Also known as heartburn. The symptoms can be identical to a heart attack.

There are a lot of very good over the counter medications for this. If it is just periodic, you should ask a pharmacist for a recommendation. If it occurs more than once a week, speak to a doctor about how to control it.

Just dull pain for awhile that prompts me to lay down.

how long has this been going on?

What happens is the acid from your stomach seeps into the esophagus. Eventually, the acid is able to reach sensitive tissue in one area. That spot is what hurts.

The pain experienced varies by person and by severity of the condition. I've had instances where both my chest and left arm hurt. The main pain for me is right under the sternum. It is sometimes dull, but most often a sharp pain.

That is all

What type of tests have you had?

Of course the same can be said of each OTC medicine!

I just went to the ER on Friday thinking I was having an angina/heart attack, but it turned out to be bruised ribs from a car accident...air bag/seatbelt. I couldn't feel it, but a CT scan showed trauma in that area and if the dr. pressed really hard, I could definitely feel it.

Have you had any type of accident?

I had retro amnesia and do not know what caused me to swerve.

If its a routine check up with an EKG, that is not a work up for chest pain. It could be any number if reasons.

Ther are other tests they can do to find a less obvious problem.

I have this, on occasion. If I take an anti-inflammatory very soon after the pain starts, it usually goes away quite rapidly. For harsher attacks, sometimes something slightly stronger is needed. I remember hearing Randi Rhodes talk about having this problem. The first time it hit, she was sure it was a heart attack.

From the Mayo web site:
Costochondritis (kos-toe-kon-DRY-tis) is an inflammation of the cartilage that connects a rib to the breastbone (sternum). Pain caused by costochondritis might mimic that of a heart attack or other heart conditions.

Costochondritis is sometimes known as chest wall pain, costosternal syndrome or costosternal chondrodynia. Sometimes, swelling accompanies the pain (Tietze syndrome).

Costochondritis usually has no apparent cause. Treatment focuses on easing your pain while you wait for the condition to improve on its own, which can take several weeks or longer.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/costochondritis/basics/definition/con-20024454

Thanks.

Now that I'm out of a stressful work situation, the attacks have pretty much stopped.

I had a Gall Bladder attack that looked a lot like a heart attack.

Great deal of chest pain, but none in the face or arm.

Have them check that.

... the Vagus nerve ... over weeks the episodes occurred more frequently and in the last one (in which they raced me to the hospital in an ambulance) it made me feel like there was an object about the size of a soup can in the middle of my chest ... and it felt like that object was being crushed.

Had pain in my chest that radiated to the middle of my back. No twisting or turning in any position made it go away. So I went to the ER. First they did an EKG. Nothing. Then they brought in the ultrasound and my liver area. BINGO! Gallstones and plenty of them.

... that I had the heart of a teenager. Which was nice to know given I was 42 at the time.

Then we did rounds of ultra sounds, and they found my gall bladder was filled with "sludge".

So out it came. And no more chest pain.

I have had a similar experience. It started with my going to an ER; it took lots of testing over several weeks, before it was correctly identified.

1- we need you here
2- are you a cardiologist? if so you can self diagnosis, otherwise got to the ER now
3-if you are wrong, your beloveds, family and all of us will miss you, go to the ER now

My sister-in-law is a nurse that has also worked in the OR and has a degree in x rays as well. She is on her way.

and get to the ER stat.

A friend of mine, who was in his 50, started having chest pains. He went to his doctor. They did a stress test and said it didn't show anything. They told him to go home and rest. He dud., and he never woke up.

Never ever play a guessing game with chest pains.

when it's very hot and there's an ozone action day. I've had pneumonia 3 times and just have really sensitive lungs.

But I still think you should go to the ER now - not after you've rested.

Chest pain can be many things. Most aren't heart-related. However, there's no way to tell from a distance and no way to tell without an examination by an actual health-care professional.

Arm or jaw pain is not present in all cases. If you have chest pain that is causing you worry, go to the ER and get it checked out. Chances are it's not heart trouble. But, if it is, your ER visit could save your life.

That you feel the need to lie down is another indication that you need an exam now.

Get it checked out!

Nobody on DU can diagnose your issue. Don't ask here. Ask the doctor at the ER. He or she will find out what's going on.

but it's important to see a professional to be sure. Heart attacks don't always follow the playbook.

Take care.

