What might be causing pain under area... - British Heart Fou...

British Heart Foundation

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What might be causing pain under area of left ribs and stomach, shoulder, back? Should I be worried. After running and lasting a few hours.

Weirdperson profile image
10 Replies

Title says everything. Extra info of ailments and health that could be relevant (). It could be muscle cramp or something but maybe it could be more serious. I checked NHS guidelines and it doesn't seem like emergency since it only goes to shoulder. Since I have GP in a few weeks it's ok. Can anyone relate to these symptoms or knows someone who had them and if was benign or more serious?

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I am 18, male. I don't take meds, drugs, substance, caffeine, alcohol and currently relaxed since I'm on vacation. I eat well and stay hydrated and make sure results are more or less consistent.

My bp is 110/75 when relaxed, slightly anxious 128 and anxious 130-140. When I lie down its 90/50 when I stand its 95/65 and my pulse goes to 140bpm, my pulse is around 100bpm most of the time, but when my bp is 128bp it goes to 120bpm and when anxious it is 130-150bpm my pulse drops to 70bpm before bed. I am a fit guy who cycles, runs, swims and does 12 pull ups per rep, but struggle to put on weight even when I eat around 4000kcal 17bmi but quite tall, I have a weaker kidney from birth but I have no anemia or problems in blood test. When I went to doctor my pulse was 150bpm and I did an ECG and there were no arrhythmia just sinusal tachycardia. My resting heart rate has increased gradually from 80 to 100 in 6 months.

I have had eye problem for 4 months+ a pressure under my eye, the ophthalmologist couldn't find an issue, I sometimes loose vision in one eye, I don't lose vision but the colours change to brown and I see complex patterns all over visual field that are multicoloured but not like migraine. It happens sporadically around 0-3x a year with first happening at 15. It resolves in 5 minutes. I get similar thing when I stand up fast, however this is in both eyes. I always saw spots in my vision as a kid (constant ones) like high iso camera but in this year the sky is no longer as blue as it used to be. Now it has sparkles and small flashes like lightning. When I look at squares they move around and flash. The closest thing I could find was VS, its not floaters. I get migraines like my brother and father ever since I was a kid. In separate occasions I get a booof sound in one ear and loose my hearing and then It comes back.

The only medical condition anyone in my family has is congenital heart disorder asd that my brother was diagnosed at 24.

I think it's all related. I have booked appointment GP. It takes a while tho. I used to have a doctor that waited till I relaxed and said I was fine, the other doctor took one reading and said I needed Ramipril, thats ok if I need it fine, I'm not against it, but since my bp is very often 110 I told her that I probably wouldn't need it so they took me off it when I showed the BP readings. I never ended up taking it.

)

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Weirdperson
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10 Replies
joesmith123456 profile image
joesmith123456

Enjoy your holiday and try and enjoy the summer. You are right to see the doctor about the concerns you have. But the more you think about an ache or pain then the more it seems to hurt. Relax more and measure your blood pressure less. All the best to you.

Weirdperson profile image
Weirdperson in reply to joesmith123456

Thanks! The pain has gone. But I will keep an eye on it. Unfortunately I broke my right shoulder bone so I can't really do much. 😂 My goal this summer was to work on upper-body strength, now I'm going to loose it. Not great if you play an instrument, it is what it is tho.

pistachio_lover profile image
pistachio_lover

The pain on the left side could be liver, pancreas, or gall bladder. You will need a gp tto determine that, might need blood tests. The eye issue could be a migraine event (no headache with this) but I would talk to the gp to see if you can get an mri (brain/head) to rule out anything pressing on the optic nerve or anything else. For BP, you might want to ask for a diuretic because it will lower BP and can be taken only when needed. That's all my thoughts as hard to comment without diagnostics.

Ennasti profile image
Ennasti in reply to pistachio_lover

Agree with pistachio_lover. Having just brought my husband back home from hospital after having his gall bladder removed, my first thought with your symptoms was gall bladder or pancreas.

