I have had a 10 year history of this, starting at age 24. Sometimes I get chest pains (minor in level, maybe a 2-3 out of 10) on the left side of my chest, radiating down to my arm. Sometimes I get shortness of breath and dizzyness, feel an impending sense of doom, like I'm going to pass out.
I've been hospitalized multiple times. I have passed ecg's, two thalium stress tests, multiple echos, and most recently a heart cath. I have literally never, ever had an abnormal cardiac test result, despite all these.
So at this point, after the cath, the cardiologist says my heart is ruled out, and it's probably panic disorder. Which I have looked up and it seems easily to fit in. Today, I had a spell of feeling like I was going to faint, and feeling very panicked, with an impending sense of doom, with a few heart palpatations thrown in and with some little chest pains thrown in. I took 2mg of ativan and laid down. Within an hour, I felt a good 90% better.
Thing is, sometimes I randomly have the chest/arm pain, totally related to the other symptoms. And vice versa. And I read that chest pain from panic disorder does not radiate into the arm.
But I've passed a cath!
Sometimes the pain radiates into my right arm or my legs, but it's usually the left arm, by the way.
Any ideas? This is driving me nuts!