New girl unsure of what things mean

[Pdbird]

Hi Im new here & unsure of what this all means.

I have had a few episodes of chest pain with pain in my jaw. (Four times it has happened in 7 weeks) GTN spray does help, I have needed to use it twice in two of my funny turns & three times twice.

No evidence of a heart attack from ECG or blood tests. However, I have had a telephone appointment with a cardiologist & have received a letter saying

‘An ECG showed sinus rhythm with left axis deviation and poor R-wave progression.’

Does anyone know what that sentence actually means?

Another bit in the letter says

‘We will arrange an echocardiogram to look for evidence of a regional wall motion abnormality. If the echo is normal we could perform a stress echo or a myocardial perfusion scan in order to investigate further.’

I’m struggling to get an appointment to discuss this with my GP & feel that maybe I should wait for the results of these tests but I would really like to know what it all means.

If anyone has any ideas I would be grateful to hear your stories.

Wishing you well xx

[Splodge60]

Write the following in your browser

“Meaning of ECG showing sinus rhythm with L-Axis Deviation”

Use similar questions on every sentence or word you don’t understand. Keep working on the same method till you do understand.

After a while something will begin to make sense xxx. You can then visit the Dr armed and ready to have a two way communication.

[Kristin1812 Heart Star]

Hi Pdbird and welcome. You are in the right place! It must be a relief that you haven’t had a heart attack, but you very reasonably, are looking for answers. I hope someone will be along soon who has been through something similar. We do try and help by support, and by sharing our own experiences, but not for any technical or medical advice. The BHF are really good for that. They have a great range of information pages here, and you can also ring them on 0300 330 3311 Mon-Fri 9-5pm or email [e-mail]. They are very helpful.

[Pdbird]

Thank you so much for your replies. Makes more sense to me now. It has been a worry especially having the episodes of chest pain coupled with the weird feeling along my jaw. The fact that GTN spray makes it go away also worries me & as the cardiologist said, there’s something going on & needs investigating.

Sending best wishes to you all xx

[Pdbird]

I had an echo & the results didn’t show an awful lot but did show mild left ventricular hypertrophy. Cardiologist phoned me the day after my echo & said they couldn’t get any decent pictures so they want me to have an MRI scan & asked if I’m ok with that which of course I am.

I have now had 12 episodes of chest pain with jaw pain about 10 out of the 12 episodes. The GTN spray has been effective on the third spray with five minutes between each spray. Twice I’ve had to do a fourth spray which was very scary but thank god it has worked. Both times it happened I’ve gone straight to A&E but not gone inside (I know...stupid) but the pain had completely gone away by then & with four kids at home & no support network i just wanted to get back home.

I’m unsure what the cardiologist suspects but I do wish they would say so I could prepare for worst case scenario, not knowing what to expect is quite scary & an MRI scan appointment could be months away yet