
Now I feel a little silly posting this because it is probably totally normal, right? Can some of you guys try this tonight and see if you feel this? I feel like if a few other people said they feel this too I could be less paranoid. Though I am only on and off paranoid. I think it's just weird to discover something in your body at 36 that you had no idea was even a thing. Throwing me off. I'm not crazy, I promise.
When I lay down at night and press my fingertips firmly on my abdomen - about two inches above and two inches to the left (my left) of my belly button, I feel a very strong pulse. I know there is a huge artery there but my husband did the same and couldn't feel much of anything. I read that this is more prominent in 'very thin' people. I am not very thin - but I am significantly thinner, so maybe I'm just noticing it due to change? It's prominent enough that you can see my hands and arms bobbing up and down with my heartbeat when they are pressing on my abdomen.
Now I feel a little silly posting this because it is probably totally normal, right? Can some of you guys try this tonight and see if you feel this? I feel like if a few other people said they feel this too I could be less paranoid. Though I am only on and off paranoid. I think it's just weird to discover something in your body at 36 that you had no idea was even a thing. Throwing me off. I'm not crazy, I promise.
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That is your Aorta. It is the main artery coming from the heart that supplies oxygen, and other things, to the body. Just as you can feel a pulse in your wrist, or neck, you can feel it in your abdomen too. The amount of weight loss has made it easier to feel. You probably don't need to press very hard to feel it now, but before WLS it would have taken some pressure to find it there. All of the bones, and new things we feel inside our bodies is different, just as everything else. Now you have something to add to your new normal.
Just an fyi, an aneurysm won't be felt (they actually recommend not trying to feel them, since the thin wall that remains can rupture much easier than a normal blood vessel). Aneurysms are usually heard through a stethoscope, leading to diagnostic testing (usually via ultrasound/doppler studies to confirm a diagnosis). The internet gives us way more information than we need sometimes!
Congratulations on " losing enough belly fat to feel the difference!
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So sensible. Thank you. In my brain I know this but late at night I'm lying in bed and some silent voice in my head says "You're a mutant now!" Lol. I will just tell myself "hey look! Your heart is beating! You're alive!"0
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Lol!0
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