Hi. I'm a 28 yr old male. I've just been swimming and for the second time in a week I've come home feeling short of breath and with a tightness in my lower chest (central) that feels almost muscular. I didn't do much - only around 15 lengths of slow breatstroke and back crawl.

Last time the feeling was gone by the next morning.

What is it???????? PLEASE HELP ME SOMEBODY.

Here are my other daily symptoms:

PVCs - 20-30 a day, some in runs giving me a head rush. Cardio has checked me over and over and said that it's all benign. I beg to differ.

Chest pains - some stabbing, lots of tightness, constricting, mainly seem to come from lower central chest where the diaphragm? is I think, and sometimes seems muscular. Doc thinks its just one of those things but I think its either:

- hiatal hernia that could strangulate any moment
- pulmonary edema or some other lung nasty
- huge tumour in my chest/upper stomach (never been xrayed to check)
- impending heart attack
- cardiomyopathy
- cancer of the esophagus (sometimes i also get a feeling of food stuck in throat)

High blood pressure - I've had a 24 hr thing which said high ish at times but normal for you, I beg to differ. My wrist monitor when I feel stressed gives readings of 150/120 sometimes and NEVER below 130/90 except once when I took it because I was feeling really dizzy. Cousin nearly died from stroke at 24 and im convinced im next because of my high bp and pvcs.

Nosebleeds - come in waves, away for a month then bam one every day for a few days. Sinus scan said all clear but that wouldn't tell me if they were related to my sky high blood pressure.

Panic attacks - first started back in 2003 and now having them in places i can't escape from eg airport queue, barber, supermarket queue. Now every time I go into a supermarket I automatically start feeling dizzy. I know this is harmless but I can't stop it unless I've had a few drinks beforehand. But I don't want to be an alcoholic and anyway, alcohol aggravates my dodgy heart.

Sleep paralysis - happens once in a blue moon but happened last night. Woke up mentally but not physically, unable to move or scream no matter how hard I tried. It's one of the most terrifying things I've had.


I'm sitting here feeling short of breath and with lower chest tightness thinking that I'm just going to die. How can this not be serious? What do I do? It's happened before and gone away. Do I have a chlorine allergy or something? because I also sat in a hot tub for like 10 minutes.

I catastrophize every little symptom, but I've forgotten what 'normal' is for me. I was never like this in my teens. This whole health anxiety thing started because of the PVCs, and its got beyond serious. It's affecting my relationships and daily life. I don't want to do anything fun any more. I'm grumpy 90% of the time because I'm feeling ill 90% of the time.


Docs all think I'm a hypochondriac and they're right. Problem is, how to f***ing cure it????? And will that cure the symptoms - I don't f***ing think so?

PLEASE HELP - some reassurance is desperately needed.