REPOST: chest heaviness won't leave

[Sleepybear987]

Hi,

I had a long trip this Feb. After coming back, I had a bit of chest heaviness. It's not left but instead slowly getting worse. I've been calling cardiology, my GP, the BHF nurses, went to A&E and have had very little help.

Honestly, right now, I don't care about figuring out what it is, I just need it to go away because it's interfering with my life. I am stuck in bed most days and have had to cancel my meetings etc.

Has anyone had this and figured out how to make it go away? Any medications that have helped? I am taking aspirin, bisoprolol (6.25mg but I recently doubled up on the 1.25mg tablet to make it 7.5mg and that's sort of helped?), gabapentin and codeine. I have restricted high level activity (as if I could do that anyway) but I need to go to the shops occasionally to get electric and that might wipe me out.

Please any suggestions are welcome! (I am not going to A&E however because 1. Long wait times will aggravate my chest, 2. everytime I've gone, they've just suggested I go talk to the specialists and are quite unaware of heart issues).

[Tos92]

I’m sorry you’re experiencing all of this, especially at such a young age.

It sounds like you need to a cardiologist who is prepared to listen to you and carry out all the correct testing.

If the chest pain gets worse, you need to call 111 or 999. I know that you said A&E are of no help, but they can do blood tests, ECGs and x-rays for example to rule out any immediate danger to the heart.

I know being young, it’s hard to get the doctors to listen to you, but if you’ve been feeling like this for a while, then you need to try and advocate for yourself as much as possible if you do decide to go to A&E. More so because you’ve had a long flight and you’ve not felt right since, things like thrombosis need to be ruled out.

Keeping you in my thoughts.

[Sleepybear987 in reply to Tos92]

Thank you for your well wishes. I think I'm only going to go to A&E if my symptoms get unbearable. I went at the start of March and had all the blood tests etc. so I think people are sort of aware what's going on. It's definitely hard to advocate though at times because i think a lot of people try to patronise me due to my age. Alas. We'll get there. I emailed PALs and cardiology got back to me quickly...even though they don't have appointments until May? So that sort of sucks. But I asked them to email my cardiologist for any tips so fingers crossed!

[Tos92 in reply to Sleepybear987]

I have been in a position similar to yours before where I was dismissed by a number of doctors, despite being symptomatic due to my age. 2 years later when I had an NSTEMI, they have tried to be a bit more empathetic about my situation.

I’m happy to hear you contacted PALS and they’ve escalated your concerns for you. I waited 9 months to see a cardiologist on the NHS, so May isn’t too bad.

[devonian186 in reply to Sleepybear987]

The fact you mention this problem started after a long trip is surely significant? How long was it, and was it a flight? If so was that two long trips in total?

Flights can have impacts on your body.

[Sleepybear987 in reply to devonian186]

I mean I also have sickle cell trait which is why I took the train. It was a 5 hour ish train but the main issue was when I got back I was locked out of my apartment and it meant that I was stuck outside for hours. So the whole journey was a bit of a bust, I had like 4 hours of sleep and then I had to go to work the next day. Stressors all around.

But yeah, 100% was caused by that journey. I know that for a fact. It's what to do next that's the issue.

[devonian186 in reply to Sleepybear987]

My first thought if you had been flying that long was air pressure and also blood clots through not moving around enough. Can still happen on a train as regards clots but would guess you would keep moving to alleviate boredom. Being locked out obviously didn't help. Let us all know how you get on when you discuss this properly with someone.

[Captain_Birdseye]

I read your bio, it looks like you've suffered a pericardial effusion brought on by pericarditis... so you know the cause at least.

The bad news is that these things take time to go away. I was diagnosed with myocarditis last July and I still have some lingering effects from that. For heart related inflammation issues like this, the only consistent advice is to rest, rest and rest some more. Convalescence is the best medicine.

Your heart has had a bit of a shock, and needs time to recover. This means refraining from anything that causes the heart rate to increase (so emotional stress as well as physical).

The good news is that being young and otherwise healthy, is that if you follow medical advice, then you have a better chance of recovering quickly. It might seem like a long time, but 3-6 months is normally the recovery time given for heart inflammation.

Obviously it's worth keeping an eye on your symptoms, as if the fluid doesn't drain it may require further treatment. And be aware of the symptoms of cardiac tamponade, as this is a serious cardiac event that will require emergency treatment.

[Sleepybear987 in reply to Captain_Birdseye]

Honestly this has been the best advice I've been given compared to all my specialists! I think you're right, I was convinced that the water on my heart is not doing anything but I truly believe it's the cause for a lot of my symptoms. It sort of sucks because the way my living situation is set up, I can't relax in the way I should but for now, I'm going to work from home and chill the best way I can.

Thank you so much for reaching out!