chest pain

[glo87]

I started off with chest pain that came and went. Did not think it was something serious. 3 weeks latter my pains are getting worse. Last friday my chest pain got so bad that someone was putting pressure in the middle of my chesk. I felt tightness that it was hard to breathe.  I had sholder pain that went down my left arm along with numbness. I saw my doctor. She did an EKG and sent me to the ER to get further evaluated. ER sent me home 4 hours latter and told me my labs where normal. 3 days latter I got the same pains just worse. This time the left side of my face went numb. Tightness in the chest and sholder and upper back pain along with my left arm numb and tingling. When I saw my doctor she had that face like she did not believe me. She did anothe EKG and this time she said it was diffent from the fitst EKG she had done. I went back to the ER had an MRI, Labs and X Ray . Everything turned out normal. They where thinking that It would be PE ( Blood clott) I have not been taking meds so I am not sure what is going on. Yesterday I did a treadmill test. Have not gotten my resutls.Doctor is out of the office.. Can someone tell me what is going on, or if this has happend to any of you. I was told it could be hart burn, but if this was true why would it show somethign on my EKG. Could this be anxiety?

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
Wait for your treadmill test results, and based on that you may need an angiography. The symptoms can be due to angina/heart attack, hence do not strain yourself meanwhile.
The other possibility is that you have Scalene Myofascial Pain Syndrome. When scalene muscle is the cause of pain, the pain is referred to (either all or a combination of) chest, inner lining of scapula (shoulder bone), shoulder, posterior and lateral sides of the arm right up to the thumb and index finger. When this muscle shortens, this can press on brachial plexus (bundle of nerves and blood vessels in the armpit) and the subclavian artery and can compress or irritate these structures and cause symptoms such as abnormal sensation, cold extremity, numbness, tingling, spasms of pain, and lymphedema (swelling of lymph channels causing swelling of arm or leg) in the involved extremity. Treatment is by physiotherapy that involves indentifying the trigger points, and massaging them, and other exercises to relieve the muscle tension.
Do discuss this with your doctor and get yourself examined. Take care!

[pegomeg]

i just watched the CNN special, The Last Heart Attack, and Bill Clinton said he passed a stress test and still had chest pain, and he had blockages in his arteries...an ecg doesn't show if there are blockages...a nuclear stress test is a possibility...less invasive than a cath scan. also there is a scan for calcium buildup that looks at the walls of your arteries...

my labs were normal the day of my quad bypass...and the week before i'd been just fine walking and carrying kids...but when they did the cath scan, the blockages were huge and i had surgery half a day later.

it's your body. ignore doctor's faces! i also felt weird about wondering if it was all just anxiety...but i'd rather be alive wondering and called a hypochondriac than dead and called a saint!  :)

if you have the pains again before the dr. calls you back, get to the ER asap!  if you have a hospital with a chest pain center, go to that one! they are set up to monitor cases that puzzle them.  good luck!