Chest and Right arm pain help

[Shester]

Hi, I am 25 years old and I have had chest pains for several years now. For the past year I often get chest pains accompanied by pain throughout my right arm and my hand feels numb. It usually hurts for most of the day and its gone by the next day.  I had an EKG done a couple of years ago and the nurse that did the EKG acted like there was something really wrong with me. She said the machine said I was a 3. I don't know what that means but she acted like the doctor would tell me since it was a 3. She told me if the doctor did not tell me to keep it in the back of my mind for later. I got the report and everything was normal. But I have always been scared something was wrong. My doctor said that I must have anxiety and I was on anxiety medication for a while but now I am on no medications. During these arm and chest pains I feel really tired and moody. Should I see my doctor about this again?  Is severe right arm pain a symptom of anxiety?  I don't know if this has anything to do with anything but when I was born I had a small hole in my heart but it supposedly closed up.

[Bromley]

Correction. It is not the only choice, but you do have it. Good luck.

[Bromley]

For anxiety, I am an advocate of taking action and of adopting a can-do frame of mind. In this situation I would not worry for one stinking minute. It simply never makes sense to do this. We all have only one choice and that is to take charge of ourselves and our situation. You'll notice your anxiety subside as soon as you start to comprehend this in your life.

For myself, I was once told that I was a 2 (due to short run VT).  I appreciated knowing the specific reasons for this, even though it initially created some concern on my part. However, before I could get to the diagnosis of being a "2", I had to first force the data collection service to turn over my event monitor results, then provide these results to a second doctor, who then diagnosed me as a 2. To this day, I am unclear on how doctor #1 missed it, or why the data collection service initially refused to provide me with my own medical information.

So OK.  You don't need to be like me.  It is easier to ask people to explain themselves first. I am just in the habit of getting to the bottom of technical discrepancies because I do this sort of thing on my job every day of the week. I also occasionally get pushy when I know I am getting a run around. But then, my preference is to know what I am dealing with. Some people are ok with not knowing and that is ok too; afterall it is also true that it takes a lot of work to put some medical information in perspective. In this way, if you are already anxious, by just telling you that you are OK, the doctor may be saving you a headache.

[kenkeith]

Its not uncommon to have an abnormal EKG, and an EKG always requires further clinical evidence and symptoms to validate.  The fact the doctor didn't feel it necessary to do any further testing indicates the test result does not have any additional signs or symptoms to support a diagnoses.  There has to be some misunderstanding because a 3 does not reference anything to do with an EKG in the context you express. Further more a technician should not have said anything that could lead you to have anxiety...

Anxiety certainly can be an explanation for your symptoms, and unlikely to be associated with a heart problem. If the symptoms continue, you may want to see a doctor just to rule out anything serious.