Posted 9/10/2012 12:25 PM (GMT 0)
I'd like some advice.
about an hour ago I awoke with severe pain in my left arm. I've had experiences waking up with numbness after sleeping on my arms, etc., but this was like nothing I've felt before. The pain literally woke up me, so naturally, utter panic ensued. My mind went straight to "oh, I must be having a heart attack."
I'm 21 years old, slightly overweight, a non-smoker, with normal blood-pressure. I exercise sporadically, but not near enough as I should. Even under these circumstances, I'd still like to think the chances of me having a heart attack this young are rare, but I can't seem to completely put my mind at ease here because of this pain.
I proceeded to breathe deeply and massage my arm, hoping that'd help to increase blood-flow (or whatever) and relieve some of the pain, but no luck there. More recently I finally got myself out of bed to take some ibuprofen, which I'm still waiting to feel the effects of.
What was odd was when I got out of bed, both of my feet were numb, even as I walked to my kitchen to grab a small snack before taking the ibuprofen. That successfully freaked me out. Now this could easily be my mind being over-dramatic, or maybe it was my feet/lower legs tingling from sitting up in bed, on my laptop, googling heart attack symptoms. It subsided after a couple minutes.
Sitting here now I still feel discomfort in my arm. The pain isn't as intense as when I first woke up, but there's still definitely soreness. It's crept up into my shoulder as well. My breathing is fine and painless, and my pulse has been consistent/steady (yet sometimes elevated, of course) throughout this entire episode, so that's positive, right?!
So, is this sounding like something serious?
If these aren't heart attack symptoms, what else could be causing this pain?
Hopefully there's no ER in my future tonight and I can get some more sleep.
J