I thought I was having a heart attack!!!!!!!

[iris986]

Monday morning at 12:30 a.m. I woke up and felt like someone was sitting on my chest and I had pain between my shoulder blades. By 3:30 a.m. all the pain had moved to my right chest and right shoulder blade, the severe pain stayed with me throughout the day. At 3 p.m. I went to the emergency room, the pain was not letting up, on the ride there the bouncing around made the pain worse until the truck stopped.

Once I enetered the emergency room they did blood work and a chest x-ray. then gave me morphine,zofran and protonix by injection. My blood pressure at this time was 140/92. They decided to give me Lopresser for the blood pressure which i immediately started throwing up for the next 2 hours, until the phenegran shot was given. I was also given a blood thinning injection.

Test that were done was a chest x-ray, an EKG, Nuclear VG lung scans and a CT scan of my chest, all which came out negative.

I stayed in the hospital for 3 days and no one could come up with a diagnosis. I was sent home only to have the pain return 2 nights later for only 10 minutes, which the pain was centered in my chest and radiated through to between my shoulder blades.

I have GERD but was not experiencing any acid reflux at either time the pain showed up.

The second time the pain came, I hyperventilated, and my heart rate was around 98 when it started. I also ended up with a haeadache shortly there after and still have it today, the day after.

I was sent to my primary care doc by my Cardiologist as he isn't in today and they ran another EKG and it was normal. I was told if the pain came back to go to the emergency room. I was given Dexilant given a sheet for more blood work to be done and sent home.

This pain is excruciating like someone squeezing your chest and then the pain radiating to between your shoulder blades where it feels like it is tightening. I am scared as I was alone last night and had to call my husband who is on the road til tonight.

What else can be causing this pain besides the heart or esophagel spasms?

[iris986]

Its an above ground pool, We have a roll away hose so you don't have to bend over to pull it out.

I have had Pleurisy many times and that pain is nothing compared to this. They have nerver mentioned the vagal nerve, but I will ask.

Tonight I am still short of breath and my heart feels like it is pounding.

[rilesnic]

That sounds really awful! Did you bend over at your waist to pull the hose out...inground pool? Did they say anything about your vagal nerve? Pleuresy (sp)?  Keep on with the docs until you find an answer...I hope you find out soon what's going on.

[iris986]

Today my family doc put me on Dexilant for the GERD, lets hope it works. 2 hours after taking it today i pulled the hose out to the pool and the pain started up in my chest , I went and sat down and it stopped, my heart has been racing all day and i feel short of breath and nauseous and I have a headache.

I have had GERD for 2 years and  when it acts up i always get the burning in my chest and acid coming up in my mouth. The pain that I felt is no where near that pain. This pain was excruciating like someone squeezing the inside of my chest and then the pain radiated to between my shoulder blades. The first episode lasted about 31 hours before it was over with and the Morphine shot didn't even touch the pain. They gave me protonix and zofran and phenegran and nothing stopped the pain. It just went away on its own the next day.

I know GERD is different for everyone who has it. I have had mitral valve prolapse since I was about 5 years old and even that pain when it acts up doesn't compare to what I felt.

[rilesnic]

I have GERD and a hiatal hernia. Actually, when I first started feeling my palps, they thought it was my stomach....they found all of that and diagnosed me with Barrett's Espohagus at the age of 29! I have esophageal spasms and my most violent heart episode woke me one night after I finally fell asleep after having severe nausea all evening. Do I think stomach and heart are connected? You bet! So does my gastro, family doctor, and cardio...in my case anyway. I have been on Prevacid 30 mg for 10 years and I paid a lot for it. I still have tons of episodes, but I have skipped it in the past, and both times I ended up in the ER with severe heart palps. Thank goodness it finally went generic :) I tried all the others too, Nexium, aciphex, etc...and Prevacid has worked the best for me. My GERD makes me feel nauseous...I've never had acid or burning.

[beema36]

I have had this happen. Was told it was from hiatal hernia and GERD. All I know is its scary and still am not sure how we are to tell if its that or our heart. I have has it so often I just ride it out and hope that's all it is and I never miss my nexium.

[CFS56]

I think you can have the pain without feeling the acid coming up and burning.  A friend of mine had a similar experience and it was esophagial muscle spasms caused by reflux disease.

[iris986]

So far the only 2 attacks I have had- the first one woke me out of a sound sleep. The 2nd was right before I went to bed at 11 pm

I don't have a gallbladder it was taken out in 1996. My liver was just checked and it is normal. My esophagus was just looked at through an EGD in December 2010 and it was normal except for a medium Hiatal hernia and GERD.

During these attacks I have experienced NO acid coming up or burning.

[yarrow]

You might want to go over this with your regular doctor.  There are a number of gut-related conditions in which pain is perceived between the shoulder blades or in that region when the real problem is the gall bladder, the liver, or the esophagus, for example.

Just out of curiosity, does this pain appear only at night?