Your doctor is the best one to advise. Good luck.

pete109 profile image
pete109

I had the same sort of visual disturbances as well, it happened a couple of times when my BP headed to the 200+ / 100+ area, it also happened after I had a PCI and stents with related meds to lower my BP and HR, it looks much like the colour test strip you see in magazines, an oblong of a row of squares of different colours but floating around as a strip, lasts a few minutes then goes away, haven’t had that for 18 months so hopefully that’s the last time I get it, but very worrying when it happened, since had a comprehensive eye test with scans with no problems reported, so looks like it was related to my BP being too high and too low, doctors weren’t worried, I’ve never had a heart attack, stents were due to the results of scans done to find out why my BP soars, had 4 stents total but still get wild BP from normal to 190/90, I don’t know if that’s the same sort of visual disturbance you had, but it’s a very weird experience.

Weirdperson profile image
Weirdperson

Fortunately pain subsided. The visual thing is constant tho, it's there when I wake up and until I go to bed. I can't find anything that represents what I have. It's not a migraine. The 5 minute thing could be migraine but it happens so suddenly in 5 seconds it's all over my left vision. My bp has never been that high. My father has a bp of 120 and he is late 60's. I gave detailed info on it. I'm more concerned about the drop as this is also accompanied by vision change when standing. It only happens occasionally tho.

Blearyeyed profile image
Blearyeyed

As you say the pain under the ribcage could be anything , even acid reflux if you've eaten or drank something and it's very hot or you are a bit dehydrated or have sweated and your electrolytes reduced.Your heart issue definitely requires a bit more investigation. I have Chronic Dysautonomia caused by two Tachycardia syndromes, one , called POTs involves me getting extreme spikes or dips in heart rate when I stand or sit down. Sometimes this can be accompanied by a drop in BP.

Your symptoms sound similar to a condition like POTs or a more common condition called Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia which can happen quite often in young people or athletes whom can exercise too hard causing over exertion related cardiac symptoms.

You family history and low BP at times will mean you should organise to see your GP and get a Holter test so that they can really study what's happening to your heart rate and blood pressure during normal activity. It's better to politely ask if you can have the extended 3 or 5 day Holter rather than a 24 hour test just to make sure nothing gets missed and you don't end up going back and forth for retesting.

You need to keep reminding them that cardiac problems have happened to young members of your family and that you've had previous kidney problems to make sure they do a full set of tests and scans on your heart and retesting of your kidney function because this can cause these types of cardiac symptoms too.

Your weaker kidney may mean you are getting recurrent salt imbalance when you are physical active and sweating a lot, and if you are also on a special diet it could mean you need more advice about how to control your hydration and salt loss especially during exercise.

Tachycardia issues usually involve the Cardiologist suggesting Self Care techniques first.

These include drinking more water not just daily but timing a drink before moving and during exercise more regularly than usual, often a little more salt especially if you are very active when you have a diagnosis, slower movements from sitting to standing and vice versa, compression clothing to stop rapid changes in blood flow forcing your heart and autonomic nervous system to play catch up .

Deep breathing techniques can also help.

The biggest change though is to pace your day and physical activities better with more balance between action and rest. Often you need to adapt your exercise routines spending less time in high cardiac action, and using shorter cardio episodes or keeping to low intensity, steady state exercises for longer periods.

If the problem doesn't resolve with Self Care then they try options like beta blockers , although if you do get periods of hypotension ( low BP ) you may be like me and find betablockers don't suit you , in which case they consider other things like a Calcium Channel Blocker or HCN blocker or ARB which dilates the blood vessels. This is at a low daily dose and just helps with Self Care and behaviour adjustments to manage the symptoms so you get your quality of life back. Drug choices can depend on the type of tachycardia you have but also if you have any other coexisting health problems or you use other essential medications.

If you have certain causes for early onset tachycardia some people get a pacemaker which can in many mean that you never have to worry about these things happening in the future. But it's early days in your investigation yet, it could still be tachycardia but something can be more easily solved with training on hydration and salt intake.

