Health conditions - Asthma ,eczema, allergies (life threatening), excessive alcohol use (past 7 years, now stopped)
Symptoms
- For the past few months, I have been getting severe chest + shoulder + sometimes back pain on and off. It has been occurring more and more frequently lately.
Last Monday, the pain started to get unbearable. I was exhausted both walking up the road and even exhausted at rest in bed. It actually feels like my heart is clogged up. I also feel disorientated and light headed. I have been taking aspirin (300g) daily since Monday and within 20min the pain goes away.
However, on Thursday the pain was intense and I thought I was going to have a heart attack or stroke. I went to A & E on Friday and explained my symptoms.
ESG showed abnormalities - attached.
The GP there assured me I don't have any acute heart attack risk after ECG + blood tests and told me to exercise more e.g. bench press as he thinks its a muscular issue. I was shocked by this. Without aspirin, the pain is unbearable and I feel like I am going to faint.
I truly feel like without aspirin I will have a heart attack or stroke, unless I have already had a silent heart attack or stroke.
Any advice is highly appreciated.
Many Thanks!
Written by
Andy500
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the terms of this community do t allow us to diagnose or comment on ECG’s. However, you’ve been reassured by your doctor who assumes this is muscular.
Aspirin isn’t necessarily the right analgesic for you as far as pain is concerned, so a discussion with a dispensing pharmacist might be beneficial for you. Maybe ibuprofen or similar.
Aspirin is prescribed in much smaller doses for heart roubles, to make the blood flow more freely.
You are entitled to a second opinion if you feel your doctor isn’t taking your health seriously, so you can phone your surgery receptionist and ask for a consultation with another doctor in the practice.
Accident and emergency weren't going to take it seriously unless you were having a heart attack or were in active heart failure. You need to follow up with your GP and ask for a referral to cardiology.
According to that EKG report the abnormalities are borderline and thus nonspecific. Perhaps your GP would be willing to book you for a screening treadmill stress test which, if normal, will give you peace of mind that your symptoms are very unlikely to be of cardiac origin.
People living with some types of angina / ischaemia without obstructed coronary arteries ANOCA/INOCA such as vasospastic angina will usually have normal treadmill tests.
Most tests to for myocardial ischaemia are designed to detect obstructive coronary artery disease rather than ANOCA.
All my tests, stress echo, perfusion MRI were ' normal'.
My functional angiogram using acetylcholine showed spontaneous and acetylcholine induced coronary vasospasms.
Yes, I understand. I am planning on booking an appointment with my GP tomorrow.
However the main issue is, if I stop taking aspirin (150-300g) even for a day, The chest+shoulder+back pain is SEVERE and I feel exhausted while even in bed and not left the house the whole day.
As I understand, taking aspirin everyday is dangerous due to the side effects and waiting to be referred can take many weeks, so I am unsure what to exactly do about this issue. In addition, I am getting moderate abdomen pain after taking aspirin already.
In addition, I am not sure what the safe dose for daily aspirin is, online says 75-150mg, but obviously due to the side effects, I am cautious.
Even if I ask my GP advice, I am cautious, as my GP always seems unsure and isn't that great. (Planning to change)
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Pain at rest 
Scared 
Upper chest and shoulder pain 
how would you explain a heart attack?
Coming off Ticagrelor 
