Chest Pain

[Millie2684]

I am a 26-yr-old female and for the past couple weeks I have been experiencing some pain in the left side of my chest. At times, it will come on suddenly, as though there is a giant bubble that won't pop and is so painful its hard to breath. It usually last a min or two. Most of the time, there is just a dull pain that continues in that area and sometimes spreads to the shoulder and upper arm. I am concerned because it is becoming more frequent but I am not sure what it is. I am in between jobs and do not have health insurance right now so I can't just go to the doctor. I am on Levothyroxine for hypothyroidism but aside from  that, I consider myself pretty healthy. I do not smoke and very rarely have a drink. Should I be concerned that this pain is something cardiac related?

[ninahook]

My personal experience is, any chest pain.... I would go to the E.R.
You can actually have mini heart attacks. I know you don't have the $, but
what if there is something wrong. It may just be heart burn, try pepto bismol or something like that if you want first. But I would go to the E.R., they have to treat you.  Hope that helps.

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
Since I cannot examine you, all I can say is that yes, cardiac causes should be eliminated first, by a 12 lead EKG. This is important as the pain comes in spurts and travels to arm. Other possibility are severe acidity with gastric reflux, costochondritis, pericarditis, pleurisy due to inflammation of lining of lung or a muscle pull. Thyroid problems could be a cause too.
Do discuss this with your doctor and get yourself examined. Take care!

[trdofbeingtrd]

While it COULD be cardiac related, chances are it's not. Hopefully a doctor will post on here and give you professional advice.

What it sounds like it COULD be to me, is gas. Specifically how you said "bubble", this indicates it could be gas. What you should do is try to burp as much as you possibly can. If you are not taking anything else than those two medications, unless they can give trouble to organs like the kidney, then I would think it's that you need to get a lot of gas out. I know it might sound stupid, but there are actual cases of people going into the ER with incredible pain in their left and or right side and they just need to burp.

If you cannot make yourself burp a lot, try club soda or baking soda, these two things help people burp, and you don't just stop at a burp. You want to try and get all you can out. As long as baking soda is used correctly and does not interact with the two medications you take, then it's safe and should work like a charm. Please keep us posted.