Pain in left arm

Hello and welcome!

I am sorry to hear about your physical symptoms and the concerns they are causing you. It can be so confusing and worrisome to have something unexplained going on...and difficult to distinguish between anxiety, or something else.

Since you have had a recent all clear as far as your medical screenings go, you can most likely attribute your discomfort to anxiety, or another benign issue such as nerve compression...

...but if it persists or gets worse, of course seeing your doctor is a wise move.

For now, are you in treatment for anxiety management...or practicing self help?

If now, this may be step you want to consider. You can get started right away with checking out our Resources at the top of the main forum page here. Practicing the suggested exercises can make a big difference in how you feel.

Post with us anytime for anxiety support!

Scaredy Cat

Dactyl:

When my dad was having chest problems years ago, the first question the doctor asked him was, "Do you have pain in your left arm?"

So pain in the left arm is an issue.

"tingling feeling in my hands and fingers" could be another issue.

You say, "I am pretty sure it's anxiety but I keep getting these thoughts that it isn't"

And "I've been experiencing skipped heart beats for a couple of years"

And "Is it common for anxiety to create physical symptoms ? I've also been suffering from chest pain in the left side for a couple of years."

You might also look on the search engine under some of those topics like, chest pain, heart problems, etc., and see what data you can pick up from there.

I've been through times in my life when I would have chest pain.

When I was going through a bad marriage for numerous years, during those years I would fairly often have chest pain. I would go to the heart doctor, be put on the ekg and treadmill, and there would be no heart problems.

My wife died of a long illness 7 years ago, and during those 7 years, I have had basically no chest pain. Funny isn't is? So at least I know what was causing my chest pain for many years: stress/anxiety from a bad marriage.

So, what's stressful going on in your life? That's probably what's causing you stress pain.

Again, you say, "I am pretty sure it's anxiety but I keep getting these thoughts that it isn't"

Well, in a way, that might not be a bad thing, for you would know what was causing it and could perhaps work on lessening the stress.

Do your have a stressful job. Are you stressed because you don't have a job? Are you stressed for you live with someone who gives you stress? Are you stressed because you don't live with someone?

In a way, I lived in this bad marriage for so long, I didn't really think of it as stressful, I just looked at it as my life.

Let's say I didn't have chest pain for 6 months or a year into the bad marriage. So I didn't connect chest pain with the bad marriage, for in first 6 months or a year, I didn't have any chest pain, so how could it be caused by that?

So, I'm saying, you may be in a stressed situation and not connect it with the chest pain, for it didn't happen in the first few months of that situation. So there's no direct connection.

But the stress may have been building, as in my situation, the blood vessels tightening, and only 6 months in did they tighten enough to where enough blood flow was cut off, that an organ or muscle was in pain from not getting enough blood, and thereby the chest pain.

So you're not connecting it with the stressful situation, because for 3-6 months or more, nothing happened.

Nature is giving you a warning that something is going on, as it was giving me. I didn't know either what it was, and I didn't change anything.

But you might have to look a 2nd and 3rd time at your living/working situation, to see if you can pick up on anything that might be causing you stress overload.

We can't always eliminate stress, that's true, I don't think I could have. But you still might to take a look at it.

You can also try to be as positive as you can. This is a problem, and problems are bad. But our ability to solve problems can be good, especially if we try to be positive going into the problem that we can solve it, and keep our mind open to that.

"One problem at a time, and be positive about that problem" is now a favorite saying of mine.

Also, at night when I'm sleeping, I use a heating pad on my chest. The heat expands the blood vessels, which makes the blood flow easier, and puts less stress on the heart. Also, I think laying down is difficult on the heart, as we see with hospital beds which are always leaning up.

So your heart in that situation can use all the help it can get. Also, if I'm laying down reading or watching TV, I have my already plugged in heating pad on my chest.

Any tips you can get from the net, I would look at very closely. Your doctor will have 5-10 minutes with you. You have all the time in the world to browse the net for heart/anxiety tips. You can write them down in a journal, alongside your blood pressure readings.

