Heart problem?

[sairose]

Okay, I'm posting this on here because I feel like no one will listen to me or take me seriously. Not my family, friends, not even my doctor.

Do you ever have some kind of gut feeling about something that won't go away??

Well..

See about a year and a half ago I started having severe chest pains. I wore a holter monitor(sp?) for a day and it turned up normal. I went to the ER once, but the pains had stopped by the time I got there and the EKG showed up normal. So finally, my doctor diagnosed me with chostocondritis. It's where, without warning, the muscles/cartiledge around your rib cage inflames and causes crushing pain.

However, everywhere I've researched, it says chostocondritis goes away! Mine hasn't. I still get the pains.

So see, from the very beginning I had this feeling it was heart-related. But no one will take me seriously. I guess my point in posting this is hoping someone on here has some kind of heart problem, or at least knowledge about it, and can help me out. If nothing else, some reassurance I guess. It's just worrysome.

Advice?

[adduncan]

SAIRose -
Has your doctor run a helical CT or MRI of your chest? Just to make sure that everything there BELONGS there and is intact?

IMHO, the first step is to take some pictures and rule out or confirm the chostocondritis your doctor has decided on. (Inflammation will in fact show up as such on these scans.)

Please PM me if I can help further.

Adrienne

[sairose]

Originally posted by adduncan
SAIRose -
Has your doctor run a helical CT or MRI of your chest? Just to make sure that everything there BELONGS there and is intact?

IMHO, the first step is to take some pictures and rule out or confirm the chostocondritis your doctor has decided on. (Inflammation will in fact show up as such on these scans.)

No, I have not had those tests done. Thanks for that info, I will certainly request to have those done.

Thanks!

[Peaches-n-Cream]

If you think that you have a heart problem, you should find a doctor who will listen to you and take you seriously. Sometimes doctors can be dismissive. If you encounter one like this, leave and find another.

My sister knew that there was something wrong with her. She saw a series of doctors for a year and a half. They were all treating different symptoms. Finally one of them put all of her symptoms together and came up with the conclusion that she had Lyme Disease. She is now healthy, but it was a long battle. Luckily, she had a great doctor in her corner. Unfortunately, she encountered one impatient, rude, and dismissive doctor. My sister told her primary care physician about him and now her doctor will not refer any more patients to him.

Your health and well-being is ultimately in your hands. I hope that you can find a cardiologist who can give you a definitive diagnosis. Again, if a doctor is dismissive, leave and find another. I wish you the best.

[33girl]

Just as a side note - there was an update in the RM thread about the girl who died at the fraternity house in Chicago - it turns out the cause was an undiagnosed heart problem. It seems like there is a lot of that going around lately!!

sairose, if you are telling your doc it hasn't gone away and he keeps giving you the same diagnosis, get a second opinion! This is nothing to sneeze at.

[jh124]

I pulled a muscle in my chest the second or third day after starting a new job. I thought I was having a heart attack. It last for about a week.

I'd have another dr check it out. Hurting for that amount of time sounds like it could be a problem.

[adduncan]

While heart problems are in the differential here, remember there are several other organs in your chest besides your heart - any of them can contribute to your symptoms.

Also, a well-done scan can rule out an infection as well.

The moral is, keep the different options in mind and try not to jump to conclusions until you've had a thorough workup by a competent doctor paying attention to YOU and not his wristwatch.

You're right in looking for another opinion. Pain is rarely normal. Unless you're in labor or having monthly cramps, it means something is wrong and needs your attention.

Good luck!
{{{}}}

ETA: 500 posts - WOOHOO!

[sairose]

Originally posted by 33girl
Just as a side note - there was an update in the RM thread about the girl who died at the fraternity house in Chicago - it turns out the cause was an undiagnosed heart problem. It seems like there is a lot of that going around lately!!

sairose, if you are telling your doc it hasn't gone away and he keeps giving you the same diagnosis, get a second opinion! This is nothing to sneeze at.

Actually, I read that thread and that's what made me post this. It really scares me, because it's just a gut feeling. But people keep telling me I am a hypochondriac (sp?), or I'm overreacting. But I'm not..it's just that it's a gut feeling, and I've found in life that if your intuition is speaking, you should listen.

Thanks for all the help, guys. I really appreciate it!

[mattpike]

sometimes caffeine can cause the symptoms you have just described. and it will go on undetected and without warning. what happens is the caffeine causes your blood veins to dialate then when the caffeine wears off they constrict, causing pectoralis angina, or chest pains. sometimes you may feel a fluttering in your chest or something like that. or like adduncan said it may not be your heart just your chest region. you may have some sort of lung infection or maybe a collapsed sac in your lung. look into that. it happens a lot to smokers or people around a lot of smoke. but it never hurts to have a second third or forth opinion, if you think something is wrong, get it checked out.

