Yep, got it here as well.
Pain in the chest that can knock you down ... the ONLY thing that has helped me with it is to severely restrict my activity levels. The more I rested, the less it hurt.
cardiologists - say it's nothing and tell me they 'know what sick looks like, and I'm not that'
rheumatologist - says there's nothing they can do to help me and have ruled out fibromyalgia and not ruled anything in either, no treatments offered at all
The issue is that if I do try to rest and take it easy, it's REALLY EASY to let panic build up as ... if it feels like a heart attack (I know mine does)... how will I know if it would ever be a heart attack or just the same-old-pain that I'm supposed to ignore (no doctor has ever offered me any advice on that one).
I came up with a practice that helped me, maybe it helps you...
Pain gets bad, try to rest.... give yourself 20 minutes
still hurts? Try to figure out - could you have pulled a muscle, over-done some activity, something to cause pain different from the same-old-pain, or not?
If there was any activity - then I take pain meds as available, and give it 24 hours to see if it's better
If there's nothing and it feels like the same-old-pain, take the pain meds, and give it 2 hours
Feeling better at 2 hours/24 hours? then it's probably not a heart attack and I can continue to rest and treat with over the counter pain meds
Not feeling better, give myself a time-table specific to this one situation whereby I either need to feel better or go to the doctor... (I hate going to the doctor)... and depending on the severity of the pain and my nervousness level with 'maybe this time doesn't feel just like last time'... I manipulate the timeframe accordingly.
Once I give myself 20 minutes, 24 hours, or until evening... whatever schedule I land on... I try to distract myself (keeps the panic at bay).
I set an alarm & recheck in after the time has passed and usually it's no worse at that point, not always better... but no worse.