Would like to know what I am experienceing

The topic that I posted may not be the condition, but I am no doctor and that would be the closest that I have found.

First, a little bit about me: I am a 27 year old male and in generally good health. I am 67" and weigh 145, and follow a healthy diet, to include drinking juice and eating grilled over fried. I maintain good physical fitness. I drink one night a week in the range of 3-5 dark beers. I also smoke one pack a day of light cigarettes (which I long to quit).

Over the last few months, and at least once sometimes twice in a month, I will experience a sharp chest pain just to the left of the center of my chest that nearly brings me to the ground, with shortness of breath and pain with each breath. This would occur at the most random moment in the day. In the past, a few minutes would go by (with no activity whatsoever) and the pain would go away. However today, I had a different experience. As I turned my body in my chair to stand up, the sharp pain came immeadiately, with a tight pain running up my neck and then down my left arm. I went outside to get some fresh air and noticed that both of my palms began to splotch purple (though not so purple that it seemed as if I was getting no oxygen). I began to feel dizzy and lightheaded as well and began to worry. In this situation I know that the right thing to have done was to immeadiatly seek medical attention, however, the chest pain soon went away, though with a little tightening. Over the next 10-20 minutes my left arm had a numbing ache, and randomly the left side of my neck the same.

I considered going to urgent care - but at 27 I find it hard to believe that what I experienced was a heart attack, considering age and the fact that the chest pain is sharp and not tightening. Also, I feel perfectly normal again after the pain has gone away. I am worried about going to see a doctor and having to stay for days to have tests done when I have so much more going on in my job. Yes, my health is more important. Passing away is not going to help me with work, common sense should prevail here.. but I have been holding off. Please don't reply "See a doctor right away" without telling me what it is I might be experiencing and what to expect when I do go see the doctor.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

[ireneo]

Young people can have heart problems even if it's not a heart attack. I strongly recommend you talk to your doctor about this, explain exactly what happened. At the least I would hope they would do an ECG, an echo and probably a stress test. I'm not sure how often this happens to you but wearing a heart monitor for a few weeks (don't worry, they're no bigger than a pack of cigarettes) to catch the electrical activity in your heart during one of these attacks. It sounds like more than a bit of GERD. I hope you get some answers soon.