Hoping for some advice...

Hello,

I've posted on the gerd/cardiovascular thread looking for insight for my debilitating symptoms that I've been experiencing for a month upon returning from my honeymoon. My symptoms are persistent every minute of every day left side chest/shoulder/arm/back pain. It initially started sporadically and I had moments of relief, but now I have no relief at all. Movement exacerbates them significantly to the point where I am now bed bound and am short of breath. The doctors are trying to help with a diagnosis and have a CT scan finally for Monday, but after a month of unknowns and pain, I feel defeated, sad, and nervous.

I have never had anything like this and I go from okay moments to moments of full blown tears, frustration, fears, and sadness. I spoke to my GP and he prescribed me Ativan which I try taking only when I feel the horrible thoughts coming in, but he won't prescribe anything else until we clear out a heart condition. So far I have been diagnosed with Idiopathic Sinus Tach and a prolactinoma, but more tests are required because of the pain and an occasional slight elevated Troponin and a controversial nuclear test.

I now feel like a shell of who I was. I feel like a bad wife. I can't even take care of the dog. I haven't gone to work as an RN since this incident. I stay with my mom when she's not working or my husband's mom because I can barely do anything for myself and am so scared of the pain. It is breathtaking pain.

I'm not sure how I'll over come this emotional state of mind. I feel like I'm in a dark hole and not sure how to cope or what to do. I haven't had anxiety or depression before to this degree and am not familiar with these emotions or how to work thru them....I feel mentally and physically broken...

If anyone has any advice about what I should do, or how they overcame a similar situation or any words of wisdom or support, I will be very grateful...thank you for reading my post <3

I had chest pain for many years, and after my bad marriage ended, the chest pain went away.

I realized the chest pain was from the stress of the bad marriage. The pill that helped me, also, was Ativan tranquilizer, which I think relaxed the blood vessels which increased the blood flow and stopped the chest pain.

I think what was happening was that the stress from the bad marriage was constricting the blood vessels, and reducing the blood flow to the muscles around my heart, until the blood flow was reduced enough to where it was causing chest pain.

You mention being a nurse and taking care of your mother and your husband's mother, all of which could be considered to be stressors.

It could be you're under enough stress to where your blood vessels are constricting and causing you chest pain. One or more of the several heart doctors I saw said it was not by heart, as shown by the EKG, it was the muscles around my heart.

A heating pad on your chest will expand the blood vessels and may help, along with the Ativan when it gets really bad. Reducing the stress somehow might also help.

My chest pain would be so sharp at times, that I believed if I moved my chest 1/4th of an inch to the left or right, that I would black out.

I think what it was, was that by rotating my chest, it constricted even more the blood vessels around my chest muscles, and would reduce the blood flow to zero, and would cause me a lot of trouble.

This is just my experiences with that.

Hoping your scan is an easy procedure...resulting with some answers and a plan of action!

Definitely keep us posted, so we can keep you in support.

S.C.

Hi guys,

It definitely feels like a medical mystery yes. So just to update, I had the CT and met with an internal medicine MD and he suggested the pain might be inflammatory related, possibly due to an auto-immune disease like Lupus or something of the like. Some of my blood work was abnormal so they are looking to investigate this avenue. Next investigation will be GI in nature. In the meantime I am waiting for the CT results. Hopefully that will also provide some insight. At the moment, the doctor prescribed some anti-inflammatory medicine which I hope will provide some relief in the meantime. It takes a week to work so I'm really hoping.

If my heart is okay, than I will return back to my GP for some advice on anxiety meds. I feel petrified to resume my normal life even if I get treatment for whatever it is that's going on. I'm just wondering if I'll feel normal again? Do these feelings improve? This situation has scared me so much. Like pure fear...and to be honest I have dealt with adversity before...my husband had cancer, my sister was admitted to the hospital for 3 months and was ill for several years with myself and mom being a caregiver to her at that time, I was in a horrible car accident (not my fault), in my job I'm always taking care of people, we've gone thru fertility treatments with no luck, etc. But I have always been okay. This feels so different. Emotionally I'm spent. And sad. And maybe part of me feels like there is no break in-between? But I'd like to feel better and feel okay again...

Is there any medication I should ask for? Any suggestions? Should I just finish the books first?

I am so grateful for this support group. It makes me happy it's here, but sad so many people are suffering this way...

Thank you for reading and hope you have a beautiful day.

one step at a time. keep strong.