Is this all in my head?

[lsam84]

I'm 26, and admittedly not the healthiest of people (I'm definitely overweight, up until October I did try and work out 2 times a week maybe 3 for 45- 1 hour. However, my eating habits have gotten so much better the last 3 years with the exception of the indulgence in sugar to satisfy my sweet tooth here and there. But I have made progress in losing weight the last year or so.)

I had what the doctors say was an anxiety attack in early October. I don't know why it started to be honest. I wasn't under any stress. I felt off for a few days, tightness in my chest, tingling in my left arm. One night I didn't feel so great and decided to crawl in to bed to try and relax. I felt a sudden pressure in the right side of my chest and my heart rate shot up probably because I freaked out. I was freaking out about the heart palpitations and i almost passed out. I went to the ER and by that time my heart had slowed down a bit but the right side of my chest was clenching and my right breast felt numb. I had wondered if it was my blood pressure, as a few days earlier my doctor told me to watch that because it was borderline, but they said it was not significantly higher than normal. They did an EKG and blood tests and couldn't find anything wrong with me so they sent me home.

I went to the doctor next day, and the rather insensitive doctor told me it was just anxiety and prescribed me some anxiety pills and sleeping pills and told me to go get more blood work done without so much of an explanation!! So I was in denial for quite sometime though I took the pills she gave me, I found that they wouldn't let me sleep despite the sleeping pills (I've had insomnia on and off for the past 8 years). I did the blood work and another EKG and its was all good, and normal blood pressure too. But for the whole month of October I couldn't sleep, and had what felt like air bubbles going up the middle of my chest. By the end of the month it had also started in the left side. After going off the anxiety pills (I do have an appointment with a specialist though in January) I was able to sleep, and was more or less fine in a few days except for an unrelated cold that I had. That only lasted about a week, because then I started getting pressure headaches (some really painful ones), those lasted for a couple of weeks every day but not constant. The headaches stopped yesterday, but the pressure in my chest and arm came back. It started with my left arm getting sore, then the pressure started on the right side, like someone stamping their foot into my chest and pressing down, and then started to happen of the left and then it moved to the center as well.

I feel like i'm going insane, is my body going to cycle through every anxiety symptom in the book?? Am I worrying over nothing!? I only realized today even though I had two EKGs that came back negative, I never really asked the doctor how in the clear my heart was, so I find myself worrying over it when the chest pain starts.
Does anybody else feel like this??

I don't know how to get it to go away, I have no idea what I have anxiety over other than the physical symptoms.

[lsam84]

Thanks for replying. It really is comforting to know that other people go through this as well.
I also had a chest Xray done that game back clean, would they have been able to tell if I had gallstones from that you think? My dad really wants me to get an MRI done actually.

Right now the chest pain has lessened, and it feels like cramping on the insides of each breast. And the upper part of my left arm is very stiff and sore.

[motherof3boys91503]

Yes I too went thru this! I had a slight different case. My left hand would become numb and tingly and my chest would hurt. I had severe pain in my chest and down to the left and occasionally to the right. It sometimes would move into my back. I went to the ER and had blood work, and everything. I had bad heartburn too that just burned in the center of my chest so bad and with me worrying my heart would start racing and pound like it was going to burst. But this hospital told me everything was ok. I kept going back saying no something is terribly wrong. I would even feel sick at times. Eventually they decided to give me an MRI and catscan. Hmmm. to their surprise they found that I had three gallstones logged in the bile duct cutting off blood supply to the gallbladder that was giving me this heart attack symptoms. Finally I was set up for surgery and had my gallbladder removed and dont have any of those pains anymore. However I do still suffer from severe anxiety which too can cause pain in your chest and your heart to race.