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New to Gerd...quick question

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Posted 1/27/2015 8:06 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Everyone,

I'm semi new to this whole Gerd ordeal. Just a little bit of background though...I'm a 30 year old female, never smoked, never drank, and have been generally healthy until this mess hit me.

So right before Christmas I started getting heartburn. I took Prilosec for about a week with no relief. On Christmas day my chest pain was moderate but it started to travel down into my left arm. Of course I was concerned that it was my heart so my Mom went with to ER. The did an EKG, told me I had Esophagitus, gave me Nexium and sent me home. I had some undesirable side effects from the Nexium after a week of taking it so I followed up with my primary doctor who gave me 15mg Prevacid.

The day after my doctor's appointment I woke up feeling horrible. Chest pain, dizziness, and just a general sense of feeling unwell. I asked my husband to take me to the ER. Again they did and EKG, chest xray, blood work, and urinalysis. All of which came back normal. This time they basically told me they didn't know what was wrong and sent me home to follow up with my doctor. So I gave it two weeks on the Prevacid to see if it would help. The chest pain would come and go but not as frequently. But I started burping all day long and I started having constant pain in my left arm.

about a week ago I ended up at urgent care because I had what they told me was a panic attack. My heart was racing and I couldn't seem to get it to come down. They did another EKG on me there which again was normal.

I went back to my doctor for a follow up and explained the burping and my arm pain. She referred me to a GI specialist. I saw her yesterday and am scheduled for an endoscopy at the end of February.

Is it normal to have left arm pain that comes and goes during the day? It doesn't seem to be tied to any movement or anything. It just starts and stops a few times a day and lasts a few minutes to a few hours. I do also feel a slight pressure in my chest that is most of the time relieved when burping. I'm worried that this might be heart related but everyone tells me at my age with no family history of heart disease it's not my heart.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?
Posted 1/27/2015 8:27 PM (GMT 0)
Hi LisaS84!

Welcome to the forum!

First, I'm sorry you've had to come here. GERD isn't fun! Second, I'm glad you're here! We've all experienced the same symptoms at one point or another and so I'll tell you, from a completely non-medical perspective, that the symptoms you're experiencing are unfortunately part of the "experience".

I'm 41 and had struggled with GERD for as long as I could remember. On more than one occasion, I ended up in the ER because I had such excruciating chest pain and shortness of breath. Heart conditions were ruled out based on EKG's and blood work in the ER, then a referral to a Cardiologist for a Stress EKG and Echocardiogram. Everything came back normal. No clinical signs of a heart condition. When referred to a GI (finally), we toyed with a few different medications (in the end, none of them helped...even the strongest dose of Protonix 4x's a day) and I had two endoscopies prior to being scheduled for surgery to have a Nissen Fundoplication procedure done. I haven't had a single episode since.

According to my GI, "everything is connected". The organ structures of your chest and abdomen are all connected by the same muscle, blood and nerve supplies. She went on to explain that the esophagus, being smack dab in the middle of it all will relay pain in a variety of ways. Given it's route behind your heart, pain in that region can be radiated through those structures via the nerve conduction paths they all share. Much like those having a heart attack feel nauseous, those of us that have extreme GERD symptoms could feel like we're having a cardiac event.

In the end, go with your doctors and follow the GI path. Until you get your GERD under control, I would expect these to continue. Of course, if you feel at any point like it's more serious, you should seek medical attention immediately.

Feel free to ask lots of questions!

Be well and take care,
-TonyG-
Posted 1/27/2015 8:32 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks Tony! My GI doctor did tell me that if she couldn't find anything during the endoscopy that she would refer me to cardiologist.

I have been watching what I eat since all this began. No caffiene or spicy foods for almost a month now. The burning in my throat and chest pains seems to have diminshed but the burping and left arm pain are sticking around. I guess I'm just letting it get the best of me.
Posted 1/27/2015 8:52 PM (GMT 0)
Unfortunately altering your diet is a must-do, at least in the short term. Also, sitting up as straight as you can for at least an hour after meals will help. I had good luck with green tea and running a course of probiotics to help with burping.

