Chronic chest pain

You said, "Hi all. I’ve suffered from chronic chest pains for years but it’s only gotten worse lately. (The pandemic didn’t help)."

And "so my doctor recently referred me to my gastroenterologist who said that my pain was myofascial/chest wall tenderness from anxiety but when I told him that my cholesterol was a little high he wanted me to have a cardiac CT.s." (net says is a series of x-rays)

I had chest pains for years, also, and as soon as my difficult marriage was over, so was my chest pain. As you said, your doctor said that your chest pain was from anxiety. But then you stood up to that analysis by saying, "Oh, but I have high cholesterol."

Trust me on this one, it's the anxiety. Are you under any stress, besides the virus? Have you taken your shots? Are you taking any medicine for the anxiety?

You said in your first post, "Hi all. I’ve suffered from chronic chest pains for years but it’s only gotten worse lately. (The pandemic didn’t help) I’m 39 years old, no family history of heart problems."

And in the 2nd post, "’ve had issues with anxiety/stress most of my life."

So, you've had anxiety/stress most of your live, and chronic chest pain for years.

Were there any years you did not have chest pain? I'm wondering if it comes and goes with stress. I'm wondering if it happens sometimes when you are on anti-anxiety medicine, and sometimes when you might be relatively stress free?

Also wondering if you are under stress right now which coincides with the current chest pain and is over riding the medicine?

How chronic is chronic chest pain? On a scale of, 1 to 10? How often do you have the higher numbers and the lower numbers?

I had chest pains when I was under a lot of stress (bad marriage) and they were real chest pains. Psychosomatic? When the bad marriage was over, the chest pains quit. So, again, are you under any stress?

Do you have chest pain when you don't think you have stress? How many days a year do you have chest pains? Are their days, months, when you don't have chest pain? If you don't, how do you explain not having any chest pain?

In the last year, I've had a different kind of chest pain when a bad doctor suggested I get off of my blood pressure medicine. Then she suggested a heart test but don't take the b/p medicine for two days before, and yeah, she won that one.

So, now, with the pain that resulted from that, to ward off pain, I take ativan at night. If I don't , I get chest pain.

So, is your b/p high? Do you take any b/p medicine? I don't recommend ativan but it does save my life, so we'll go with that. Have you ever tried ativan for chest pain?

Did you father have anxiety? Did he take b/p medicine? What did he die of, and how old was he?

I take Mirtazapine also for depression and Lithium for the mania portion of my bipolar. Now, those 2 medicines help me get sleepy, but I take Melatonin an hour before bedtime (when I start getting drowsy).

So you might want to try Melatonin, which is sold at the grocery or health food store or over the net.

Glad you got your shots. I put it off for 2 months so I was just checking. .

Post Edited (Tim Tam) : 5/16/2021 4:21:57 PM (GMT-6)

I looked up inherited chest pain on the net and one had a list of medicines that might help with that.

I found that a heating pad can help me with chest problems, but if they get too severe I have to take some medicine, ativan. As long as you're taking some anti-anxiety meds (Klonopin and Mirtazipine for anxiety), I think that should be a big help.

You mentioned the chest pain, that sounds rough, mine is also.

I often apply a heating pad when I'm having chest pain? It expands the blood vessels and doesn't make the heart work as much. I found that moistening an insert or a kitchen type towel, helps even more that just a heating pad by itself. A warm shower or bath also helps with blood pressure, I've read.

Can you cut back on your salt intake to help out with the blood pressure? Fresh food (chicken, pork chops, hamburger (although turkey is better for you than hamburger which is a red meat can can cause problems I've read, or at lease space between servings).

Canned food is the worst with salt, beef stew has about 1,000 mg. of salt and with high blood pressure, it says all you need a day is 1,500 mg. So you really have to watch canned food.

Frozen veggies are much lower in salt than canned, but frozen dinners can be high in salt. So watching your slat can be a big help. Again, fresh food and frozen veggies can be a big help. I also eat fresh, small, round potatoes, boiling them, rather than frozen french fries are much better for you, because they have no salt and are not a processed food.

Sugar is probably also not a good thing.

Do you have a positive attitude that you can get through some of this?

Actually, I think that the anxiety/stress is causing your symptoms - not the other way around, which also could be causing/making the GERD seem worse. For the GERD, I would follow a strict GERD-friendly diet and to keep a food diary to see if you can pinpoint any potential trigger foods. Also, please don't try and self-diagnose using Dr. Google - there is a lot of misinformation out there. I would have the cardiac CT, and then you can rest assured that you are not suffering from any heart issues.

Sharon

Laid down to rest yesterday, twisted to look at the clock, reducing the blood flow to my chest, and got a little chest pain. Cut on the heating pad that is always plugged in and on my bed.

The heating pad on my chest expands the blood vessels and the heart doesn't have to work as hard. After 15 minutes I was curious whether the heating pad had stopped the chest pain momentarily or whether it was going to still be stopped when I got up out of bed.

The chest pain was not there.

When you have chest pain during the day, can you sit or lie down and apply a heating pad? Probably with a pillow or two to keep your chest up.

Your heart may be just telling you it's getting tired and it needs a rest.

Does your chest pain happen when you've over-exercised? If I'm going to be doing the laundry that day, I don't take my 30-minute walk. I've learned the hard way, that's too much exercise for my chest.

How did you deal with your chest pain when you worked?

The doctors in your city are probably as well-equipped as any, as they exchange information on the web, in journals and in conferences once a year or so. So you're probably getting the best treatment there is.

I take Mirtazapine for depression, also, I think it's an anti-psychotic not an anti-depressant, and it increases my appetite.

I don't know that it increases my desire for sugar, it just makes me want to eat everything that's in the house at the moment. I take it at night just before bedtime and 30 minutes later after I've just finished supper and snacks I want to get up and eat everything. I want to eat my 4th, counting snacks, my 5th meal of the day. I'm not hungry, I just want to eat.

Because of that, I now take the Mirt 60 to 90 minutes before bedtime, not five minutes, so I'll be eating my snacks when my 2nd appetite hits, not lying in bed trying to go to sleep. It also used to cause my toes to twitch, muscle spasms, 15 minutes after I laid down to sleep.

When I told my psychiatrist that the Mirt was causing my toes to twitch 15 minutes after taking it while I had just laid down to sleep, she reduced the Mirt from 15mg to 7.5 mg and the toe twitching and hunger stopped. I also took the Mirt not at bedtime, but 60-90 minutes before bed time so those side affects had already taken place when I laid down to go to sleep.

Have you ever tried, when you have chest pain, lying down with a heating pad on your chest, which expands the blood vessels and makes your heart work less hard? It's like resting your heart when you have chest pain, and see if that reduces or lessens your chest pain for awhile.

Maybe a 15 minute to an hour or more rest.

Can you buy a heating pad and see if it helps your chest when you have chest pain?

I find that if I don't get 7 or 8 hours of sleep, sometimes like 4 or 5, I can have some chest pain in the afternoon as my heart/chest is telling me, you're trying to do too much with too little sleep. .

So what I do is, as if I have a choice, lay down to try to catch up on about an hour's worth of sleep/rest, put the heating pad on to widen the blood vessels and make things easier on the chest.