Help: Chest pain, high heart rate, exhaustion

Years of chest pain and no real help

I have been living with chest pain for the last several years. I’ve the last few months it’s gotten worse. Before I continue note that I stopped smoking back in April of last year. My primary dr keeps sending me to different doctors and nobody can give me an answer. First of all, I little under a year ago (like 11 months) my father passed away of a heart attack at the age of 79. About a week later I experienced an anxiety attack. My dr sent me to an cardiologist just to be safe. He ran a nuclear stress test and did an echo stress test and found nothing. Said I was good. Shrilly after my chest started hurting again, my blood pressure kept shooting up to around 150/100. After about 30 mins it would go away but the pain never did. So, I was sent to a gastroenterologist. He did a scope and found a very tiny hiatal hernia, an ulcer, and al sorts of acid. Also believes I’m having esophagus spasms. Ok, so he gave me some pills. The whole summer I was good. No pain at all. Then starting around in December the pain came back. Not too bad. Didn’t last long. I started exercising and stuff too as I am well over weight by like 100 lbs. the pain started getting worse. Last month it got really bad. I’m getting dizzy, feeling bad, stomach and chest pain. Like hard pressure chest pain. Feeling pressure in my eyes and face. Left arm pain and numbness. Blood pressure goes up and down. All of those seems to happen after I eat and lt doesn’t seem to matter what I eat. So, I go back to the gastroenterologist. He does another scope finds that the l er is gone but I still have a lot of acid build up. Basically tells me to lose weight. Currently I’m 6,3 295 lbs. I know I’m over weight but I’m not like super crazy fat. So, I guess my question is, should I get my heart looked at again? I feel miserable 24/7. I have chest pain constantly, I’m dizzy all the time, which I do have sever sinus blockage also. I don’t feel like I can do anything at all. This sucks. I need help and I don’t know what else to do.

I also forgot to add that my primary doctor has increased my blood pressure meds a lot. My feet and ankles then started to swell up. So she changed my meds and the swelling went away.my blood pressure has been really good though in fact lower than normal. It’s been hovering around 114/70- 125/85. Heart rate is around 75 when resting.

I will add one more thing. Yesterday I was sitting in a meeting about an hour after eating two slices of little Cesar pizza and my heart rate shot you randomly. I felt awful and felt like I was about to black out. I got up and started walking and immediately felt better.

@rogersd Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect, a place to give and get support.

To go for years with chest pain and still not have any answers has to be tough.

You'll notice that I moved your question to an existing discussion related to unknown sources of chest pain.

Members like @manda304 @bjanderson @lioness @amm97 @heatherg have experience with this topic and may be able to offer support and information.

May I ask if you'd had a chance to look through past discussions and posts on Connect related to this topic?

@rogersd Welcome Roger thanks Erica There is alot of reasons for chest pain stomach problems pleurisy in your lung area and more Have you seen a Dr.? I'd start with your PCP then he can recommend specialist if he thinks this is necessary. I wish you the best I hope you come back to let us know

@rogersd - I’m sorry to hear that you lost your father recently. I also understand how upsetting it is for you to develop chest pain and not knowing why.
It is possible that you have inherited some risk factors for heart disease. However, it is great that you had a normal stress test last year.
I think you could request another cardiology appointment to discuss what’s going on this year.
I have inherited my father’s high cholesterol and atherosclerosis- despite doing the best I can.
I had also inherited the type 2 diabetes my father had. My internist told me that diabetes is considered a heart disease.
I got scared and 3 years ago I went on a weight loss diet and lost enough weight so I only had to control my blood sugar with diet.
You do have excess weight and if you could find a way to safely lose weight it would also help you with the acid reflux too.
You are much younger than I am- you have time now to get as healthy as possible. You do the best you can now and you most likely will notice a nice change i your well-being.

Rogersd - Have you had a CT scan of your lungs? I am a lung cancer patient and many of your symptoms are quite familiar. At one point in my almost 7 year journey, I had horrible chest pain. I was sent to Cardiologist and Gastro dr for extensive test. It turned out to me a tiny cancerous lymph node pressing on my chest & esophagus. Also, are you drinking enough water? Dehydration can cause also cause weird symptoms as well. Just my two cents worth.

Thank you for your reply. I’ve never had a CT scan done but I’ve been dealing with this pain for a decade. It’s just been getting worse the last 6 months. Drs all say it’s because I’m over weight. I know I am but I’m not like crazy heavy. I’m 6’3 295lbs. Maybe that CT scan is worth a try though.

It would bring you peace of mind to have it done. Remember, if you have lungs you can get lung cancer. Hope this is not the case, just trying to help you figure this out. When I would take Advil the pain would go away. Same as a good walk would do. Inflammation hurts. My son is about your size (31 yrs old) and does not have that pain but he is a heavy weight lifter. Try to get some exercise daily, hydrate, and take deep breaths each hour. Best wishes for this to go away.

@seaspray The Dr is sending me to a cardiologist for this pain and s.o.b My pain is on rt side of esophagus it hurts when I hiccup or burp She didn't say any about a G. I Dr . maybe thats next I'm on 2 mess for stomach one day ,one night Did you have these symptoms ?

Lioness - I did not have those symptoms although I had indigestion. The GI doctor put me on meds and the GERD diet, which did nothing. The cardiologist ran all the test and nothing was found. They were looking for pleural effusion which my symptoms kept pointing to. It was my old oncologist, that left Mayo for another hospital that figured out I needed a biopsy using the EUS method. Sure enough they found the tiny tumor pressing on the esophagus and heart. I then did radiation and the pain was completely gone in 3 days. Hope your doctor's can figure this out. Be persistent and don't give up. The sob would be more concerning to me.

@seaspray Yes this s.o.b. is more concerning to me I had a triple by pass in 1996 and am know just having problems. My Dr put me on Nexium and another med which has helped ,maybe I just need to stay on these but am worried about this