Need advice

First, I apologize if this is the incorrect place to post this. I have been feeling poor for about a month now. Doctor thus far does not know what's going on. I would love if anyone has any ideas, suggestions.

I am about to turn 35 (male). I have had heartburn probably my whole adult life, but never thought much of it. I don't know if what I've had is frequent. I haven't taken antacid in at least a month, but I probably took it 3-4 a month in the past 10 years.

I started having ntermittent chest pain on right side. It's not every second of every day, but it is everyday. It does not feel like heartburn. It feels like more of an ache. Difficult for me to replicate upon demand, so it's not like a certain body position does it, but it does seem worse when standing. I also have back pain that comes and goes.

Excessive sweating. The SLIGHTEST activity causes me to sweat from the head quite a bit.

Some tightness in throat, like a lump in the throat feeling, that comes and goes. This is accompanied by shortness of breath.

General malaise. I'm an active person who works out and runs regularly. Since these symptoms started all I have wanted to do after work is go home and go to bed or watch TV.

My physician referred me to a cardiologist. Took a stress test/echo yesterday. It will be a week before I see results.

Also scheduled to see ENT next week to look at throat.

I had a chest X ray and blood test, both of which came back normal except slightly elevated triglicerides.

I would be extremely grateful if anyone has any thoughts.

tyjames said...
First, I apologize if this is the incorrect place to post this. I have been feeling poor for about a month now. Doctor thus far does not know what's going on. I would love if anyone has any ideas, suggestions.

I am about to turn 35 (male). I have had heartburn probably my whole adult life, but never thought much of it. I don't know if what I've had is frequent. I haven't taken antacid in at least a month, but I probably took it 3-4 a month in the past 10 years.

I started having ntermittent chest pain on right side. It's not every second of every day, but it is everyday. It does not feel like heartburn. It feels like more of an ache. Difficult for me to replicate upon demand, so it's not like a certain body position does it, but it does seem worse when standing. I also have back pain that comes and goes.

Excessive sweating. The SLIGHTEST activity causes me to sweat from the head quite a bit.

Some tightness in throat, like a lump in the throat feeling, that comes and goes. This is accompanied by shortness of breath.

General malaise. I'm an active person who works out and runs regularly. Since these symptoms started all I have wanted to do after work is go home and go to bed or watch TV.

My physician referred me to a cardiologist. Took a stress test/echo yesterday. It will be a week before I see results.

Also scheduled to see ENT next week to look at throat.

I had a chest X ray and blood test, both of which came back normal except slightly elevated triglicerides.

I would be extremely grateful if anyone has any thoughts.

Sorry you are going through this.   What you're describing sounds almost identical to what happens to me anytime I used to eat foods with MSG in it.  I've had 3 stress tests taken in the past five years and I got my results right away; I'm surprised they are making you wait a whole week.  

Based on what you wrote it is difficult for me to say what you might be suffering.  Some of your symptoms sounds similar to some of my own chronic gastritis symptoms, but not all of them. 

However, I am concerned that you wrote you've had heart burn your whole adult life.  I've had it for part of mine and over the years it caused enough damage to both my stomach lining and my esophagus.  If you get heart burn a lot that's a red flag that something is not working right.  It could your diet, it could be the beverages you're drinking, it could be how you're sleeping, etc.  

I think it's a good thing that you are going to the doctors to get some help and to find the root cause of your problem. 

I have some questions for you:

1.  Do you drink any alcohol or coffee or soda?   If so, I would stop drinking all 3 immediately.  That includes any beverages with caffeine such as energy drinks and many teas.

2.  How soon do you go bed after you eat dinner?

3.  Do you go out to eat?  If so, how often?

The reason why I bring up question #3 is because I firmly believe that many people get bad reactions to MSG or foods that are made with additives, such as soybean oil.  about half of my symptoms disappeared once I stopped eating foods with MSG and other additives in them.  And many of your symptoms sound very closely to what happens to me when I eat foods with MSG in them.  

Please let us know what you ENT says.   This could be a case of GERD or LPR, but without the proper tests, it's hard to really know.

I agree with what Peabs just wrote you however in the last couple of years, I experienced that same sharp heart attack feeling. Comes and goes and gave me a slight cold sweat, just sitting at my desk. It ended up being an increase in the acid reflux & heatburn associated with my hiatal hernia and GERD. IMO I recommend you get an endoscopy done also to see if you have a hiatal hernia and what condition your esophagus is in. Some time the PPIs just don't work well and even a diet change doesn't cut it. That is why I went the surgery route. Good luck and keep us posted.

Thank you for your thoughts! I know you're not doctors, but assuming this is all related to my past history of heartburn, does it sound like I have the Barrett's Esophagus, or even esophageal cancer?

Update: Saw an ENT today. He stuck a scope down my throat through my nose. He said he saw minor redness indicative of reflux, but wasn't concerned. I am now supposed to go see a GI.

My symptoms remain and it's been over a month now. Pain on my right side. Slight lump in the throat, and sweat incredibly easily. I'm beyond concerned, but also exhausted from thinking about it.

You poor thing, I had the exact same worries with the lump in my throat because I used to smoke and thought "Now I've done it!" but like SsjGogo said, its a rare cancer, and they should do biopsies during your endoscopy. I think they took 4 from me at various places down my esophagus and through my stomach which all came back clear apart from some inflammation

Just another thing to think about, especially with that pain on the right side, is gallstones. My ordeal started with that and I had pretty much the exact symptoms you had, though the lump, for me, is because of reflux not the gallbladder. If its at all possible you should see if you can get an upper abdominal ultra sound, that will show if you have them or not.

One thing I should caution though is gallbladder removal can cause other problems, all the joys of dumping syndrome, but it resolves once your body adjusts. My reflux has been exacerbated because the bile is now refluxing as well, but I would much rather have that than pancreatitis which is what was in store for me if I had waited much longer to have it taken out.

This is great news, thank you for the update Tyjames.