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Chest pain and forearm pain

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August 19th, 2008
I'm 38 years old, with no family history of heart disease or high blood pressure. I've been a runner for the last 8 years, running up to 10 miles a dayfor 2 years and 3-5 the rest several days a week. I'm 5 11 180 lbs. For the past year however, I have not been running as much and now in the last 2 months, not at all.

Why? Because I started having chest pain at night when I laid down about 7 months ago. I mentioned this to my doc who suggested I take a Zantac and forget about it. However, in the last 4 months its got progressively worse. INow many days from the time a wake up until the time I pass out ( sitting up! ). 've been to the ER 4 times! Once in an ambulance, thinking I was having a heart attack. All EKG, Chest X-Ray's fine. Blood work fine. Tested for Clot fine.

Symptons:

Intermitttent sharp pains on right side right at rib cage
Same on left
Some days it hurts to swallow
Some times I get a nasty pain right in the middle of my chest
Some days it feels like their is something stuck at the base of my throat, pain in the high chest area.

I've taken ant acids and have had little results. My last trip to the ER I was prescribed Protonix, which I've not taken 4 days in a row, wiht little change. Before that I was taking 2 rinitidine per day and still ending up in the hospital.

I think I'm going to die! I get these pains and its scares me. I can't even walk anymore without getting some pains.

I went for a Stress Test that I scheduled but they could not get my rate up, partly because I get some pains. Then got dizzy. The techinician said your heart rate looked good and your blood pressure was fine when I got dizzy.

This is ruling my life! I have an appointment in Ocotober for a Gerd specialist but I'm scared to run or even walk for excercise. I do smoke and have smoked even when running 10 miles a day. I know I need to quit.

Finally, I don't know if its related, but I get pain in my left forearm. I play drums and work from home typing emails all day but don't know if this is considered "radiating".

I have never been a hypo chondric or anything like this.

Please help!
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kmcgoldrick65
replied August 19th, 2008
Chest Pain
Hey GoingGreen,

I would suggest to your doctor to run an echo stress cardiogram just to rule anything out with your heart. I get chest pain often. I had an ekg, echo stress cardiogram and all my blood work done cardiac enzyemes everything was good.

Found out that I have a panic disorder and General Axiety disorder. Have been on lexapro 10mg daily and ativan 2mg per day, which do help me. I am also seeing a therapist to help me deal with my panic disorder.

Also, just because Heart Disease and High Blood Pressure does not run in your family does not mean that you are not prone to having these.

My mother had triple bypass, has diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholestrol. No one else in the family have these problems. I guess we are lucky for now.

You could have Panic Disorder chest pain is one of the symptoms. When I first got them I thought that I was literally going to die. I have been to the hospital so many times that the doctors know me. So I know what it feels like.

Kathy
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driftma
replied March 23rd, 2009
Chest Pain
Hey Goinggreen,

Did you find anything? I've been running about 25 miles/week for the past 3 years and increasing my speed and now the SAME thing's happened to me. On my left side only. Can't get up without heart pounding, slight chest pain, sometimes left neck pain if it's bad, and faintness. Never outta breath though. And my resting pulse went from 50 bpm to 40 bpm. Had a weird feeling in my heart, neck and the back of my head last week that I can identify as the time when this change occurred, but my EKG that I just had retested hasn't changed.
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michaelccc
replied June 18th, 2010
unexplained chest pains
hey Going Green , Kathy . or Driftma.
i'm 37. i look fit everyone thinks i'm into athelics but i'm not. i smoke a lot. i don't drink or use drugs. i have been having weird pains in my chest for 2 years. i've been to the ER about 20 times. i've had stress tests, ekgs, bloodwork, echo nothing showed up. i was told to take nexium for stomach issues. still the weird pains continue. sometimes they are sharp. othertimes feel full. sometimes its right in the middle of my chest. its lasts a couple of seconds and its really nasty feeling like going green says. i'm afraid to start jogging cause i think i'll die. i've also been told that its anxiety and all that stuff. and yes i'm definetlly anxious. but who wouldnt be if they were having chest pains that no one had the answer to the cause of them. you get what i'm trying to say ? i really hope one of you has gotten some sort of answer. if you do please write me, thanks a lot in advance everyone
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driftma
replied June 22nd, 2010
Hey Michael,

I ended up with a Holter monitor for a few days and my cardiologist thought I had was having PVCs. I went in for a stress test and actually did better than on my first stress test, but I was having very strange super strong beats that hurt and that I could feel. The strong beats were right in time with my regular beat but would come randomly. They got more frequent as my pulse got up to 100 bpm on the stress test, but once I reached about 150 bpm they went away. But on recovery when my heart slowed, they came back. My cardiologist said they were Atrial beats as opposed to PVCs which are ventricular. Since I had borderline high blood pressure, my doc prescribed Norvasc which reduced by blood pressure, eliminated those weird pains, and actually in combination with a magnesium supplement, ELIMINATED MY MIGRAINES that I'd been having for 25 years. I don't think we have the same symptoms, but you might want to see if blood pressure meds, specifically a calcium channel blocker like Norvasc will help.

Alan
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