Months of Chest Pain - Please help

Posted by capt209 @capt209, Nov 19, 2017

Hello all,

My name is Brandon and I'm a 34 year old male. I'm excited to get signed up on here and hopeful this may help my anxiety which is through the roof! I have been through ongoing chest pain for the past 4 months. The pain started off as a pinch on the left side of chest. It evolved into a pinch and pressure onto the right side of chest. It would be nearly daily, but didn't really get worse after meals or doing a lot of exercising. The pain then started radiating to my shoulders and sometimes into my arms but rarely. Now, it radiates into my jaw occasionally. I get a wierd fluttering in my chest occasionally when I lay down, but when i sit up and get doing stuff I don't realize it much. Now the chest pain mainly feels like pressure in my chest snd i get occsssional sharp pains on the lower portion of my ribs and sometimes on each side of my sternum. What could this be?

Here's what all I've had done....
CT scan of heart and heart echo - found i have a slightly dialated aerota at the base that they will monitor yearly. I also have a bicuspid aerota valve with moderate regurgitation. Cardiologist does not think my heart is causing the pains. I have no blockages at all and they aren't concerned at all of a heart attack.

I was scoped and found i have a moderate to large hiatal hernia and esophagitas. They also did a manometry test and found I was having esophogas spasms. I am set to have a bravo test this week to see if acid reflux might be the cause. I bet that will show that is the case because I've had acid reflux since my late teens / early 20s.

During my CT scan, they saw a slightly enlarged lymphnode...which i think was on the right side of my chest. They said they would recheck that in 6 months. I had a cold or infection during that test and had some congestion and they say that may of been the reason for that.

I have been on a proton pump inhibitor, zantac and tums as needed but i haven't really noticed much of an improvement on them, if at all.

I have back problems and a neck injury as well. They also think that may be the cause of the chest pain. I had an MRI which did not show any nerve compression but I am constantly battling neck and back pain, sometimes severe.

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks all,
Brandon

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jdad2018 | @jdad0602 | Jun 10, 2019

In reply to @lisa1030 "I feel like it’s more in the middle of. The day then anything mostly never in..." + (show)

No. If I try to I get anxiety about it interfering with my heart.

lisa1030 | @lisa1030 | Jun 10, 2019

In reply to @lisa1030 "@jdad0602" + (show)

Sorry I forgot t0 @ u lol

lisa1030 | @lisa1030 | Jun 10, 2019

In reply to @sirgalahad "products like gaviscon or an antacid or see doctor for zantac to keep stomach from pushing..." + (show)

Right now I’m taking omeprozole until I see doc again on July 8

jdad2018 | @jdad0602 | Jun 11, 2019

Could it mean something else if pressure makes it worse? Sitting is worse than standing, and holding my son on my chest is even wore than that. I can't even lay down with him on my chest anymore.

Dana, Volunteer Mentor | @danab | Jun 14, 2019

In reply to @slumpkin "Hello. I am a 28 year old woman and have been experiencing many different issues with..." + (show)

@slumpkin Hi interesting issue. Im someone who has a histry of arrythmyas and so i know about a few different feelings in the chest area. I have since my arrythmya days received a heart transplant. So back in my arrymyia days i would always get confused between weither it was my heart, stomach or muscle since the all reside i the same area. Usually when i felt any pain tho it usually stomach. On the pounding tho i still get that even with my new heart and im told by my transplant team that is totally normal. I think when you go thru any type of heart issues you become much more aware of what's going on in your body. With me my pounding is usually when im on my side going to sleep and just turning over solves it. But always mention anything that you feel to your doctors.

slumpkin | @slumpkin | Jun 14, 2019

Hello. I am a 28 year old woman and have been experiencing many different issues with my body. I began having anxiety about two years ago. I had two major panick attacks that I went to the doctor while I was having them. Since then it has been pretty decent to deal with. I feel it is getting better and have not had any attacks. I have within the last few months been getting an ache in my left chest area. It feels like my heart has an ache. Its mild but definitely noticable and uncomfortable. Its not a sharp or shooting pain its just a slight ache like a mild headache. It can also somewhat feel as though it goes through to my back on that side. Like its a deep ache. But its happening almost daily. There are days when it doesnt happen. I don't really have any other sympstoms with it. I do get a pounding heart out of nowhere sometimes though also. My heart doesnt race as much as it does pound. And it will do so at rest and just come on out of nowhere. And eventually it will sibside. Sometimes the ache in my heart will go away but sometimes it will last all day. I was getting a lot of heart burn however I changed my diet and feel much better and the heart burn went away so I don't attribute that as a symptom. I believe it had to do with my diet. I am just wondering if I should be concerned with this ache? and the pounding of the heart. The pounding of the heart does not always come with any feelings of anxiety but maybe that is what it is. But I don't know about the heart ache. I don't have any anxiety sympstoms along with this at all. Its just an ache. I have been to the doctor a few times this year and always have good blood pressure and I had an EKG done and it came back good. Should I be concerned about this ache? Is there any explanation for it?

