Posted 4/14/2013 3:33 PM (GMT 0)
Hi all,
I'm not new to GI issues (I've had Crohn's for 7+ years), but I'm pretty new to GERD. I started having chronic chest pain in January after a buildup of occasional pain over the prior few months. It got so intense, I thought it was a heart issue, which would be unusual for me, as I'm young and in good shape. My GI did an endoscopy, said I had some mild gastritis and esophagitis consistent with GERD. I had been taking carafate for awhile and it helped some, but that was a short-term treatment. She gave me dexilant, but the first time I took it, I had a negative reaction (irregular heart beat, shortness of breath), so she told me to stop it. TIme went by and the symptoms went away for the most part. My chest hurt, but not enough to really keep me from doing thing
Then a few weeks ago they came back with a vengeance. I was in the middle of a run and my chest started hurting very bad and I started feeling very nauseous. I was afraid I might be having a heart attack. I walked most of the way home, then asked my husband to come home from work. The chest pain didn't decrease over the next hour or two so we went to urgent care and they did an EKG and chest x-ray. My heart was fine, but my PCP says the chest x-ray indicates I may have asthma, so I now have an appointment for a pulmonologist in a week. I also now have an inhaler I use throughout the day. Downside: it makes me quite nauseous (as if I wasn't nauseous enough!).
Since then, my chest hurts all the time. I feel winded/have shortness of breath a lot. I've been taking Zantac now for a few days and I know it takes awhile before it works, but this, piled on top of my other health issues, is starting to really wear at me mentally, especially the constant chest pain. I guess I just was hoping to get some reassurances from others that what I'm experiencing is--if not normal--then something that others have gone through too. I just don't know what to do. I am a complete mess all the time and am falling behind on work and have been canceling plans and family events left and right. I know it'll get better eventually, but it's just been getting worse for almost a year straight, so it's kind of hard to see the light at the end.
Sorry for the rant/whine, but this is one of the only places I know that people will understand what I'm going through.