Losing weight, improving your diet (look that up on the net, too, heart health diet), reducing sugar (hello!), cutting down on your fat/saturated fat/cholesterol, less clogging of the arteries, which is causing your chest pain, your arteries are squeezing off the blood flow from some of your muscles, organs.

They are crying for help. Give it to them.

Dactyl:

Thanks for the nice reply.

You've pinned it down, it's your job. Now you may have to decide what you're going to do with that.

You could quit, and then no job or the next job could provide stress, so it's not an easy decision.

You can talk with your doctor about this and ask what he thinks you could do about stress on the job. He's probably got a job with stress.

But you could get his input.

When I had chest pain during the rough marriage, especially when it got to severe chest pain where I couldn't take another step or another minute without needing some help, about the only thing that worked for me was Ativan tranquilizer.

It saved my life probably almost 100 times in some 20 years of bad marriage.

Now, my heart doctor says that was the wrong medicine (like heck it was). She says I should be taking, I don't know, something you put under the tongue, maybe.

But whatever it was the Ativan worked.

I think it's because it reduced the stress, it allowed the blood vessels to the muscles around the heart to expand, thus putting blood into those muscles, whereas before the cont. stress so constricted the vessels that the muscle was dying for it was getting no blood.

If you're under as much stress at your job as I was in a bad marriage, you're in a tough situation, like I was. I didn't know what to do, either, but I would keep paying attention to it. Your body is letting you know, you're in trouble.

In a way, you need to be thankful that you're getting these warnings. Pain and extreme pain are warnings. In a way, you don't want to keep ignoring them.

In a way, you might come up with some plans, like, if it gets really bad I might quit working for awhile till I can at least get the pain to stop, or, get another job, etc.

I think you did right to reach out.

Post Edited (Tim Tam) : 2/9/2017 4:48:51 PM (GMT-7)

Dactyl:

Thanks for letting us know what's going on.

I don't know what it means to wake up dizzy and light headed.

Is it related to heart palpitations?

I don't know about that either, but lets take a look at what you've been saying:

At the start in your first post, and another post or two, you thought anxiety might be the biggest problem. Then when asked, you mentioned how stressful your job was.

Just from looking at what you said, you've got heart skips, chest and left arm pain, waking up dizzy; you've got anxiety perhaps from the start, and now extra anxiety from the chest pain; you've got a terribly stressful job, you say.

It looks like all 3 of those are playing into the problem, just from going by what you said.

In a way, the doctor can't do anything until you fall over. This is just an opinion. You can have an opinion on what's going on, also, as well as the doctor.

From an outsider's point of view whose livelihood is not on the line, I think you could consider taking a break from your job, which basically takes away the physical and mental stress.

Take it easy for a week or two, and see what happens. See if the chest pain goes away. Get a tranquilizer, etc., from your doctor in case you do have some chest pain.

I know, that is drastic. Falling on the floor is drastic also. I know, it's a tough choice. I know in some ways it's not: just quit, or get a health leave, if there is such a thing.

Either way, I would consider not working there anymore, just to see if the chest pain goes away. In my case, take away the stress during 19 years of a bad marriage, and the chest pain went away.

In the 7 years since my wife has been deceased from a long illness, I think I've been to my heart doctor's one time.

While during those 19 years, I don't know, 7 or 8 times, with chest pain in between.

During that time, I was hospitalized for chest pain once, and another time, chest pain so bad and often, I requested the dye test: going up into my heart to see if there was a a blockage. There wasn't, it was stress from the bad marriage in my view.

I now have heard the dye test can be dangerous, but I asked for it, wanting to know what was causing my chest pain; there was no blockage.

Again, it was stress from the marriage. What could I do about it if I thought that? I don't know. Leaving the marriage, my house, my child, apartment expenses, etc,. was just as stressful.

So, I don't know what you want to do, but I think we've pinned down the problem: your job.

I would also try to be positive about this. "One problem at a time, and be positive about that problem.

A lot of the time, the thing we have to conquer is ourselves. Yes, the heart and our nerves may be problems, but the bigger problem may be with ourselves. Making the right decisions. That we can control and help the other factors, with the right decisions.

Your mind and body is reaching out to you for help. Give it to them.