chest pain waking me up from sleep

I am 45 year old female smoker non drinker, I have a very physical job in a cold environment. I work 5-6 hour days, 3 of those hours I get a very good workout, I call it heart happy time, it is 3 hours of a good cardio workout. I do this 5 days a week. I enjoy my job for that reason, I dont have to join a health club to stay fit. Anyway I was diagnosed with mvp 10 years ago after an echocardiogram. I have had svt 1-2 times a year with trips to the ER. this past month I went to my Doctor with symptoms of a bit of chest discomfort and arm discomfort, just not feeling myself, this lasted 4-5 days then went away. This past week I had 3 different nights of intense pain. First night just went to bed, was there 10 min and got this radiating pain in whole front of my chest shoulders and neck. I was too scared to move and fell asleep. 3 days later  this same pain woke me up from my sleep. 4 days later same thing woke me up from sleep. I am a very sound sleeper and this alarmed me. Each time I had fell back to sleep, so i dont know how long it lasts. Working in 0-30 degree cold knocks me out at bedtime. My doctor wants me to go for a Cardiolite stress test. Anyone else have these symptoms while at rest?

[Brigham]

Hello, I think I am having the same thing.  I was told that I have MVP 2 years ago, due to chest pain and palps when going to sleep.  When they did an echo, I was told no MVP.  The next years I had moderate chest, then another bout of crazy palps while sleeping.  So, I went back to the Doc, I had EKG, ECHO, Stress Echo, all normal but now there saying I have minor leaky heart valves.  Anyway, I was told my heart was fine.  Recently however I have been waking up in the middle of the night with bad left sided chest pain.  This really freaked me out since the Docs say Im fine.  I noticed the pain was associated with stuff I ate that night.  I think it might be gas.

[glom]

I recently experienced the same type of pain you are talking about. I was diagnosed with mvp three years ago, though I have had angina attacks since I was 18. I am almost 48 now and though I have repeatedly had what the doctors call "cardiac episodes," nothing ever shows up on the tests. Once when I was 33, I had every symptom of a heart attack including the cold sweat, the nausea, all of it. The friend I was with said my heart actually stopped beating, then started up again, but tests the next week showed no damage to my heart. Two nights ago I was awaked at 4 a.m. with crushing chest pain, which also radiated down my left arm and up my neck. So many years of going through the tests and the doctors finding nothing, then having to pay the medical bills, has caused me to give up going to see what's wrong, it's too frustrating, but I wish I knew what was causing the pain, it seems to come much more frequently when I'm stressed.

[glom]

I forgot to mention, I am a non-smoker, non-drinker and had not eaten anything strange or spicy before bedtime the night before the last attack, but have been under tremendous stress with my job.

[StarryNight23]

I have been experiencing similar symptoms at night for the last couple of months. I first suspected something was wrong in August because for about a week I was having a lot of trouble breathing, inexplicably fatigued, very dizzy and lightheaded and had sharp shooting pains in my left arm and around my collar bone. I also had a persistent pain in the upper left side of my back that hurt and felt tight when I inhaled deeply. I was worried about my heart so I went to the ER (actually 2 different ER's in 2 days) I had a lot of bloodwork done, chest xrays, ekg and even a CT scan. Neither hospital found anything so they assumed it was anxiety and a muscle strain and sent me home. 4 months later I still feel off. At least every other week I experience similar symptoms (although milder) and additional ones too. Lately a lot of my symptoms happen at night as I'm falling asleep. Every single night for the last 2 1/2 months, I've been falling asleep with heart palpatations. I never have them during the day, only at night as I'm lying down just about to doze off. I'll start to feel the pulse in my neck throbbing, then I feel flutters in my chest or full blown palps. I've gotten used to it but it usually takes me an hour or more to fall asleep because it's a little difficult to fall asleep with my heart pounding fast. The other night something very out of the ordinary happened and scared the **** out of me. As usual I was lying down totally relaxed about to fall asleep when I was jolted awake with an odd sensation in my chest and throat. It felt almost as if my throat was convulsing and my heart was beating so insanely fast it must have been over 200 beats for sure. I couldnt breathe right and my whole body was shaking. I got up to get my blood pressure moniter and as I was walking across the room I felt like I was going to faint. I took my blood pressure and it was 143/92 and my HR was 100 (its normally 120/68 and HR is usually around 60) Now for the last few days after that little episode my arms have been hurting, aching almost and my chest has been feeling tight and sore. My back also has been hurting badly. The pain in the upper left side never went away from 4 months ago but it's slightly worse now and the pain radiated to the other side of my back as well as my lower back. If I inhale deeply sometimes I'll feel a sharp ache and tightness that seems to shoot through from the left side of my chest to the left side of my back. The pain seems to be worse during the night and when I first wake up in the morning. The pain dissipates as the day goes on but never fully goes away.

I'm 23, I dont smoke or drink, and I eat very healthy and exercise at least 4x a week but I do have a strong family history of heart disease. My dad had a heart attack when he was 37 and had another at 42 which killed him. I'm making an appointment with my GP tomorrow. I hope they can take me in soon and help me figure out what's been causing all of this discomfort. It's scary not knowing what's going on. I'm suspecting possibly MVP but who knows. All I know is there's no way it's anxiety.

[Ladytruth25]

I've had chest pains on left side since July 09 I went to ER in aug and was told I had normal chest pain and take asprin each day. This I thought was stupid diagnosis because I have pain in the morning when I first wake up. It last for about 1 min and hurts really bad. Then other times throughout the day I get bad pain always last about one min sharp left side of chest. Sometimes it happens when I am jus bending over. A little history 27 yr old female never smoked or drank, eat mostly healthy . Open heart surgery at 2yrs age but fine ever since. Heart murmor. Have had multiple ekgs ecgs two cardiac echos one last week and stress test all show I am " fine" but still get chest pain every morning. Also sometimes wakeup feeling out of breath this is a new symptom. I need answers 4 doctors and no answers.

[GregCzar]

Anybody mention SVT and vagal maneuvers, look em up.. i just treated someone online in fact, lol. works great for that. i'm a paramedic. it wont show on test unless ur having an episode at the time, and is pretty common.