Months of Chest Pain - Please help

@capt209 Hi, Brandon. Just noticed your symptoms, and there may be a few things you have not found yet. I list the symptoms and other stuff. About 80% of proven Amyloidosis present all of these. First, chest pinch on left side of chest. Mayo says that may (probably) be an infected or enlarged spleen. Mine is about half way between the point of the shoulder and the left nipple. Symptom of systemic amyloidosis. Anxiety. Same. Pinch and Pressure on Right Side, Both this and left side pinch can be shoulder tendon problems, also from Amy invasion. Same with esophageal spasms, and eosinophilic overload. Heart A-Fib same. A-V Block? Sounds like it. Moderate regurgitation in heart, with A-Fib? Amyloidosis, probably primary systemic, perhaps ATTR. Slight dizziness on standing? Pain at lower ribs? Kidneys, pancreas, constipation possible. Alternating constipation/diarrhea? Amy. No improvement with Zantac, etc? Same. Amy.Back and neck stuff? Nodules of Amy on spine. Stenosis, etc. Read my own story at https://bit.Ly/1w7j4j8 Free. Selling nothing. Have your doc get you a SERUM FreeLiteChain assay. Can be done by ARUP Labs, Mayo, any top lab. But NO secondary LOCAL labs will be able to handle it. If your number is 1.6 or higher, mg/deciliter, Follow through with other testing for mis-folded protein. Good luck, and get my Amyloidosis story and read it thoroughly, and same with your doctor. Let us know what happens. Make sure your hematologist is willing to work with one of the specialty labs, Mayo MN, Stanford, ARUP, Brigham and Women's, Sloan-Kettering, City of Hope, Fred Hutchinson. If there is any hesitation at all in this matter, find another hematologist immediately. And watch the videos from Mayo with Martha Grogan about Amyloidosis.

Hello Brandon
Sounds like you have a lot of multiple problems that are causing a lot of discomfort and anxiety. One more thing to consider as a contributor to your discomfort and anxiety is the psoas muscle. Look it up on an anatomy image. I am a massage therapist. I often deal with people that have anxiety problems. The psoas muscle is sometimes referred to as the iliopsoas muscle because the psoas and iliacus muscles of the hip are related in structure and function. The psoas muscle is known as the muscle of the soul because It is a large muscle that seems to react to stress. This causes disfunction and shortening of the muscle. Today's world involves more setting behind a desk on the computer which also may contribute to its shortening. The psoas is in a shortened state when seating. After a lot of seating, it acquires this shortened state. The psoas attaches to the front side of the spine--starting at the T12 vertebrae ( around mid back area) to the L3 vertebrae and travels in front of the hip and finally attaches at the lesser trochanter of the femur. At the T1 vertebrae area the diaphragm ligament structure attaches to the top of the psoas. The shorten psoas cause the diaphragm to not fully expand and slightly effect your breathing process. If you suffer from the continual effects of a shortened poses it may cause discomfort and stimulate the "fight or flight mechanism" and thus the pain and anxiety. Hopefully, this may not be your case, but wanted to mention it as an additional contributor to your problems. Consider getting massages to help manage your stress.

@capt209 Brandon I had a large paraesophageal (sliding) hiatal hernia. It can pull the stomach up into the chest and cause shortness of breath and chest pain. A lot of other things can too. I'm sure once you have run the gamut of tests you will get the answers. Keep us updated.

@capt209 wow I have verbatim exactly what you have going on. Same history. Same form and location of chest discomfort. History of taking PPIs. I went for the bravo and endoscopy first because my family doc recommended it based on my GERD history. Everything was fine. No issues. Now I’m headed to cardiology in 10 days. Did you find a resolution? It’s driving me nuts but mostly the anxiety of thinking Im about to have a heart attack at the age of 39. Hopefully you found something. Thanks! Jeff

Hello, @jemrich. Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I'm sorry to hear about the chest discomfort and also about the anxiety it is causing, which is natural. Sounds like you are taking reasonable steps to see your doctor, get some initial tests done, and then go see cardiology next.

Here is some information from Mayo Clinic on chest pain that you may find useful: https://mayocl.in/2CQgxOq.

Hoping that @fourof5zs @capt209 @llwortman @predictable @parus may have some thoughts and insights on the chest pain and discomfort you are experiencing with everything coming up fine on your 48-Hour Bravo Esophageal pH Test and endoscopy thus far, history of taking PPIs (Proton Pump Inhibitors) and now looking at possible heart causes next.

As you are waiting the next week plus for your cardiology appointment, I'm wondering if you've found anything thus far that alleviates the discomfort in your chest at all?

Hey thank you for replying! I see cardio next Wednesday so I’m excited to see if they have some insight. The discomfort/pain has subsided a little the past few days while on vacation at the beach. Not sure if the relaxation and ocean water has something to do with it. If so, guessing I have to move to the ocean! Also I didn’t mention that the beginning of this chest issue started my 3rd day into taking a script for Adderall. I’ve suffered with ADHD for quite sometime and I finally broke down and was evaluated. Script was for 20mg of XR. I stopped taking after 3 days. Week later switched to 5mg of IR as needed then a few weeks later landed on 10mg of XR as needed. It’s helped immensely with my ADHD but might? Be causing this chest issue. Not sure. Hopefully cardio has some answers. I stopped taking it about 4 days ago too so I could see if there was any correlation between the meds and the chest issues. There could be some placebo affect to the discomfort being less. Not sure. I certainly don’t want to damage my heart if that is what’s happening. The meds could have nothing to do with it too. Thanks for checking in. I’ll post an update after cardio. Thank you. Jeff

Hey Brandon! Sounds a lot like me!!!!!! I’ve had chest pain for over a year and it is more frequent the last few months. I’ve had several EKGs stress test echocardiogram blood tests and all look good or so they say. Lol it’s drivng me crazy! My blood pressure was a lil high so they got me on lisinopril and that helped the BP but the pain is still here. It’s normally good in the mornings and usually starts hurting around midday. It hurts normally on the left side but the last week it’s been on my right side and middle. If it’s a heart attack I’m having the longest one in history! I would live to k ow if anyone got any answers. Thanks!

@capt209 @russellbeard
Your symptoms are very similar to mines. I have had chest pain over 4 months so far. I was diagnosed with chronic gastritis in August after rushing to ER for sudden chest pain one morning. I never had radiating chest pain before, so just like many other people would mistakenly think, I thought it was heart attack. And it turned out to be it was not heart attack. Through endoscopy my doctor discovered I have gastritis and I had been on proton pump inhibitor as well for the last 3 month. I also have ongoing back pain prior to gastritis diagnosis for over 4 years. I will post details of my symptom soon. Please check it out.

Hello guys I have the same symptoms us you have. I have had this problem over a year now, and it drives me crazy. Almost everyday I struggle with it -:(. Been through many test and they were all normal as they say. I have changed my doctors 4 times and none of them could find out what it is. I have pressure, burning sensation, chest discomfort in many forms... only in my left side of the chest and sometimes dizziness, shortness of breath and back pain comes to. I have an appointment on 18 of January 2019 with heart specialists in Germany hope he can help. I will update you guys if any thing happens. Thanks

Hello @hiko and welcome to Mayo Connect.

Please let us know how your appointment goes next month. Have any meds been tried for your symptoms?