Interestingly for years before I was diagnosed I was very thin no matter what I ate and it wasn't just because I was active , if your heart rate is virtually always in fat burning mode, even when you are just standing up or walking, you do find it hard to put on weight. Eating more lean protein, healthy fats. and fibre rich carbs can help improve this because they remain in the digestive system for longer. Try and make wholefood options and avoid sugar , white carbs and artificial sweetener because these foods burn quickly as empty calories in people with a fast metabolism and also cause heart rate to spike when you eat them.

Your headaches and visual disturbance sound like Optical Migraines or Migraine with Aura. I get a full spectrum of Migraines including the rainbow patterned version and my Migraines are linked to times when my Tachycardia is not well controlled and my heart rate is going up and down too rapidly. This again is because the blood is sprinting around your body so the oxygen volume is a little less or it can add a bit of temporary eye pressure which triggers the visual disturbance. People with tachycardia or cardiac problems commonly suffer from Migraines triggered by blood pressure. It's actually why I called myself Bleary-eyed on HU.

All of this goes to suggest that as well as getting things investigated, even if you don't end up requiring treatment you are getting a highly sensitive " fight or flight " cardiac response to physical activity and that you will need to start listening to your body and taking it's lead on your pace and not over exert yourself with excessive lengths of high cardiac sport or exercise.

The best thing to do now is to pace yourself and arrange those tests and try to distract yourself from getting anxious about your symptoms and worry about what might be as anxiety does also increase the heart rate as well.

If you do find you have breathlessness, chest pain , dizziness, confusion. visual disturbance and nausea and your heart rate and blood pressure after sitting down , resting with your legs raised and hydrating do still seek urgent medical assistance as an ECG while symptoms occur can sometimes help them to diagnose a problem which doesn't show up in tests when you are stable.

Let us know how you get on , my daughter is 22 and was diagnosed last year with the same heart and other health issues that I have but also has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Since learning to pace herself , using self care and getting on the medications she is living her best , just more laid back life again so be positive. Take care , Bee

Weirdperson profile image
Weirdperson

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond. Thank you for telling me your experience, I appreciate it a lot. It is true that I exert myself a lot. I cycle uphill in the sun once being 40 degrees (shade) and that was in the evening. Its usually when I stop that I feel bad (slight dizziness and sweaty.) but only for 5 min. I get out of breath fast. I usually feel way better after intense exercise tho and lethargic when I don't. I make sure I drink lots before, during, after and always in general. I don't have a diet but I try to eat 5 a day of all types and eat plenty of protein. I stay away from salty stuff but I'm not very strict. The eye stuff is weird since it is constant but can increase in intensity, the fact I loose hearing made me concerned it was more serious. My glucose is fine and the doctor that gave me ECG said my blood oxygen saturation was 99%, I guess thats good, no clue what it implies, I went to doc for back pain and they gave me valium and it went away. We were waiting so long it could just be a coincidence or not. I can do intense exercise but struggle to stand still without being uncomfortable. Another interesting thing is my mental abilities and focus crash between 2-7 o'clock no matter when I get up. I can only listen to music deeply at night when I listen to it in the morning it gives me headache. I'm highly creative at night and logical in the morning and useless in afternoon. I generally use this to my advantage when working on creating games or music.

Blackwolf_7619 profile image
Blackwolf_7619

Have you been tested for POTS? And I wonder if the doctor could prescribe you a beta blocker?

I agree that it could also be a stomach problem. My cardiologist and gastro surgeon both told me that stomach problems can contribute to heart symptoms due to vagus nerve running through them both.

Sharpglo profile image
Sharpglo

Hi W, it could be what I have, (awful pain as time goes on when on feet) water fluid retention in sheaths which lie beneath lungs, liver etc. Put me on water pills, not much difference, just had a biventricular pacemaker put in which I am told should help my symptoms by pumping more oxygenated blood to the body. All the best.

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