Unknown Disorder/Disease - Chest and Neck Issues
Hello everyone, I'm a 27 year old male. For the last year, I've been having bouts of flare ups throughout the year. The flare up cause symptoms that mimic a heart attack. I get a lot of tension and pressure in the chest, mostly near the shoulder joints, the sides of the neck, and in the sternum. The cramping can also come along with arm numbness or the feeling of it being weak. It doesn't always hurt, but it has in the past on occasion.
I have been to the ER four times for this, I have seen two neurologists, a rheumatologist, a cardiologist, a sports medicine doctor, an orthopedic surgeon, and a neurosurgeon. No one has been able to find anything wrong with me. I have had countless imaging tests, including a CT of the brain, thoracic outlets, cervical spine, and thoracic spine, a CTA of the brain and cervical spine, and MRI's and MRA's of the brain, cervical spine, thoracic spine, TMJs, and both brachial plexus. The only thing found were light to moderate sinus inflammation of the frontal and ethmoid sinuses on the right side of the head, and degeneration of a few discs in the neck and back. I have no muscle tears or apparent pinches anywhere.
I have had a lot of blood work over the years, including Troponin tests, all kidney function panels, heart panels, stroke panels, etc. My heart is supposedly perfectly fine, my injection fraction is around 65%. Despite my heart, starting in the last month, having a cardiac arrhythmia, where my heart rate will randomly jump around between the 50's and 110's for the bpm, but the heart beat is perfectly fine. Other blood work has been my ANA panels which are negative, and I also had my basic hormones and some Anti- tests done, which all seem to be in normal order. Although my testosterone hasn't come back yet, my estrogen, cortisol, and thyroid hormones are all within normal measures. I was tested for Sjogrens and Lupus Antibodies which are negative, for the few that have tested.
My orthopedic surgeon believes I am overly mobile, where my joints and muscles are "triple" jointed. As such, he believes physical therapy may help, but I was in it for three months last year and I saw no change. Although, he has suggested I go in for muscle strengthening on the upper back instead of strengthening the pectoral muscles.
I have been having very dark and depressing thoughts and my fear of dying from this grows every day because we have no answers for this. I have spoken with a therapist and we have tried a few medications over the last year in which none of them have helped take that edge off, and a few caused hallucinations and one caused permanent nerve damage in the back of my forearms, so we have had to stop them completely.
I'm looking for any guidance from anyone who has been through something similar. I can't be the only one going through something like this.
In short, I have been having heart attack like symptoms with no signs of a panic attack (with two of the largest flares being around friends having fun playing board games and playing a game with an online friend), and no signs of heart damage. There are no masses in the body, my blood work is completely normal, and no muscle tears. When everything flares up it feels like my heart stops or skips a few beats and a tight pressure overcomes the pectoral muscles. Minor flare ups will normally cause a bunch of heat in the edges of the muscles normally, at the sternum, near the collarbone, and under the armpit around the pectoral minor muscles, with some burning also coming over the pectoral muscles under the nipples and around them. This feeling can also come along with numbness in the outside of the hands, the fingertips, sometimes the entire arm, or even numbness around the collarbone on both sides. Sometimes I also get headaches where my forehead and temple feels like it is on fire, but I do not have migraines and have had an EEG which was fully negative for any seizure or epilepsy (which I had to stop the at home study after 18 hours of it on out of 48 hours, because I was allergic to the flu used for the electrodes).
I have heard sleep apnea may be a factor but the test was somewhat inconclusive where it may just be a severe bout of allergies causing the issues breathing at night. We tried to do another st home one but I can not because he pressure on the hands/fingers keeps me up due to pain.
On top of all of this, my eyes have been having more issues and I've been coughing a dry cough for a few weeks now, after starting Trazedone two months ago and having to pull myself off because the dry eyes and mouth were bothering me.
Please, let me know if there is anyone special I should see, some specialist doctor, or even what blood work I should ask for from my doctors. My life has been put on hold because I can not drive with these flare ups causing eye issues (the largest flares up caused my sight to go red on the bottom half) and chest issues mimicking a heart attack. I am truly worried for my life and scared to go to sleep every night.
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