I didn't realize from your post that this was an immediate crisis. You cannot be too cautious concerning chest pain.

experiencing that much pain that you have to wait for it to subside, you need a good diagnostic workup that consists of more than just routine blood tests and X-rays

I was life flighted out a our small hospital to a large hospital when I & the emergency room doctor thought I was having a heart attack. An angiogram determined it was Pericarditis.

It felt just like what I thought a heart attack would feel like. A low dose of prednisone for a week fixed me up.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pericarditis/basics/definition/con-20035562

Good luck finding out what is causing your pain.

If you have chest pain that lasts more than a few moments, do this:

1. chew an aspirin tablet and wash it down

2. Either go to the ER (do not drive yourself) or call 9-1-1



A heart attack may not exhibit the classic symptoms. Dead is forever.

... "chest pain".... get you moved up to the front of the line at an ER.

Go. Now.

neck that the pain radiates from there to my chest. But it feels like a sudden, acute pain in my chest.

I also have a cardiac arrhythmia, so when I get those pains, it is scary, since any one of them could be something else.

BTW, I have had a holt monitor test, EKGs (ongoing in the hospital after collapsing from heart stress and being admitted through the ER), and four cardiac stress tests, but I also have read that the stress tests are not all that accurate for women. I read some years ago about a 38-year-old woman who died of a heart attack just a week or a couple of weeks after passing such a test.

You need to go to the ER right away and get this checked out. It could be "nothing," but it could be a big something!

The techs were adamant that I was "fine" . Yeah, not so much.

accurate for women, according to articles I have read.

(not the stress test, just another sonogram) she refused - until the nurse got in her face, and called the Cardiologist. They also don't take a woman's pain seriously-they only took mine seriously because my husband and son were so freaked out. They listened to THEM because they were insistent that I was in trouble.

"How gender bias threatens women’s health"

http://myheartsisters.org/?s=stress+test+women

n/t

I've been thinking about you all day.

As my (grown) son pointed out, Evolution has no reason to develop accurate symptoms for problems with the heart as before modern medicine there was nothing you could do. So no, I have no ideas, just that it could be a wide range of possible problems many non-heart related. Good luck.

and not my stomach.

And now that we have all scared you half to death - go to the doctor and let him do what he has to.

Been there. Am alive now, because I've done that.

My brother was having pain in his shoulder and the doctor diagnosed it as bursitis. He said it would go away. The pain persisted. Finally, my brother got upset and asked for extensive testing (and he had always had an annual physical). His doctor ordered the testing done which puts a person in a machine, rotates the body while pictures are taken of the heart from all angles. When the testing was finished, my brother was taken right away back to the hospital for immediately surgery. One of the main arteries to his heart was 100 percent clogged. He was a dead man walking.

My brother panicked I believe because something similar happened to my father when he was 50. But he had pain in his left arm. He worked for the Justice Department and walked down to the medical station. The nurse examined him and also told him he had bursitis. He spent the rest of the afternoon with his head down on his desk and finally went home. He died in his sleep that night from a massive heart attack.

While we are all made aware of the classic symptoms associated with heart problems, sometimes the symptoms manifest themselves in ways not on that list.

Err on the side of caution and get help immediately, and please make sure you ask for the extensive testing my brother had. My brother was in his 40s when this happened. If my father had insisted on extensive testing, I believe he would have lived longer than his 50 years.

Good luck to you, mmonk, and I hope everything works out okay.

Sam

Please.

doesn't mean you are fine now.

Please call your doctor's office or go to an ER.

They said it was sore muscles from the severe cold I'd been through, and sent me ho But that was after an aspirin and lots of tests. The pain continued off and on for a week, then one morning I woke up and the pain was so bad I started involuntarily puking and sobbing. Hubby called Dr. in a panic, who said to 1: give me an aspirin and a Vicodin, and 2: get me back to the ER asap.
Several tests later it was confirmed; I had had a full blown HEART ATTACK, and those previous chest pains were UNSTABLE ANGINA - aka PRE-heart attacks.

This "could" be a warning to go get your heart checked. My advice, ignore any ultra-sound that says your heart is fine, since it only shows the outside of your heart. I was later informed that was the mistake that got me sent home the first time. Had they done the catheterization that first time, I could have stopped a heart attack that nearly killed me - TWO whole months ago.

Please, don't ignore this pain.

The price of being wrong, to me, is way too high.