feeling like crap and being scared without insurance

Hello,
This is my first post and medhelp (and hopefully my last). Recently, I have been feeling quite ill and as a recent college grad without health insurance I do not wish to incur the enormous health bill of an ER, unless absolutely necessary.

My symptoms include: chest pain, moderate to severe heartburn, insomnia, fatigue, rapid heartbeat and anxiety.

Other facts about me include:  I am 23, male, recently lost and subsequently regained 50+ pounds in 2-3 years. I am a moderate drinker (for 4 years). I also chew Tums and drink milk which calms my heartburn and calms me from my anxiety (also that second part is probably just psychological). I partly believe that some (or most) of my symptoms may be alcohol related, so I have decided to cut that part from my life. As for the weight loss / weight gain, I am unfortunately one of many who lose weight without the knowledge of how to keep it off. I sincerely wish to lose it again, but I cannot go to the gym with these symptoms.

Any advise on what I should do would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and attention.

p.s I will be posting this query in multiple areas but that does not mean I value one forum's advise over another's.

[run4you]

I understand about the insurance. Our copay and coverage is so crappy that I won't go anywhere unless I just can't take it anymore.

The chest pain is concerning. Where does it hurt? I was having pain in the middle of my chest... not where my heart was. Mine was reflux... in that case.

I have also had panic attacks. Those did hurt higher, and I seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack or was having them.

If it's heartburn, I can say that Tums didn't do a thing for me. I love Zegerid, it's a PPI available OTC that works fast (but is lasting). Prilosec and Prevacid (also OTC) work well for some people as well.

Alcohol relaxes your esophagus from what I understand, so if you lay down after you drink, your stomach acid is more likely to come back up.

You know... the best advice would be to go to the ER or even an Urgent Care or something :) But, I understand why you're not... because I'm stubborn, too (not a good thing sometimes!!!).

About the weight loss... It took me a while to figure it out as well. Gung-ho, then eh. Keeping tabs on my calories with weighing in daily helps me keep myself in check. I like food way too much to just hope for the best :)

Good luck, and I hope this is the only time you have to post on here, LOL!

[ineedadvise13]

Thank you for your input.

My chest pain was center chest, just like yours. I am 95% percent certain my problems are acid reflux related. I also may have mild sleep apnea, but that's probably caused by the reflux.

I have been using normal dosage amounts of Tylenol and Tums daily, this regime calms my symptoms, but the initial panic that it could have been something worse caused my increased heartbeat, which set off the panic attack.

I will soon try a PPI, and hopefully wean myself off the 6-8 tums a day I have been using.