I'm worried about chest pain/pressure

Posted by jacksfather1 @jacksfather1, Dec 20, 2020

Hello,
For almost 8 months ive been having chest pressure/pain and im at my wits end. 2 different pulminologists have said my lungs are fine. Ive been to er at least 6 or 7 times ecg and bloodwark always fine. Ive been to a cardiologist and have done echocardiogram and stress test, i could only do 3 mins of stress test because of the shortness of breath but cardiologist said my heart was fine. Ive scheduled another cardiologist appointment but it wont be till january sometime. With my daily symptoms i should be calling 911 constantly but im embarrased. Im terrified i have narrowed or block arteries and im enraged they wont take the situation more serious. Its ruining my life . Sorry for the rant just wondering if anyone ever had a simillar situation, thanks

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@amandaa

Hi @harryhuse, a warm welcome to Connect. Chest pain for 3 weeks in a row is concerning. You'll notice that I did move your concern over to an ongoing discussion about chest pain and pressure. This is so you can connect with other people who might be experiencing chest pain like you are.

This is an article on when you need to call 911 or your doctor depending on what your symptoms are.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/Ask_the_doctor_If_I_am_feeling_chest_pain_should_I_call_911#:~:text=Here%20is%20what%20I%20recommend,of%20breath%2C%20make%20the%20call.

Did your cardiologist recommend that you do a 24 hour holter monitor to check your heart? The ECG may not have given your doctor enough information in the short time it takes to do the test.

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No Holter yet, im seeing a different cardiologist 17th of February. So far
I've done ecgs , x Ray, blood test, echocardiogram and stress ecg

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@thankful

@harryhuse- Pains like that for me the first time were in fact the beginnings of a major HA. Mine continued to progress and yet when I was brought into the ER all those typical tests (EKG, X-Ray, Blood Workup, etc.) didn't show that I was having a HA? It wasn't until they sent in a ECHO Tech to begin that test that they discovered that I was in fact having a very serious HA. Since your's have not progressed more than likely it may be a possible overexertion physically? Can you think back when you may have tweeked your yourself doing something such as lifting something that was awkward?
I more recently had a similiar pain that was not going away and decided to have it checked out in the ER. It ended up more likely they said to some overexetion which I remember doing. Don't ignore the pains and if necessary try to request a stress echo. I believe that is the one true test that can provide a cardiologist the info they need to determine what is going on. Hope that helps. Jim@thankful

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Hi thanks for your message
I am not quite sure what a HA was

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@jacksfather1

What does ha stand for?

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@jacksfather1- HA stands for Heart Attack. Sorry! Jim@thankful

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@harryhuse

Hi i have been experiencing chest pains for the last 3 weeks now. It comes and goes as a stabbing chest pain in both sides of chest but most often left side. I also get the pain down my left arm sometimes. Each time i get these pains it lasts for around 5-10 Mins. I went to my GP who referred me to the hospital were they took an ECG, Blood test and measured my blood pressure however it came back all completely normal so they sent me home. 1 and a half week later I still have these pains. Should i be worried or will pass in a week or so?
Please Reply with advise

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H A ????

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@thankful

@jacksfather1- HA stands for Heart Attack. Sorry! Jim@thankful

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Oh I'm very sorry to hear that. I hope you have made a healthy recovery. Both my Grandad and Dad have had heart attacks. My Grandads was due to an unhealthy lifestyle but my Dad is and was very healthy but he had it due to stress.
I am still a teenager and am quite healthy. I'm not sure what could be causing a heart attack.
Thanks

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@harryhuse

Hi thanks for your message
I am not quite sure what a HA was

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@harryhuse- HA stands for Heart Attack. Sorry! Jim@thankful

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In reply to @dianrib "H A ????" + (show)
@dianrib

Thanks 👍 covid, isolation depression sickness it all sucks

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@harryhuse

Oh I'm very sorry to hear that. I hope you have made a healthy recovery. Both my Grandad and Dad have had heart attacks. My Grandads was due to an unhealthy lifestyle but my Dad is and was very healthy but he had it due to stress.
I am still a teenager and am quite healthy. I'm not sure what could be causing a heart attack.
Thanks

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Sorry I deleted the actual post I should of responded to so I will put this out there. A month ago my dad without telling anybody had chest pains and pains in both arms at seperate times for 3 weeks well middle of night he could not catch his breath and finally got scared enough to call 911 and go to hospital, after all the tests were run everything came back negative, then somebody made decision to put dye in his blood and look for a blockage and sure enough 1 artery was about 60 percent plugged and so they decided to put a stint in, next day no pains and was up walking around. The doctor said he never had a HA but that artery was telling his body there was a problem and he was well on his way to a HA good luck dave

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@davej

Sorry I deleted the actual post I should of responded to so I will put this out there. A month ago my dad without telling anybody had chest pains and pains in both arms at seperate times for 3 weeks well middle of night he could not catch his breath and finally got scared enough to call 911 and go to hospital, after all the tests were run everything came back negative, then somebody made decision to put dye in his blood and look for a blockage and sure enough 1 artery was about 60 percent plugged and so they decided to put a stint in, next day no pains and was up walking around. The doctor said he never had a HA but that artery was telling his body there was a problem and he was well on his way to a HA good luck dave

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Hi,
I'm just not sure what would cause a blocked artery in my body but I am going back to the hospital for further checks so hopefully they will find what every it is. Perhaps its only a 10-50% blockage. I read how they only treat on patients with this when they have a 60% blockage and anything under should take medication. Nobody really takes it seriously as they all think it will go in a couple of days and they dont know that something bad could be happening so its really hard to appointments at the hospital with my family.

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Did the cardiologist bring up the option to do a Transesophageal echocardiogram? I ask because research I’ve done showed me that when a normal echocardiogram doesn’t yield any abnormal results sometimes Doctors will resort to this more invasive test as it is able to get better images of the actual heart valves from inside of the esophagus in order to rule out issues with the valves themselves. It is said that this particular test can capture images and insight that all the other tests may not be able to capture, such as blood tests, blood culture, ECG/EKG, echocardiogram, chest X-ray, and CT of chest.

I’ve happened to have all of the above tests performed on various occasions recently except the TEE test (transesophageal echocardiogram) without seeing a cardiologist and all came back normal. My situation has been shortness of breath that got worse after an aspiration event. However, I already had the shortness of breath for a little while before the aspiration (not from Covid) so I may pursue a TEE myself from a cardiologist if necessary. My hope is that it could be done at the same time as a bronchoscopy since both procedures put a tub down the throat (I believe cardiologist performs the TEE while a pulmonologist performs the bronchoscopey). However, it would be great if one specialist was able to conduct both at the same time.

The transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) test:
During this test, a small transducer attached to the end of a tube (for sonography imaging) is inserted down the tube leading from your mouth to your stomach (esophagus). This test provides much more detailed pictures of your heart than is possible with a transthoracic echocardiogram.

Bronchoscopy:
During bronchoscopy, a thin tube (bronchoscope) is passed through your nose or mouth, down your throat and into your lungs. During the procedure the Doctor usually performs a lavage (releases saline water into the lungs and sucks it back up), or other tests such as these:

Special devices may be passed through the bronchoscope, such as a tool to obtain a biopsy, an electrocautery probe to control bleeding or a laser to reduce the size of an airway tumor. Special techniques are used to guide the collection of biopsies to ensure the desired area of the lung is sampled.

A bronchoscope with a built-in ultrasound probe may be used to check the lymph nodes in the chest for people suspected to have lung cancer.

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