Left side chest/arm pain :-( [Archive]

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Freaked

17-05-13, 21:55

Mipsy

17-05-13, 21:59

Hi. Try and be assured that the tests haven't picked anything up. Remember, anxiety can play havoc with our heart rate.
Keep a note of your symptoms and if you still feel unwell, then visit your dr again. In the meantime, try and do some meditation and relaxation x x

CharlieM

17-05-13, 22:48

Freaked, I am so with you on this. Have just had three terrible days with constant discomfort, exactly as you have described.

All my tests came back ok too. My problem is twofold.

If I accept that these physical sensations are due to anxiety, then how on earth do I get rid of them??

Or, they are nothing to do with anxiety, in which case, if it isn't my heart, then what the hell is it?

Either way, I need an answer and SOON!!!!

Can't live with this every day.

Charlie

Freaked

18-05-13, 13:10

Thanks Mipsy; maybe meditation would be a good idea if it's muscle tension causing my problems.

Agreed, CharlieM, dealing with this pain day in day out is so hard. It's the hypervigilance of it - the constant 'am I okay, is it getting worse, do I need to go to hospital, am I being stupid to ignore it now?' I didn't feel like a particularly anxious person before all this, but I most certainly am now. And I'm out of xanax atm too. Never used to make the physical sensations better, but they took the edge off the worry (sometimes).

CharlieM

18-05-13, 13:48

Hi Freaked. 4th day of constant discomfort for me. My left armpit feels full, heart rate up about 20-30 above normal. Now having hot flush feeling in my head and burning feeling in left side of neck.

The feelings are real enough, but they do subside every now and then. I am anxious because of the symptoms. None of it makes any sense!!! :(

AceOfSpades

18-05-13, 16:33

Been getting such worrying discomfort, mostly in the left side of my chest. Spreads down my arm, sometimes the other arm and (worryingly) my jaw. Was so worried I started getting fast heart and weak/horrible sensation. Went to my gp who's gonna try and get me admitted to hospital, went to 2 a and e departments who didn't find anything. I have a whole lot of symps of some sort of heart failure but I have to try and think that with the echo, ekgs, xrays

So hard to ignore chest pain! The only thing that reassures me a little is that at least some of the pain is to do with breathing in or out. Though why mostly on the left, I don't know :doh:

Hi Freaked I have edited your post to leave in everything that has happened to me (we sound very alike).
I was going mad with worry and over thinking every ache and twinge in my chest area. All my symptoms are located on the left Chest pain, Shoulder pain that shoots down the arm and also jaw pain all on the left side. I too have loads of ecgs (also 2 treadmill ecgs) and chest x-rays and a echo and 2 trips to A&E with the blue lights flashing very scary.

But nothing has every come of it. I do suffer from a chest complaint called costochondritis and that cam mimic a Heart Attack and can lead to pain in the jaw and all the arm and shoulder pain.

But I think one major factor in what we suffer from is Posture related pains as that can also lead to muscular aches that can make you feel weird sensations like arm numbness in the shoulder that can be caused by a trapped nerve and that can cause shooting pains down the arm and also chest pains.

CharlieM mentions a burning sensation in the neck left side that to me points to muscular pain and again I have had and still do get that.

But I have now learnt to understand that the way I sit can cause loads of problems and bring symptoms on.

Hope any of this is helpful

CharlieM

18-05-13, 17:15

Ace,

Thanks for that post. For months I have accepted the pain is posture related. And I am still sure it is. Had a big panic attack 4 days ago and this has caused me to question my symptoms again. If I could get rid of the daily anxiety and fear then I am sure I could again believe it is muscular.

Still want it to go though.

AceOfSpades

18-05-13, 17:59

Hi CharlieM,

I had a echocardiogram done (I pestered my doctor for it) and before I had it done I promised myself and my family and also my doctor if that came back all clear I would take it as a fact that my heart was and is fine.

I think sometimes when we have tests done we don't believe that nothing is wrong Reason being is deep down we want something to be wrong so it can explain what is going on. It gives us something to hold up to the world and say look I told you something was wrong.

