Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
chest discomfort
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests
chest discomfort
by kathy426, Jan 21, 2007 12:00AM
I am a 40 year old female who had a mild heart attack last august 2006 I had a DES placed at that time.In october 2006 I experienced some chest discomfort between my shoulders and also in the center of my chest. My doctor admitted me and I received another DES in a smaller valve.That valve was only 40% blocked at the time the other stent was placed(August) but not blocked enough for the stent. In october the doctor did not see any other blockages so went ahead and stented the smaller blockage. Since then I had many days og chest discomfort ranging from pain to mild discomfort off and on Sometimes my heart actually aches. Then I can go a week or two feeling really good and then it will start again. I can not contribute it to anything specific I do I also have a hernia.I take plavix every other day, lopressor,aspirin 81mg,wellbutrin, nexium and xanax daily. I also recently started taking motrin which has helped a lot. The tylenol was not doing anything.Dr said it was ok to take motrin as long as i don't take to much I guess it can interact with the plavix. When I feel good I feel really good but when I feel bad it is really bad. I feel like i am going to have another heart attack and what is strange is this feeling of air I get deep in my chest between my breasts almost like I have been breathing cold air for a while. It is hard to explain but when i get symptoms that is one that I always have along with the pain. It is the feeling I had when they were placing the stent in. Does this mean my stent is moving? Is this how I will feel for the rest of my life or is this healing?
Doctor's Answer
by CCF-M.D.-MJM, Jan 21, 2007 12:00AM
Hi Kathy,
Sorry to hear about your recent health problems. The first things is that you need to make sure your doctor knows about the continued pain. There are many causes of chest and the distinguishing between atypical and typical pain is more difficult after someone has known coronary disease, especially if there pain is atypical.
The arteries we see on angiograms (heart caths) are on the outside of your heart and branch into smaller vessels as the penetrate into the heart muscle. It is possible you have small vessel artery disease -- cannot be seen on cath. It is also possible that you are having intermittent spasms of the arteries which are difficult to detect on heart cath. Stents are pretty stable devices and do not move. A non invasive stress test may help distinguish small vessel disease -- a positive stress test with a negative heart catheterization.
It is also possible the chest pain you feel is not cardiac in nature -- this is a diagnosis that should only be used once coronary artery disease is ruled out.
The other thing I want to mention is that plavix is typically taken every day. This is probably worth asking your doctor about if you haven't already discussed it. I do not think the dosing of plavix is the reason for your pain.
I hope this helps. Thanks for posting.
Sorry to hear about your recent health problems. The first things is that you need to make sure your doctor knows about the continued pain. There are many causes of chest and the distinguishing between atypical and typical pain is more difficult after someone has known coronary disease, especially if there pain is atypical.
The arteries we see on angiograms (heart caths) are on the outside of your heart and branch into smaller vessels as the penetrate into the heart muscle. It is possible you have small vessel artery disease -- cannot be seen on cath. It is also possible that you are having intermittent spasms of the arteries which are difficult to detect on heart cath. Stents are pretty stable devices and do not move. A non invasive stress test may help distinguish small vessel disease -- a positive stress test with a negative heart catheterization.
It is also possible the chest pain you feel is not cardiac in nature -- this is a diagnosis that should only be used once coronary artery disease is ruled out.
The other thing I want to mention is that plavix is typically taken every day. This is probably worth asking your doctor about if you haven't already discussed it. I do not think the dosing of plavix is the reason for your pain.
I hope this helps. Thanks for posting.
Just an interesting link..
http://www.heartcoherence.com/index.html#mainEKG50
Be well,
~ Ria
i understand your frustrations and pain post-stent. i would definitely talk to your cardiologist about the same feeling pain as when the stent was placed. i had considerable angina for several months post stent until i was on the right meds.
good luck.
Thanks, Kathy
P.S. Will check out heartcoherence.com site!
It's not unusual for people to be more sensative to medications. It's quite frustrating trying to find the right one that doesn't give you side effects.
I had my DES placed 22 months ago--time has gone by fast. I had alot of post-stent pain. It took several caths and alot of tests to confirm what was going on. I have large vessel diffuse CAD, as well as small vessel disease. I take alot of meds to help the situation, but overall things have stabilized.
Here's what I take:
-Plavix, 81mg ASA, Atenolol, Cardizem, Cozaar, Imdur (long acting nitro), Crestor, Zetia.
I'm a type II diabetic/insulin resistant and take Actosplus MET and Januvia--this has helped with endothelial dysfunction and small vessel disease.
I do have occasional angina (actually this past week I had enough to take sublingual nitro a few times, which is a bit odd).
For the first several months after the stent, I had alot of angina, and it was relieved by nitro. It wasn't anxiety or heart burn. After adjusting the Atenolol and Cardizem to rather high levels, I started to get relief.
I hope your docs can be helpful. If not, get to a large center that has more experience.