Well, I guess I'll give you my background first: I'm a 30 year old female, vegan, good blood pressure and of average weight. I have been experiencing horrible pains in my chest (mostly the left side) since January of 2005...so going on almost 4 years now. I have had many, many EKGs done over the past few years because of this pain, as well as chest x-rays and most recently (at my last trip to the ER a couple months ago) a CT scan of my chest to check for pulmonary embolism. Everything has always come back normal.

This pain I get in the left side of my chest scares me so very, very much. My father died of a heart attack at the young age of 54, so that is automatically where my mind goes whenever this pain happens - hence the many ER and doctor visits. Over the years, I have been diagnosed with many a generic (in my opinion) problem - chest wall pain, costochondritis, anxiety...all those kinds of things. But I still think the doctors are missing something. I truly do. I mean really, this pain hurts SO BADLY and NOTHING helps it. No pain relievers, not heat, not ice....nothing. There has to be a better explanation for the pain. I also feel like the doctors only want to treat my symptoms instead of looking for the CAUSE of the symptoms.

And the pain in the left side of my chest is a daily thing, sometimes lasting the entire darn day. It completely ruins my day because I worry about it so much. I guess I'm just at a loss and don't know what to do or where to turn to next and I'm just looking for advice or something.

Any suggestions on tests I should ask for or anything? I keep thinking an echocardiogram would ease my mind. And a stress test. Blood tests might be good too. I just REALLY need PROOF that my heart is okay, not just doctors saying things like "I really don't think it's cardiac" like I got at my last doctor visit. How can doctors go around saying things like that, when they haven't run tests to know for sure???

Please help.

Lisa