I know I am not alone, but...

[jimbo1970]

I have seen this on various forums, even here. For the past year I have been having chest pains. Well, chest pains and what feels like congestion in the middle of my chest. Just a full on feeling of unease. At times, when you touch the area around the sternum or the general area of the rib cage there is pain.  I am obese and I have high bp. In the past two years my left ankle has started to swell really bad. Some days not as bad as others, but it swells. Recently I have had what feels like a sword piercing me from the front through my shoulder blade and my heart began palpitating several times an hour at one or two second bursts resulting in a cough, for about 3 hours. Any time I exerted myself, the palpitations would come on. This is not the first time.

I have seen two doctors over the past year and I have had blood test after blood test, 2 CT scans, 4 echograms (2 heart, 2 for the leg to see if there is a clot), xray tests and a stress test. All negative. Kidney function is fine and the heart, while not optimal, nothing to indicate blockage or heart disease. Yet, Dr Internet says the symptoms I present are all related to diabetes and/or heart disease or failure. Yet, real doctors that I see are telling me nothing is wrong. I need to lose weight and all that. So I am at wits end here. I swear I am just waiting to die. Do I just go to doctor after doctor till I get an answer, and what answer am I looking for? Is this all in my head?

FYI, I did not go to ER over the recent palpitations and intense shoulder pain issue. I did before, I have been to the ER 3 times in the past year at 2 different hospitals. All 3 times I have been told that no heart attack or issue.  It has been explained to me that palpitations are normal, even at the frequency I was having them.  I do not think I have anxiety issues or panic attacks. At least not in the Hollywood sense. I feel calm. I have stress, so does everyone else. I refuse to exercise as I am afraid I will drop dead. I did for a while. The treadmill and exercise bike, but since the palpitation episode, not anymore. Can anyone shed light on this?

[jimbo1970]

Thanks for the reply, Jerry.

I am 6'2 and 300 lbs. I have had a stress test and it came back ok. All the tests came back "ok". The only caveat was during the echo test, the doc said I had a slightly (he really put an emphasis on 'slightly') enlarged heart that could be managed with proper diet and exercise. Easier said than done. I also seem to have some visceral fat. No test has given any doctor any reason to suspect blockage. I do have slight calcification normal for my age and health. So I am told.

Exercise. I did good on the treadmill. Light jogging. But I killed my shins so had to lay off and when I started again, I felt exhausted afterwards. I mean absolutely exhausted. Drained. More tests done, more negative results. My cholesterol and glucose levels actually went down. I cut out all meat and dairy and loaded up on whole grains and veg, at least long enough to get good results so I don't have to take a statin.  No COPD or emphysema. Doctor looked at X-ray and didn't see any reason to order a test. Also said O2 levels were good.

With your reply I'm gonna start over with exercise and diet and see what happens. I would probably like another stress test with the "bring me back to life" machine next to the treadmill. I feel safer that way.

Thanks again for your reply and input.

[Jerry_NJ]

In the use obese is not much information, for example I am 6' 5" tall and at 240 pounds I am considered obese.  If I see someone as tall as me who looks obese they would have to be over 300 pounds... said another way, how obese are you?

If you are way over weight, then I'll bet that is the base problem and if you exercise and diet right (all I have to do is stop eating sweets, I love pastry, cookies, pie, cake, ice cream... ) the paps should be manageable.  That is this all takes time, but in my case I lost 20 pounds recently because of some obstructive sleep apnea problems and that problem just about disappeared.  I still need to do an overnight test connected to an oximeter, but I can say I feel the difference.

On exercise, start slow... just walk, maybe better outside on level ground and try to increase the distance every few days.. then try to increase the speed.  Not both at once and not much at a time.  I think if you do that and cut the calorie intake you'll get results which will make it all easier.

You have had all the test I can think of - well you didn't mention stress test or catheter heart (but these are used to look for blockage, not electrical heart rhythm problems)