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Just ignore the vasospasm symptoms?
I am a 49-year-old woman whose life has been affected by a variety of hard-to-diagnose health issues. These problems changed me from being an active, fit, successful professional to a slow and quiet person who tries to manage life while feeling awful most of the time. For the most part, I've given up on doctors. There is one situation that troubles me, though, and I wonder if I'm foolish to take the doctor's advice as it was given.
About ten years ago, I was teaching a computer class and I was stopped in my tracks by crushing chest pain. My jaw seized up, I broke out in a clammy sweat, and my left arm got pins and needles. I didn't want to scare my students, so I just stepped out into the hall and concentrated on breathing slowly. My coworkers all said, "Oh, at your age (39) that's a panic attack." I hadn't been panicked or stressed in the least, but I believed them. Nothing happened for a year, except I started to get opthalmic migraines. These are not painful, but they do make me go kind of blind for about 20 minutes or so. After that first chest pain attack, I've continued to get both opthalmic migraines and angina-like symptoms several times a year. Both come in clusters, but both things do not occur simultaneously.
My new primary care doctor told me my chest pain was most likely Prinnzmetal's angina since my attacks came only when I was at rest and that I needed to see a cardiologist, so I did. I told the cardiologist that I had lived with this for ten years because the angina-like issue always goes away on its own. He looked at my health history and after reading that I also have a long history of chronic pelvic pain, interstitial cystitis, IBS, migraines, opthalmic migraines, and had been treated for depression, he said (and I quote accurately)..."You seem very intelligent and articulate, but any doctor trained in Western medicine is going to write you off as a nut job. Given this constellation of symptoms, we really need to investigate the greater possibility of mental illness here, not a phsyical problem." He also chided me for being overweight. I brought pictures to show him that when my problems started, I was exceptionally fit and not overweight at all. I had always lived a very heart-healthy, outgoing, active life before all of the weird pain set in. The weight gain was from medication, not diet.
The cardiologist would hear none of it. He said, "Well, I'll perform due diligence, but we aren't going to find anything." He ordered an echocardiogram and a stress test. I went home and looked these up, only to find that neither diagnoses Prinzmetal's angina. I didn't get the tests done, and I decided I really, really didn't like the doctor. He said he was fine with that.
I recently read that opthalmic migraine is also a type a vasospasm. That means that I have two things squeezing my blood vessels: The supposed imaginary Prinzmetals and the opthalmic migraines. I realize the cardiologist is the one with the education, training , and degrees, but I do get concerned about a stroke or heart attack when these episodes happen. I do not have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. I do not smoke. I get enough sleep. I manage my stress. I have stopped taking the medications that caused weight gain and lost 25 pounds in the last six months, with another 50-60 planned (which will bering me to a BMI of 26). I am NOT depressed.
Is this guy right? Is it likely just a mental illness and I should not pay any attention to the vasospasm symptoms? I mean, if he's not worried, then should I also stop being concerned? Do I write it off as some game my brain is playing? I'm too embarrassed by the doctor's assumptions about me to go and seek out a different cardiologist. I mean, if all doctors trained in Western medicine are going to write me off as a "nut job," then what's the solution here?
About ten years ago, I was teaching a computer class and I was stopped in my tracks by crushing chest pain. My jaw seized up, I broke out in a clammy sweat, and my left arm got pins and needles. I didn't want to scare my students, so I just stepped out into the hall and concentrated on breathing slowly. My coworkers all said, "Oh, at your age (39) that's a panic attack." I hadn't been panicked or stressed in the least, but I believed them. Nothing happened for a year, except I started to get opthalmic migraines. These are not painful, but they do make me go kind of blind for about 20 minutes or so. After that first chest pain attack, I've continued to get both opthalmic migraines and angina-like symptoms several times a year. Both come in clusters, but both things do not occur simultaneously.
My new primary care doctor told me my chest pain was most likely Prinnzmetal's angina since my attacks came only when I was at rest and that I needed to see a cardiologist, so I did. I told the cardiologist that I had lived with this for ten years because the angina-like issue always goes away on its own. He looked at my health history and after reading that I also have a long history of chronic pelvic pain, interstitial cystitis, IBS, migraines, opthalmic migraines, and had been treated for depression, he said (and I quote accurately)..."You seem very intelligent and articulate, but any doctor trained in Western medicine is going to write you off as a nut job. Given this constellation of symptoms, we really need to investigate the greater possibility of mental illness here, not a phsyical problem." He also chided me for being overweight. I brought pictures to show him that when my problems started, I was exceptionally fit and not overweight at all. I had always lived a very heart-healthy, outgoing, active life before all of the weird pain set in. The weight gain was from medication, not diet.
