Cardiac problems????

[donnamarie151]

My son is 24 years old without any diagnosed heart problems. He is complaining about left side chest pain with left arm and hand numbness. He is also complaining about throut discomfort also. I feel helpless because not one doctor can find out why. He had an echocardiagram done and a ct scan completed. He had a car accident last year and he said this is when he started to feel this way. I am not sure what the correlation is but it is extremely stressful for me and my son. He compalined of "racing heart" as a child and I had an echocardiagram done then and he was tachycardic without any underlining heart condition. He wants to get a stress test with dye to try to get to the bottom of this. Does anyone know what this could be.

[donnamarie151]

Panic attack was what the ER kept saying but a lot of times they are not always correct. So many illness are misdiagnosed. But we will keep looking into every possiblity. Thanks.

[donnamarie151]

Thanks for you info. We will look into this.

[whisperwolf]

When your son had heart tests done, did they put him on a 24hour Holter Monitor so they could follow his heart rhythm during that time? A Holter is like a portable EKG and he can press a button when he feels like he is having symptoms. I have SVT, which is a type of heart arrythmia and sometimes I get similar symptoms as your son.

Also might check into him having a possible panic attack, which can cause racing heart, throat tightness, chest pain and numbness.

[MichelleP_3811]

We can't really diagnose your son as we are just patients ourselves with heart rhythm issues.  There is a docotors forum you might want to post your question in and see if it gets some response.  That said, I would first take him to an orthopedic doctor. Someone who can look at his shoulder and back to see if there is an structural damage that was triggered by the accident.  He could have some muscle or tendon or bone issues.  If you have been to an orthopedic and they found no structural damage you might want to try a physcial therapist.  They may help your son get whatever is bothering him worked out.  I have had a few back issues that they did wonders for me.  

The pain and numbness aside, it does sound as though you had enough heart tests done to deem his heart healthy.  That said, if he has an svt, which is sounds like he might, he may need to address that at some point in his life.  They tend to mature to a point of becoming an issue once one hits their 40s.  That is if it becomes an issue for him.  Some may not have many problems with it their whole lives, but if it is going to become an issue that is likely when it will become most bothesome to him.  But if he is not have many episodes, like maybe only a couple if that a year then he need not worry about the tachycardia.  It isn't anything that is dangerous in a healthy heart so long as the episodes are rare and short lived.  Obviously if he gets an episode that he can't seem to stop then a trip to the ER may be in order but I wouldn't worry too much about the tachycardia at this point.  Just keep an eye on it.  Take care.  I hope you can get to the bottom of the pain and numbness.  Keep us posted on how he is doing.