Persistent Chest Pain - Please help

Hi @juliar19, I moved your recent posts into the original discussion your started and have added it to the Heart Rhythm Conditions support group (https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/heart-rhythm-conditions/)

I did this so you can continue to connect with members in both groups and so that members can see your full story.

Hello @juliar19 - this may be helpful to you. For a number of years I had stabbing pains in my chest. There was not a large area of my chest that was painful. The pains were like flashes of lightening along a line. They never occurred during exercise - so I never bothered to get them checked out. A few years ago, after I had been having them for some time, a doctor told me I had a heart mumur (I'd gone in for carpal tunnel syndrome). I had an echocardiagram and the results were a leaky mitral valve with severe regurgitation (blood flows back into the heart). Before this one doctor heard the murmur, no one ever mentioned hearing it. The cardiologist told me my condition developed gradually over time. I elected to have my mitral valve repaired before I went into congestive hear failure. I hope this helps you out. You are smarter than I was, getting it checked out now. Take care.

Hi there! Quick question - do you remember how often you'd get the shocks and how long this went on for? I appreciate the response. Really hoping this is just stress.

Oh, and to answer your questions. No, we are not quite getting good sleep yet. Baby is up every 2-4 hours so getting about 4/5 hours per night atm.

Hello! I'd say for a few years on and off and now every so often. I ended up having neuropathy from B12 deficiency and later diagnosed with Central Sensitization Syndrome. CSS is a hypersensitivity where it takes less to hurt and you feel more intensely. Its caused by an upregulation of the central nervous system where louder messages are received in the brain via spinal cord. Outside of possibly nerve medication helping, the best management is lifestyle change and calming the CNS. So stress for me was definitely a pain enhancer.

Baby, baby, baby... do I remember the days of getting minimal sleep when my kids were born. It takes time and routine and luck!

Have you tried to brainstorm ideas of how to reduce stress at this time? Do you have a partner or family members to step in and help?

Hello and thank you for sharing, I am very sympathetic about the pain you are experiencing, especially at such a young age. I have had, and continue to have, the type of pain you have described, with one big difference: much of mine started randomly moving from the left side of my chest, sometimes right in the middle, and now on the right side. I have gone to the ER several times and it is not a cardiovascular problem. This last ER visit I was diagnosed with PLEURODYNIA. If you look it up on Google there is very little information except a description of the pain as well as the common name DEVIL'S CLAWS because the pain can be so excruciating. It usually lasts 3-4, days when it is contagious, but can last up to three weeks and then it just disappears. Essentially, this is a virus that finds a home on the outside of your lungs; it can cause epidemics but there is very little research beyond that. I thought I would reach under by breast and tear it out - know what I mean! Certainly the stresses of life can be causal for pain and need attention. But when I opened Google and saw a picture of a young woman doubled over and clutching her breast I felt an enormous sense of relief that what I have was a medical condition! Now I can be accepting of the pain and give myself a break from self stress blame and being a medical detective! Wishing you a healthy life, Theres Gifford

Sounds like it could be esophageal spasms which can mimic cardiac symptoms.
Ask to have a modified barium swallow and/or esophageal manometry.

I had the same experience a couple of years ago after I dislocated my left shoulder and broke my humerus in a strange accident at the gym. In an process of relocating my shoulder and the incidental nerve stretching of the injury, I think the muscles/tendons were stretched and traumatized. I had a lot of sleep disturbance from this injury because I couldn't sleep in my normal position and of course the nerve pain was sometimes excruciating. Sleep deprivation and anxiety will absolutely create the "symptoms" that you have described, at least I felt the same sensations. I could feel every beat pounding in my chest at night! Doctors often underestimate what sleep depravation can do to a person--mentally and physically! My neurologist finally ordered Amitriptyline for the nerve pain (off label use) and I finally got relief with only 10 mg at night!