The cardiologist would hear none of it. He said, "Well, I'll perform due diligence, but we aren't going to find anything." He ordered an echocardiogram and a stress test. I went home and looked these up, only to find that neither diagnoses Prinzmetal's angina. I didn't get the tests done, and I decided I really, really didn't like the doctor. He said he was fine with that.
I recently read that opthalmic migraine is also a type a vasospasm. That means that I have two things squeezing my blood vessels: The supposed imaginary Prinzmetals and the opthalmic migraines. I realize the cardiologist is the one with the education, training , and degrees, but I do get concerned about a stroke or heart attack when these episodes happen. I do not have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. I do not smoke. I get enough sleep. I manage my stress. I have stopped taking the medications that caused weight gain and lost 25 pounds in the last six months, with another 50-60 planned (which will bering me to a BMI of 26). I am NOT depressed.
Is this guy right? Is it likely just a mental illness and I should not pay any attention to the vasospasm symptoms? I mean, if he's not worried, then should I also stop being concerned? Do I write it off as some game my brain is playing? I'm too embarrassed by the doctor's assumptions about me to go and seek out a different cardiologist. I mean, if all doctors trained in Western medicine are going to write me off as a "nut job," then what's the solution here?
Oh my I am in the exact same way, however, I have not have had any heart attacks. My Vasospasm showed during an angiogram and they gave me iv nitro and it showed it worked well, and they decided that is what I would be given. Lately, I have been having more headaches, arms very weak, pulse has been running between 52-62, severe chest pain, and the more I do the more I am finding it harder to deal with the chest pain. I have been on beta-blockers for a year now, because I also have Long QT Syndrome 2. I am 51 year old woman who is now having the symptoms of dizziness, severe headache around my head, a lil blurred vision. But my arms they way they are weak, and my hand, sometimes both want to clench up tight. Just so tired of feeling this way...today is bad. I see again the cardiologist on Weds.
I am a 40 year old female with the exact same symptoms, coronary vasospasms, pelvic pain, intestinal pain and dysfunction along with the same type of migrains. I have had 7 heart attacks caused by coronary vasospasms some were stemi's and others were nstemis's. I have had 11 cardiac caths 9 that showed spasms in heart as well as arms and legs. All of these have been within the last 6 years starting at the age of 35. It has been a long road. Most doctors are ignorant of spasms. I have had many doctors believe I was a pain seeker until they got my cardiac enzymes back and they were severly elevated. My suggestion is too to find a new doctor that is willing to listen to you. My doctors at aurora Bay medical center in GreenBay Wi are now very knowledgable with vasospasms because of my severe case, however, there still is not a way to treat them with success. More research and focus needs to be put into investigating this problem to educate these doctors that call themselves experts. I have done extensive research and am convinced it is related to some sort of autoimmune disease. Nitroglycerin is my savior and I take the maximum amount of long term and atleast 6 to 9 sublingual a day to relieve chest pain or numbness in arms, legs, and feet. If any doctor says to ignore your chest pain they should loose their license to practice, because I am proof that prinzmetal angina does cause myocardial infarction and can cause your death. Insist any time you are hospitolized that you recieve nitro because it will save your life.
I forgot to add that it's interesting that you wonder if there is a connection between the migraines and chest pains. I wonder the same thing in my case. I also have Reynaud's Syndrome in my hands and wonder if there is a connection to the chest pains. ??? I would love to hear from someone on this. Ally
Your post is very interesting to me. This past April I was finally diagnosed with "vasospasms, coronary artery spasms or at least variant angina. After many trips to the hospital with chest pains and being sent home with a diagnosis of ischemia, etc, etc and etc. Tried on different drugs but contined to have chest pains. Then this year the chest pains (and these were just like the chest pains I had with my heart attacks) got to be so severe and the episodes were numerous I went to the ER. I even alerted one of the posters in here of what I was about to do. I was miserable. In the ER the monitor would go crazy with each chest pain. The doctors and nurses expected to see my cardiac enzymes elevated and were surprised when they weren't. I was put in the ICU that evening and the first time I had one of the chest pains again the monitor went crazy. The alarms sounded and the lines were all over the screen. The nurse said "It's just junk. You must've moved" I knew I hadn't moved. It happened 3 more times and when the nurse came in later I told her. "Everytime I have a chest pain the monitor goes nuts". She decided to look at the data closer and found that I was having vasospasms. The doctor was informed. After the cath the next day I was told that I did have a new blockage in an artery that would need to be bypassed if I continued to have problems or it got worse. But he wasn't sure if this was causing the spasms or not. I know that in many cases a stent can be placed to stop the constriction of the spasms. But it took a while to convince anyone that I was having real chest pain and for some reason other than a heart attack. The chest pain would come on for no apparent reason, wake me from a dead sleep. I was tried on a couple of different drugs until one of them began working and the spasms have settled down immensly. I hope that you can find your answer too. But certainly have everything evaluated before writing ANY of that off. Take care, Ally
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