Infrequent chest pains, feeling faint and trouble sleeping?

[mekansm]

It's 3:47am as I type this up on my phone, dealing with another episode of feeling faint, go figure. Might be long and more of a vent, apologies. I've had quite a few procedures done to no avail.

For the past nearly two years, I've been experiencing infrequent chest pains, most prominent in my upper left part (from my POV) of my chest near my shoulder, which would sometimes shoot through my left arm. The pain would, on occasion locate itself on another part of my chest (right-side, left-center, center) but would never be simultaneous as far as I've noticed. Well, in addition to that, I've had equally infrequent dizzy spells that would come and go. I at first figured it was hunger pangs, but after an episode where it wouldn't go away, I went to urgent care to try and figure out what was going on.

Fast forward to now. I know that I deal with GERD symptoms, but they couldn't screen any internal damage from it. Two echos and ECGs done, had a number of blood tests done, an MRI scan, recent procedure just the last week to have images of blood flow to check for possible blockage, nothing, normal vitals on everything. That one time I went to urgent care I was borderline on high blood pressure, but they haven't seen that again with each test I've done. I drove myself to ER once within this time frame when another faint episode hit me that lasted for nearly 3 hours (including the time when I decided to go) whereas I couldn't even get myself to eat anything. Well, they couldn't find anything there either.

Lately (say the past 3 or 4 months), trying to sleep has been rough, as I go through these odd episodes of feeling light to the point where falling asleep feels like I'm going to faint rather than naturally going to sleep as normal. It causes me to keep myself awake because of how uncomfortable the feeling is. I couldn't really describe it as dizziness, as it doesn't really feel like that. Rather, it feels like my tongue is swollen (when it seems like it actually isn't), I find myself clenching my teeth together, find it easy to let my eyes roll back into my head, and my upper chest and arms and legs feel a bit heavy and warm. It's heavily distracting and disrupts my sleep because I cannot try and fall asleep otherwise. I'm lucky to find a time where I'm so tired I can just fall asleep earlier and not have to worry about dealing with this when going to bed at my usual time.

I'm worried, but after so many appointments, I'm becoming more and more accepting of my situation and just figure that it may do me in someday soon. I hate to think such, but I do deal with depression and I work and sleep on a pretty uneventful cycle, so it's not helping my mindset at all.

Any ideas? I can only look to schedule another appointment for this (and my primary physicist had just left the office I'd go to, great timing. Now I have to find another and have everything I've done thus far be relayed to them..).

Bless.

[Sara_MHModerator]

Any time you have suspicious chest pains, even if intermittent, we recommend you see a doctor as soon as possible.  If it is alarming in any way, then please go to the emergency room.  We appreciate your question and that you are here at MedHelp to receive support and help.  Again, please consult with a medical professional about this matter.

Have you been fully evaluated for angina? https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/heart-disease-angina.  Gerd can mimic some of these symptoms but you should rule this out.  And has anyone discussed anxiety with you as well?  This is common in anxiety to manifest physical symptoms and you do describe some of those that are seen. https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety/anxiety-chest-pain

Please let us know how you are doing.  

[AnxiousNoMore]

You have been tested a few times and the diagnosis is no heart issues. Many people feel faintness and chest pains because the imagination is a powerful force and the more worried you get, the more real the symptoms" seem to be, which is a vicious circle feedback loop. So the first steps are to accept the diagnosis and believe there is nothing wrong, and to stop examining your body looking for symptoms and if you get an ouch or feel faint to just ignore it because it may be in your imagination or exist because you are tensing up in fear.
I had one trip to ER feeling as you do, but the doc said if I had heart issues that bad, that long, then I would have been long dead. Instantly I wanted out of there and haven't looked back no matter how often I get an ouch in my chest. I tell myself I am healthy and believe it and take a deep breath for confidence boosting and move on.
I would read a book on sleep issues. There are many things that can disrupt your sleep although some people just can't get a good sleep but you don't know where you stand until you have reviewed all the facts and tried all the methods they will list for you to try to relax. (One of the most quirky is to try to stay awake because many people wear themselves out trying to do that and conk out.) Falling asleep during a show that you want to watch is an example of wearing yourself out trying to not sleep.
Your health worries are likely the reason that you have with sleeping, and if so, you need to read up on different ways you can relax.