Could this pain be cardiac related?

[ka217]

Hello!

I am a 31 year old female.  I am 5'3" and weigh 200 lbs.  I am a smoker of about 1/2 pack per day.

I have been having various pains for some time now and am not sure where they are starting from.

I have mild chest discomfort left side, left arm pain, left shoulder pain, left neck pain/stiffness, upper back pain.  The pain is mostly constant.  I started seeing a chiropractor about 5 months ago, who was not sure what was going on.  We started to think the pain was maybe coming from my shoulder and the other pain was referred pain.  So, I started with Physical Therapy.  I saw an orthopedic surgeon who thought maybe I had bursitis and gave me a steroid injection, which did not help.  So back to PT I went.  He now thinks that i might have a herniated disk in my mid/upper back which is maybe causing all of these symptoms.  I am not so sure.

I have had the chest pain on and off for a few years.  I have had 2 EKG's (last one probably 2 years ago), have had my cardiac enzymes checked (last time probably a year ago).  I was sent to see a cardiologist, who pretty much said it would be a waste of time to do a stress test, because I was too young to have heart problems.

I have a history of daily headaches, for which I have had several MRI's for.  These MRI's showed some "white spots" which were dismissed as nothing after a workup with a neurologist.

I have been told the my cholesterol is fine.  My blood pressure varies...anywhere from 128/90 to 149/95.

Sorry for the long post, but I am just wondering if you think any of this could be cardiac related.  When I search the internet with my symptoms, everything comes up with Heart Attack!  Kind of scary!  Especially when so many doctors have dismissed me over the years!

I am currently on the depo shot (5 1/2 years) and Protonix (40 mg/day) for acid reflux.

This pain is pretty much constant all day every day.

Any input would be appreciated!  Thank you!  Kelly

[ka217]

Hi braidyn,

Have you learned anything new?

[ka217]

Does anyone else have any suggestions?  

I just had an episode where I was moving around quite a bit and now my heart rate is at 115 and I don't really have chest pain, but do have some left arm discomfort.

Should I push harder to have a stress test done?

[skydnsr]

Obesity causes generalized inflammation.  Fat cells actually secrete inflammatory chemicals called inflammatory cytokines.  Being fat makes you age too fast, and it literally makes you hurt.  Your cells don't work right, even at that microscopic cellular level, if the individual cells contain too much fat.  Their chemical functioning gets messed up, and that messes up everything else in your body.  

You can start doing some reading about chronic inflammation (just google it), and you'll find that it can cause all kinds of symptoms that are hard to pin down and diagnose  -- until years later, when the symptoms have progressed to an identifiable disease.  So, typically the diagnosis comes late, but the disease process starts early on.  Lots of diseases start out as vague symptoms.  In the early stages, your medical test results may be normal, because your body is coping.  Only much later, after the underlying process has been going on long enough to cause severe damage at the tissue and organ level, do you see changes in your test results.

The role of chronic inflammation is totally aside from, and in addition to, the fact that your 5'3" frame was never designed to carry what you weigh now.  You are carrying almost an extra person, or really more like a large child of about 75 lb.  Think what the consequences would be, if you actually had been carrying around a 75 lb. child, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the number of years that you have had this weight.  Do you think that you might have chronic pain, just from that?  Would you need a doctor to diagnose you with a disease, in order to believe that you needed to put that child down?

Again, my intention is to be kind but honest, if I can.  You do need the facts.  Very likely, there are already some identifiable reasons why you are hurting -- reasons that you can fix and that you do need to fix  --- without the need for any doctor to give you a diagnosis or a pill.  If you wait until perhaps (and I hope not) you are diagnosed with something like arthritis, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, or coronary artery disease in maybe as few as ten or so years, and if the doctor then tells you to lose weight and stop smoking, will you not wish that you had done those things now?  Okay, then why not now?

[ka217]

I have had chest x-rays, which were normal.  

It  is just frustrating not knowing...especially since it's all on the left side and they are all seeming to mimic heart disease.

The cardiologist wouldn't even do a stress test, so the only tests that I have ever had done related to the heart was an EKG and an enzyme test.

[braidyn]

Your symptoms are the exact same as mine were when I started having pain and nearly 4 years later I still have no real answer but have developed palpatations and tingling on left side. It is strange because all of my symptoms are left sided outside of the base of my neck pain which is centered and sometimes goes through to the chest. My neuro is worried about MS and wants to recheck me for that and my cardio doesnt seem to think it is heart related but says they found nodules on my lungs during my last scan (I quit smoking 11 yrs ago).Has anyone checked your lungs? I don't know what this is but it definitely sounds very much like what I have andI hope able to get more answers then I have been able to get... Good luck and God Bless

[ka217]

Thank you for your reply.  I am very aware that I need to quit smoking.  I have tried a few times with medications, but that didn't work out as the side effects from the medications were worse!  My husband and I are both trying to quit now, and hope to be done by the end of the month.

I am also aware that I am overweight.  This is also something that I am trying to work on.

Do you have any ideas as to what else could be causing this pain?

[skydnsr]

It seems very unlikely that you could have coronary artery disease, both because of your age and because you have already had tests to rule it out.  I want to try to state my next thought in the most sensitive and diplomatic way possible, so here goes with my best attempt:  you have some habits that tend to degrade health in a very gradual and generalized way.  Possibly you do have some kind of medical condition that is lifestye-induced but that is not yet pronounced enough or defined enough to be diagnosable.  Continue on your present course, and eventually, the doctors will be able to put a medical name to something that is wrong with you.  The alternative is to change some of your behaviors in a drastic way, and see if you don't feel much better in the long run.  

My intention is to be helpful, so I hope my comments don't come across as other than that.  Good luck.