Chest pain mostly when I'm laying down

[strwbry1983]

Hello, I'm a 23-year old female. I will start off by telling you when this started and what was happening. It was January of 2005, I had my 2nd child in December of 2004. I started having chest pain at night mostly when I would lay down for bed. It would happen mostly when I laid on my left side. It felt like someone was grabbing my heart and just squeezing on it and pulling. It would keep me up for hours. I would wake up in heavy sweats and not be able to breath. Mostly when this would happen I would be able to lay either or my right side or my back and the pain would finally go away. About a year after all the pain started I finally couldnt take it anymore and in the middle of the night I desided to go to the ER and have it checked out. I went to a local hospital and the oncall doctor told me it was heartburn, I'm sorry but I went off. I told him that it was not heartburn it was something else and I wanted to know what it was. He told me he couldn't help me. So I left madder then heck. Within the last 6 months it has got from where it hurts when I lay on my left side to it dont matter how I lay and rather I'm laying down at all it starts hurting. Its right under my left breast and it hurts. I lost 50 pounds last year because I thought it would help, it did at first or so I thought. I weight about 145 give or take and I still have cheast pains. What should I do? I dont have health insurance and I'm scared that if it is really serious that I will end up leaving my kids when they are young and I dont want that to happen. Can someone help?

[moe76723]

I can understand your frustration and if you haven't seen a cardiologist yet I would do so. Having chest pains in general is very scary and unfortunately some doctors don't take women especially young women seriously. I started having chest pains when I was a teenager. I was told that I had indigestion. As the years went on my symptoms became more frequent and lasted longer however I would get the brush off. Long story short it took 6 years before anyone gave me an EKG, stress test and cardiac enzymes. Honestly I think I was treated that day because I worked at the hospital and was a nurse by then. About 5 years after that scary experience I needed a bypass graft of my right coronary artery and I had a heart attack. I was 29 at that time. Coronary disease manifest in many ways so they need to do EKG stress test echo's, cardiac enzymes, bubble studies MRI and CT scans because each of these things can show something that is hiding. They didn't find my messed up artery until I had a CT scan and I had a heart attack and almost died before they decided to try to fix it. My illness has been so debilitating that I had to give up my career but at least I am still here for my girls. You know your body better than anyone and you tell every doctor you can until someone takes you seriously because you don't hurt for no reason and no one goes to the hospital because they have nothing else to do. Trust me when I tell you that your life depends on it.

[tgearing]

If it is heartburn, you can take a few teaspoons of RAW apple cider vinegar mixed with RAW honey and it will take away heartburn (or reflux) within a matter of days. I've seen it work the same day. If you still experience the pain after that, you will know it's not heartburn. Google raw apple cider vinegar. I know from first hand experience it REALLY works. Must be raw though because the enzymes that "work the magic" are killed in the processed filtered cider. Must be RAW.

[Brookie88]

My chest hurts n the middle but more to the left and n my back it comes n goes like my heart beat probably bout every 6th beat I get the pain. I went to er they told me heart burn I have had heart burn with every pregnancy its not that. I'm scared I'm 22 with 3 kids under 5. Its not sharp or extreme pain. Please help.

[koaks1234]

Does it mean I could have heart disease because when I lay down the middle of the chest to both of the ribs really starts to hurt so bad and it burns and I try to get up my body won't let me because it hurts so bad.So I try to get up by falling on the floor and get up,but it won't let me unless I roll on my side or my stomach to get up.What could it be?Please email me back at ***@****


                    Thank You So Much!!!

[tommygolden]

I have the same pain to the tee.  For the last couple years pease let me know if you have found any awsers its killing me. lack of sleep.

[strwbry1983]

ok... i will see if i can get both checked. When i went to the hospital they didnt do anything. the doctor said that he couldn't do nothing because it sounded like heartburn.

[freemana]

Did the doctors check for fluid around your heart?  A few years ago I had a pericardial effusion, fluid compressing on the heart, and it hurt more when I was laying down and was relieved when sitting up or standing.  I went to the doctors because I thought I had heartburn that wouldn't go away.  Might be worth getting checked out.  

[anacyde]

I'm a peripartum cardiomyopathy survivor, so bear in mind I'm going to speak from experience.  If you began having this trouble immediately after your child was born, you should have had your heart thoroughly checked out.  I was also diagnosed heartburn by two emergency rooms.  I finally took matters into my own hands and saw a cardiologist, who performed an echo which showed that my heart was enlarged and not pumping as efficiently as it should.  I've since healed completely, but it was definitely a scary experience.

Now what you have may well be heartburn, HOWEVER, if something is nudging you and telling you something just isn't quite right, pursue it.  See a cardiologist and REQUEST an echo.  Definitely do this **before** you become pregnant again.