Best!
-TonyG-
Posted 1/27/2015 10:12 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Lisa!

I have suffered from GERD since 2005 and just did surgery that hopefully will put and to that. Up till about a year ago I was doing fine just by eating my Nexium/PPI.

Then one day the situation just changed with a pain I had never experienced before... However, I've done 4 endoscopies. The findings from them has never shown on any real damage to the esofagus (probably thanks to my medication that keeps the acid down). In 2 of the endoscopies the finding was that a had a small hiatus and in 2 that I had not.

Howcome then that I really suffer from GERD? Well the answer I got was that it is not really the size of a hiatus that will tell if there is a problem or not. I later on made a 24 h pH-test that indeed showed I had serious reflux... And now I am recovering from a fundoplication 8 days ago. Hopefully this will improve my situation as it has done for so many others where PPI:s do not help.

My message is that even if the endoscopy shows nothing, that might be a false answer to you suffering from GERD or not...

Good luck!

Daniel
Posted 1/27/2015 10:23 PM (GMT 0)
Hi if it's any consolation I have experienced everything you are going through. I'm 37 non smoker, eat healthy and hardly drink. I started over 14 months ago with chest oain, palpitations and respiratory symptoms which to took me to a&e twice. The left hand side chest pain had me convinced it was heart problems. I had left arm pain and pins of needles in my fingers collar bone and neck pain. After a thorough check up with cardiologist I was given the all clear. I've had fundoplication and the chest pain and collarbone pain only come on when I'm having a flare up as unfortunately I'm in the minority where surgery hasn't been a success. Dont think it will hurt getting a cardiologist to look at you though just for your own peace of mind. Hope you find some relief soon.
Posted 1/27/2015 10:36 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks everyone. It's good know others have had the same symptoms. I'll try to hold off and wait until after my endoscopy before I see a cardiologist.
Posted 1/31/2015 2:21 PM (GMT 0)
My test came back ok and now have to see a gi doctor and it still hurt really bad
Posted 2/1/2015 5:52 PM (GMT 0)
TonyG, what was the deciding factor for your GI doctor to recommend the surgery, please?

I have been suffering for 6 years; PPI's do nothing, cardiac and all GI testing come back 'normal'. I am in excruciating pain all the time. I've had my gall bladder removed (Dec 2009), have a 3cm hiatal hernia.

Your input would be greatly appreciated.
Posted 2/1/2015 7:40 PM (GMT 0)
I had a similar experience but just one episode a few months ago. All I can describe it as is an intensely focused sharp pain behind the sternum and it lasted for over 12 hours. My left arm also felt dead as if someone had punched me. The only available painkiller in the house was Paracetamol and it didn't even touch me. The only way I could deal with it was by pacing up and down to take my mind off the pain but by about 6 in the morning I had to bite the bullet and call in sick for work. By about 8am I was at my wits end so I called whatever the hell they call NHS Direct these days.

Embarrassingly the silly buggers sent out a first response Paramedic due to the chest pain and the arm combo, and low and behold when the Paramedic turned up my pain was slowly going away. I'm 24 and in pretty good health so it's no surprise my ECG was spotless and my physical obs text book. I was so embarrassed and apologised to the Paramedic, but the pain was really that severe at the time, and I was becoming so distressed after so many hours. It hasn’t returned since and they tell me it was more than likely just a case of really bad Esophagitis, but I've been dealing with my GERD stuff since I was 18 and nothing has before or since come close to that episode.

Glad to know I'm not the only one!
Posted 2/8/2015 7:32 AM (GMT 0)
Hi there,
Just to add a little note to all these answers you have got - you can actually get jaw pain from GERD and hiatus hernia problems too - and that again can be linked to the heart too. I ended up at the dentists - as the pain I was getting in my jaw was so bad I thought I'd had some major dental surgery without anaesthetic! I think is down to irritation of the vagus nerve which runs near to the junction of LES - and can cause all kinds of symptoms. I often get a 'dead' arm - and tingling in my left shoulder blade, but don't worry so much now - as I know what it is. Usually check my pulse and think - yeah it's my hernia again!
Good luck with the tests!
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