Chest discomfort?

[Peachy87]

Hi all! I wonder if anyone can shed some light on my symptoms! I've been to my GP but no diagnosis of yet!

About 4 weeks ago, I took a funny turn, I felt a little lightheaded and nauseous. It accompanied an odd feeling in my chest that I can only describe as 'discomfort'. It went on for a while, and I worked myself into a panic that I was having a heart attack or something! I saw my GP who sounded my chest and all sounded fine apparently... i had bloods taken and an ECG - all seemed fine! My GP gave me omeprazole as I said I'd been suffering heartburn recently and wondered if the symptoms were linked.

The omeprazole has stopped the heartburn I often suffered, but still, most days about 6pm I'm struck with this chest discomfort. Nothing seems to relieve it. It just wears off after a couple of hours, sometimes longer... i've noticed pressing on my breastbone and collarbone its pretty tender in places...

Ang ideas? It's really causing me a lot of worry!

[Peachy87]

I should add, a couple of times this has been accompanied by a stabbing pain just below my left ribcharge, but this passes quite quickly.

[Philip]

I do get very familiar paine in my chest, I was diagnosed with Costochondritis, which is flamation in the joints in your chest and causes a lot of shooting pains and depending on the strength it can make me a bit dizzy and light headed. But please don’t self diagnose because it can be dangerous, I hope you get sorted soon.

[Peachy87 in reply to Philip]

I have read up on this but not sure if its the same! Self diagnosis like you say is no use, considering I convinced myself I was going to die the first time it happened! Haha! Thanks for your reply!

[Philip]

I’ve been rushed too many times cos of the pains lol

[Mina786]

It could be anything from trapped wind to angina. I would go to A&E or call NHS 24 at the time this pain occurs. I went to A&E with pain in chest. back and between shoulders. Had Xray all was ok, but took bloods and they reckoned I had a pulmonary embolism. They gave me an injection to thin blood then I was sent home. However, I persued GP visits and went to hospital whenever it was unbearable , no meds working, and lasted longer than an hour. They referred me to a respiratory specialist. It appears that I also suffer from dysfunctional breathing. I get checkups and advice from physiotherapy too. It's worth persuing it.

[Peachy87]

The thing is, it's not chest pain (aside from the tender feeling I described when I press on my breastbone and some stabbing pains more in my stomach area than anywhere near my heart!) I can't think how to describe the feeling in my chest... other than calling it discomfort, like a tense feeling. My GP didnt seem to be concerned it was anything to do with my heart after blood and ECG results.

[Mary-intussuception in reply to Peachy87]

Do you know if you have any gallstones

[Philip in reply to Peachy87]

If you stopped pressing your breastbone maybe the pains will stop, lol but I’m in a lot of pains when I press on my chest and the centre of my chest is extremely painful when put pressure on it.

It took many years to get the diagnosis, I went to a pain specialist and injected steroids into the centre of my chest, and it hurt so much I flopped onto the floor and I couldn’t get up or or anything else and then when I saw him again, I told him he is not going near me with any type of needles lol, I was only young at the time and I’ve still got the pains an stuff, I now have Dementia and I I get to the part of the living dead an I couldn’t tell them I’m in pain. You’ll be ok but if your pains feel bad call an ambulance.

I have been going there so long that I was invited to the annual party, lol.

[cyberbarn]

It is automatic to think that chest pain might be the heart, because that is the most important organ there. But if the tests came out clear then you can stop worrying about that. Anxiety can bring on pain in itself!

It is interesting that it seems to happen at the same time each day? Is this before or after you eat? Could this be related to blood sugar levels? If your blood sugar drops low then your body releases adrenaline to help get the liver to produce more glucose for the blood, so it could be something like that. Equally it could be related to the many muscles in the chest and that could be made worse by anxiety.

Do you feel it is above or below your diaphragm? could it be further down the digestion tract, just below the stomach?

The main thing to hang on to is that this is most likely not your heart so that is one less thing to worry about.

[Amkoffee]

I'm disappointed that your doctor didn't do more. He certainly not going to hear a heart attack that happened many hours ago by stethoscope. And I don't think an EKG is going to show something when you're not in the throes of it. Therefore I suggest that the next time you have the feeling you go to the ER. Then they can put an EKG machine on you during the episode. But another thought is that a heart attack is not going to happen every day at 6 p.m. so you might want to look at this differently. My first thought of the disease was the costochondritis, that Philip suggested. But you don't seem to think that matches your symptoms. I've been on heartburn / gerds medicine for years now. And yet I still get this really horrid pain occasionally that's in my chest and in my jaws and shoulder blades. But if I move around a little I end up burping a few times and it goes away. That's something you might try during the episode. Just stand up twist to the right and then to the left and raise your arms up above your head and just try to move your upper torso slowly but move it around and see if that doesn't relieve the pain.

[lynnedotgilbert]

Hi there, I had this type of thing quite a few years ago, kept getting this tightening in my chest area & in my back, lots of heartburn too. Was sent for an endoscopy... which found that I had a hiatus hernia. Was told when this actually happens it can cause those symptoms but after a few weeks it settled down and I use ranitidine twice a day so very rarely get heartburn and none of the original symptoms. Hope you find out what's causing your problems, but when you said it seems to be in the top of your stomach this is what I thought of straight away. Best wishes, Lynne x