[DaffyKD]

Originally posted by sairose
Okay, I'm posting this on here because I feel like no one will listen to me or take me seriously. Not my family, friends, not even my doctor.

Do you ever have some kind of gut feeling about something that won't go away??

Well..

See about a year and a half ago I started having severe chest pains. I wore a holter monitor(sp?) for a day and it turned up normal. I went to the ER once, but the pains had stopped by the time I got there and the EKG showed up normal. So finally, my doctor diagnosed me with chostocondritis. It's where, without warning, the muscles/cartiledge around your rib cage inflames and causes crushing pain.

However, everywhere I've researched, it says chostocondritis goes away! Mine hasn't. I still get the pains.

So see, from the very beginning I had this feeling it was heart-related. But no one will take me seriously. I guess my point in posting this is hoping someone on here has some kind of heart problem, or at least knowledge about it, and can help me out. If nothing else, some reassurance I guess. It's just worrysome.

Advice?

As the mother of a 14 yo son who had to have heart surgery as a child, I highly recommend that you contact a cardiologist. It may be nothing, but a cardiologist is trained to read the EKG, and listen to you. Unfortunately, there are some heart problems that a pediatrician, GP or family practice doc don't see enough so that it is very easy for them to mis-diagnose. If the cardiologist does not find a problem, as for a referral to another doctor in another speciality that may be able to find the problem.

Good luck

DaffyKD

[Peaches-n-Cream]

Originally posted by mattpike
sometimes caffeine can cause the symptoms you have just described. and it will go on undetected and without warning. what happens is the caffeine causes your blood veins to dialate then when the caffeine wears off they constrict, causing pectoralis angina, or chest pains. sometimes you may feel a fluttering in your chest or something like that. or like adduncan said it may not be your heart just your chest region. you may have some sort of lung infection or maybe a collapsed sac in your lung. look into that. it happens a lot to smokers or people around a lot of smoke. but it never hurts to have a second third or forth opinion, if you think something is wrong, get it checked out.

I was thinking the same thing about caffeine. My mother had chest pains so we went to the Emergency Room. They found nothing unusual. She had a series of tests from a cardiologist. Eventually, the doctor put her on a caffeine free diet which has eliminated her chest pain, thank goodness.

ETA: Even hypochondriacs get sick!

[Tippiechick]

All of my life, I have felt completely exhausted even when I am just waking. And, I have always had episodes of being short of breath. (I always thought it was just from overeating or such.)

When I became pregnant with our first child, I noticed that the symptoms I had always felt were much more pronounced. The tiredness, though, I wrote off to being pregnant. But, the shortness of breath worried me to the point of calling my OB. She sent me to a cardiologist the next day.

It turns out that I have a congenital heart defect diagnosed via EKG and ECG. I have a mitral valve regurgitation. (My heart valve leaks a bit and then "hiccups" as my doc likes to say.) The symptoms had worsened as a result of the extra blood flow from being pregnant.

What I am trying to convey is that if I had not gone on instinct and told my OB that I thought something was wrong, I may never have found out about my problem. I had been told by a nurse at my OB's and a nurse in my family that it was simply a part of being pregnant. My husband believed me, though, and supported me when I said something was "up."

If your doc isn't listening to you, get a second opinion. And, depending on your insurance, you may not even need a referral to see a cardiologist for a diagnostic work-up.

Go with your gut. Even if someone calls you a hypochondriac. The risk of not finding a potential problem outweighs any name calling people might do.

If you need to talk, feel free to PM me. My big sis also has a heart problem, so I know how comforting it can be to talk to someone who knows how scared you might be.

[justamom]

Sairose-No way could you get better advice than what has been posted. The one thing I would second (Tippiechick mentioned it in her post) is-

If you have a "gut feeling" go with it. Our bodies try to tell us things and sometimes we just don't listen. An interesting thing (food for thought actually) is the word disease. Think about it-
Dis and Ease. Something is not right and your body knows it.
It could be anything, so don't stress, but don't ignore.

[honeychile]

Question: how is your general health?

Two years ago, I couldn't get a flu shot and became sick. Thinking I was Superwoman, I took a day off from work, then went back. This went on for about nine months, and I took 10 courses of antibiotics.

Then I fainted while at Bloomingdale's.

It turned out that my immune system had become so compromised that the sac around my heart had become inflamed. This can be VERY dangerous! So, after while technically I didn't have a heart problem, I did have something very serious wrong with me.

Follow your instincts, and obey the doctor's orders!!

[aggieAXO]

If you were my patient (of course you have to have 4 legs to be my patient but a heart is a heart) I would recommend color flow doppler to evaluate the size of the heart chambers and how well the blood is flowing.

I agree that some doctors do not take patients seriously enough and take the easy road-I have heard too many of these stories.

I had a GI problem 5 years ago-I went to see a specialist and he didn't even examine me-WTF? I would get sued if I didn't examine my patients and missed something. I would definitely get a second and if needed a third opinion.