Chest Pain on left side. 1 Inch above, 2 inches to the right of nipple.

[zombienerd]

I am a 27 year old Caucasian male, and For the past few weeks, I have been having a dull pain in the left side of my chest.  About 1 inch above, and two inches to the right of my left nipple.  It seems to go away with pressure, but if I release pressure, it returns.  The pain comes and goes (sometimes gone for 2-3 days), during rest or activity, and I don't seem to have any other symptoms that happen at the same time.  

I have GERD, and have read that this can cause occasional pain in the left side of the chest, but I take Famotidine (Pepcid AC) 40mg daily, and have not noticed any reflux activity before/after the pain.  

I have also noticed recently that I wake up more often during the night with my arms/hands asleep, I shift position and it seems to go away.  I also have regular recurring lower back pain.

I am concerned that this could be heart related, as I can feel the heart directly underneath the spot of pain, while applying pressure.  

I would go see my physician immediately if it were possible, but I am currently 200 miles off the coast of Taiwan, and my ship is not returning to any port for at least another month.  If it is something to be severely concerned about, I may be able to get them to return to port early for me to disembark to a hospital.

My family has a history of Diabetes, and heart attack, but at my last physical about six months ago, my doctor gave me a completely good bill of health, blood sugar, cholesterol, etc. were well within standards.

Has anyone seen similar symptoms and have a general idea of what could cause this?

Best Regards,

Adam

[jerryt25]

I AM 54 YEAR  MALE I HAVE GERD AND COPD I HAVE BEEN GETING PAIN ABOVE MY LEFT NIPPLE I CAN FEEL A KIND OF POPPING NOISE  FOR ABOUT A WEEK IF I COUGH IT HURTS LIKE HELL IF I MOVE WRONG IT WILL HURT IF I PUT PEASURE ON IT IT WILL REDUCE THE PAIN AND SOMETIMES MY ARMS WILL GO TO SLEEP WHEN I HIM SLEEPING I DID GO IN AND HAVE A STRESS TEST AND CT CAME OUT OK I HAVE HIGH CHOLESTEROL AND MY B PEASURE BEEN ABOUT 140 OVER 85 WHAT DO YOU THINK IT COULD BE

[toby45]

Hi Adam,

The description of your pain is eerily similar to the pain I had during my acute MI earlier this year (Jan 08)

Not that you're having angina or any heart related probs, but here's what I went through:

I was jolted out of bed at 1.30 am and found myself in pain. The pain I described was a lump of pain or a ball of pain to the left and above my left nipple. My left tricep hurt from shoulder to elbow. And I had a ball or lump of pain in the palm of my left hand. I also had a dull pain from my clavicle to my molar on the left side.

The pain lasted about 30 mins and then subsided. It recurred an hour later at 2.30 am. This time it lasted about 45 mins and I had to go to the toilet...then the pain subsided, though it was exactly the same 4 places described above.

At 9.30 am the pain came back...starting dull and just increasing from a "soft" discomfort to a "hard" pain. Same 4 places. Decided to go to the hospital and they said I was having an acute MI, with BP at 170/110.

Scary thing is that I had no crushing chest pain, no radiating pain down the arm, no fast heart rate - in fact I was very very calm. There was also no breathlessness or tingling or any of the classic symptoms.

I had been checked about a month earlier - including a stress test - with a clean bill of health, and only slightly decreased HDL's. At the time of my heart attack overall cholesterol was 165, Tri's were 220, LDL was 71, HDL was 25. I was not on any meds and my BP was 130/88

Had to have emergency angioplasty and they found my LAD had a 100% blockage. RCA and LCA have 30% blockages, but they were left alone. They stented the LAD.

I'm 45 with no family history of CAD - tho my dad had quintuple by-pass at the age of 77. I'm about 20 lbs overweight but what surprised me was the symptoms were so uncharacteristic and the docs didn't catch the blockages with the stress test. Learned from this forum that apparently a regular Stress Test can miss 50% of single blockages on the anterior side. Goes up to only 80% accuracy if you have more than one blockage on the anterior side (this data is at the NIH - someone emailed a link, but I don't know it for the present)

So try and get a nuke MRI or better yet a 64 slice Cardiac CT Angiogram. Wish I'd had these done - it might have saved me a lot of "heart ache" (pun intended!)

Best wishes,
Toby