Max923 | @ak999 | Jun 17, 2019

In reply to @ak999 "Hello everyone, my name is Ayan and I'm 28 years old. I have been going through..." + (show)

@ak999

Hello everyone, my name is Ayan and I'm 28 years old. I have been going through the ongoing chest pain which moves around and goes to the back(sometimes) for the last 10 months. I went to ER 3 times, they did chest X-ray, EKG(probably 4 times) and found nothing suspicious. They relieved me asking to find a primary care doctor for proper diagnosis. So, I booked an appointment with primary care and he did a LIPID PANEL test (the results looked good) and asked me to put ICY HOT (pain relieving) cream on the chest areas that hurt. I used it for a while and found out that it gives temporary relief but the the pain doesn't go away. Also, if the pain is like 7 or 8 out of 10 it doesn't really help. Then, he did a bunch of tests like MAGNESIUM, HIV-1/2 AG/AB INITIAL SCREENING, HEMOGLOBIN A1C, COMPREHENSIVE METABOLIC PANEL, CBC, HELICOBACTER PYLORI ANTIGEN and the results looked good for each of those tests. He also asked me to take FAMOTIDINE but it didn't really work. He is sure that it is non cardiac given my symptons and sent to Gastroenterology dept. So, the doctor from Gastroenterolog dept asked to take Omeprazole (40 mg) for 2 or 3 weeks. I thought initially the pain was a little less but to my surprise I was was experiencing the same pain I used to have. Then he asked me to take Iberogest(purchased from Amazon) 20 drops with water 3 times a day but I couldn't take it for more than 3 days because I felt heaviness, pressure on my chest/stomach and more pain. He then changed it to FD-gard (over the counter medicine) but again didn't help much. In the mean time, I did an endoscopy So, during Endoscopy they found a small lesion in my gastric antrum and they have sent it out for biopsy and the result was benign. They also recommended to do an Ultrasound Endoscopy to get better pictures of the lesion. I did that too and they said it is too small now (like 1.5 cm) and they won't cut it until it shows growth. They advised me to repeat the procedure in next 6 months. They also said that this MIGHT NOT be the reason for your chest pain. So, now the doctor thinks that the nerves around the esophagus and the stomach might cause the pain and I'm taking despiramine (10 mg) daily for the last 5 days He said he will increase the dose every 3 weeks and it takes time to kick in. As of today, I am not sure if it is helping or not because last night only I had severe chest pain which got relieved this morning (not completely though but moderately). I'm not sure what is causing it. I am still so young and it's been a while now. I'm looking for some good advice/recommendations/treatment. Thank you for reading my story out.

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Now, I'm on 50 mg Desipramine and FD-gard but nothing seems to help either. The doctor ordered CT scan for my chest and abdomen now. Waiting for it to get scheduled. He also did a few tests like CRP, SEDIMENTATION RATE AUTOMATED, ANA SCREEN and LIPASE. All the tests were normal except LIPASE (The standard range is 13 - 64 U/L) but for me it was 79 U/L. The doctor said that the pancreas marker is very mildly elevated and it's a little hard to say if this is truly the pancreas issue or not. He will follow up after CT scan. What do you people think? Am I in the right direction of treatment? It's been almost a year now.

debiobrien | @debiobrien | Jun 18, 2019

it sounds like esophageal spasms. i have them and have went thru heart caths, stress tests to determine it is the esophageal spasms. there is a drug called cardizem that will take the pain away/ i have severe erosive gastritis, esophagitis and a motility disorder and also the spasms. there is also a thing you can do to stop the pain almost instant/ take a deep breath and hold it but push like your going to have a bowel movement. do it a few times and the pain will go away. it does something to a part of the brain that stops the spasm.