Why is my heart shaking?

[Giant Space Hamster]

Just started my first game. The heart icon in the upper left is shaking back and forth and I'm not sure why. There's a minor wound, but I can't do anything with it (no right click menu to bandage it or anything). Clearly this vibrating icon is trying to get me to do something, I'm just not sure what.

[Shurenai]

If the heart is shaking, it means your health is going down. In the health panel, is the wound bandaged? If not, Do you have a bandage to apply? You need a ripped sheet, denim strip, leather strip, adhesive bandage, bandage, etc to bandage it- If you have none available, no options will appear when you right click.

You can get ripped sheets by ripping clothing that you find, even off zombies.

[BeetlePie]

Your character is just in love ! On a serious side, you probably need to rip cloth to make improvised bandages (I'm assuming you have none) to deal with your wound. Make sure you're doing so in the character info panel.

[Armagenesis]

Play the tutorial, friend.

[Giant Space Hamster]

I did play the tutorial, thanks.

I have a medical kit in my inventory, but what I didn't understand is that I have to manually empty the contents into my inventory separately before I can use a bandage. I realized this after I got similarly stuck trying to reload a shotgun with ammo still in an ammo box.

Thanks for the tips!

[TankGoodness]

When it is pounding like that click on the heart or click on it anytime whether it is pounding or not to check a variety of attributes for your character from health to skills learned, body temperature and even trimming your hair if you have scissors and a mirror
Look at your health tab and like the above mentioned you can click on the wound listed and apply some kind of bandage if you have one and or disinfectant from a bottle of disinfectant, alcohol wipes or Bourbon, but you must have in inventory to use. Nothing? and you will see nothing.
You can rip curtains also into bandages and you can clean bandages for future use

[stevej018]

something is damaging you
very over the weight limit, corpse sickness, fumes from an indoor generator, maybe muscle soreness also makes the heart icon move about when it first starts

[EchoFort]

If you stomp zombies, sometimes you get a slight damage