But because we have anxiety of some kind we never seem to get the answer we want so sometimes we need to make a stand and accept what we are told and just take it as fact.

I will not say it is easy sometimes still I find myself slipping back into old habits but only for a few days and then I can pull myself out off it.

And anxiety and muscular pain goes hand in hand as you know when we get a panic attack or just general anxiety we tense up or muscles and then they get strained and that cause's us aches and pains and we miss understand them and think it is heart related. A nasty circle that we have to break.

Hopefully this well help both yourself and freaked

Anxious_gal

18-05-13, 19:37

It's not your heart.

It might be tension, muscular pain, bad posture and so on.
All the muscles are sort of interlinked, so you can have tight muscles in your jaw>TMJ, which can case headaches as well as causing tightness down your neck, then you can get tense shoulders, arm pain,
chest pain from tight muscles, heart burn, breathing too hard, and so on.

Maybe get a good massage, I found buying a new mattress and pillows helped a lot with my aches and pain.

Yes I've gotten chest,back,arm,tummy pain before.
Once it was so bad I had to stay in bed, but I do think that day it was some sort of indigestion issue as I had the burning in my tummy and chest along with pains.

CharlieM

19-05-13, 12:48

I have a worrying new symptom today. As well as the ones above, I am feeling light headed and sick when my heart starts racing. 110 pulse for last hour. Butterflies are awful. This has to be serious. Pain is mild but feel sick all day. How long should I suffer before going to a&e?

AceOfSpades

19-05-13, 15:07

Hi CharlieM.

The only simple answer to your question is you know your body better than anyone else. So if you think a trip to A&E is the right thing to do just do it.

But as on most threads about chest pain, someone always replies if it was bad enough you would not be sitting here typing it now.

Just think back have you felt like this before and if you have did anything come of it...

CharlieM

19-05-13, 15:16

Ace,

I am 99% sure that what I am feeling is NOT heart related.

But I am also 99% sure that this isn't all anxiety related. Yes, I have felt like this before minus the feeling sick. Something isn't right, but I wouldn't even know what to ask a&e to test for.

That is why this is so difficult. I struggle to explain how I am feeling on here. Its even harder to explain to a health professional.

I feel like I need a set of blood tests for every conceivable disease known to man, but I know this is unrealistic.

AceOfSpades

19-05-13, 15:36

You sound a lot like me I find it hard to explain to health professionals how I feel.

I mainly go to the doctor and just blurt loads of stuff out that has nothing to do with anything.
But the main thing to remember is that anxiety is great at mimicking many a health problem and what we just have to do is learn from how we have felt before and move forward.

Maybe keeping a little journal of how you feel in each quadrant of your body and how nothing has come of it before would be a good idea to show how you have felt before as it is easy to forget something and when it happens again we panic and forget that we have had that very same symptom before.

CharlieM

19-05-13, 18:16

To be honest, I already keep a note of times when I feel anxious. My physical symptoms are always the same until the light headedness. It is a good idea to keep track, but sometimes I wonder if it fuels the anxiety. I don't google, but I am on here all the time. Thing is, I do find it helpful being on here.

I need to tell myself that if I had something life threatening, then it would surely have killed me in the 8 months since all this started!!!

AceOfSpades

19-05-13, 19:22

Hi CharlieM

We seemed to have hijacked Freaked's Thread. But I'm sure all the posts made will benefit.

Your right googling is a no no. And your 100% right if it was life threatening it surely would have killed you by now.

My chest pains have been with me for nearly 4 years and anxiety for 3 years (but they reckon it has been with me most of my adult life) and I'm 100% sure if my chest pain was heart related I would be 6 foot under years ago.

We just have to try and push through this stage and when we have we can look back and wonder what all the fuss was about.

I have come to a point in my life were I can't let my Anxiety/Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia take over anymore of my time. It's stand up and fight time for me.

CharlieM

20-05-13, 09:58

Freaked,

Hope that Ace and I have helped with our comments. I am now into my 6th day of constant discomfort and butterflies.

As Ace says, I am sure we all suffer from the same thing - Health Anxiety.

Good luck guys with your recoveries.

Charlie