Chronic chest pain

[Horizon]

Anyone else get chronic chest pain? I've been to the cardiologist many times and am always told I'm fine but I always feel like I'm going to have a heart attack. My rheumatologist blames this on fibromyalgia.

 

[daisybell]

I had lots of chest pain for a period of several months - luckily it's a lot better now. I was told it was chostochondritis.

 

[Horizon]

I've been told that at times as well and that antinflammatory drugs may help but it's contraindicated for me. Im not sure if it's costo or not. Glad to hear you are better. Do you attribute it to anything?

 

[PennyIA]

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.

 

[Horizon]

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.

I so understand your ordeal. How would I ever know if I'm having a heart attack? Its very scary which builds the panic. I think a gameplan is a good idea. I also love my heating pad because that helps me the most.

 

[daisybell]

I've been told that at times as well and that antinflammatory drugs may help but it's contraindicated for me. Im not sure if it's costo or not. Glad to hear you are better. Do you attribute it to anything?

Not sure! I found it very helpful to know that I wasn't in fact having a heart attack, because it sure felt like it at 4am. I just tried to relax when the pain got really bad, took a couple of painkillers, and reassured myself it wasn't going to kill me!
I haven't had such bad pain since being on LDN... So that could be a factor. However I find symptoms tend to wax and wane anyway. The pain certainly seems to move around. More recently I've had lots of abdominal muscle pain and cramps instead!

 

[Richard7]

I do not know if this is the same but I have had a sort of ache, as opposed to an acute pain, that I assume is my heart, during PEM.

I assume that this is linked into POTS and working the heart too hard. Other than salt and potassium for the POTS and being horizontal I don't really do anything. Its been a few years since I last took a painkiller and it would not occure to me to takle a painkiller for my sort of pain.

It is strong enough to get me horizontal but no more than that.

 

[MikeJackmin]

Costochondritis has become a reliable symptom for me as well.

I can confirm to my satisfaction that it's not a heart attack by pressing on the seam between my sternum and my ribs with my fingertips. If it hurts, and it hurts in the place that's been bothering me, then it's OK.

 

[Horizon]

The issue for me is that it hurts over the heart and usually left side of chest by armpit and down my arm. It's like classic heart attack signs.

 

[ahimsa]

Anyone else get chronic chest pain? I've been to the cardiologist many times and am always told I'm fine but I always feel like I'm going to have a heart attack. My rheumatologist blames this on fibromyalgia.

Chest pain has been a symptom of mine since my initial onset. For me (doctors have ruled out other things) I think it is part of my problems with Orthostatic Intolerance (NMH/POTS), low blood volume, etc. It's generally a sharp pain. It does sometimes run under my arm (armpit and down the arm). But mostly it's just sharp chest pains, left side.

It does not happen *during* exertion though (e.g. lifting grocery bags). It seems to be part of my array of post-exertional symptoms. I don't always have the exact same set of symptoms after exertion but chest pains is one possibility (so much fun to have an array of ever changing symptoms - sigh).

All the major problems (heart attack, lung problems, etc) that are associated with chest pains were eliminated early on. So my chest pains no longer cause me any concern.

When my symptoms flare, whether chest pains or some other problem, it generally means that I have not been resting enough. But beyond resting, and some treatments for OI (midodrine, florinef, salt, etc), there's not much else I have found that helps me.

 

[ahimsa]

I forgot to mention that I am seeing a cardiologist for my problems with orthostatic intolerance (OI). I have a yearly appointment with him before I can get refills of midodrine, fludrocortisone, and potassium (Rx).

He also does regular ECGs. My doctor wants to do them yearly. I think that's a waste since OI does not show up on a routine ECG. Plus I have to pay for part of it (20% or something like that). So I've convinced him to do the ECGs every other year.

In short, I don't have any signs of the more common heart problems, no family history of heart problems, low cholesterol, no risks of heart attack, etc. So this is one of many reasons that I'm not worried about my chest pains.

Of course, it's a lot easier to not worry when the same symptom has happened for 25 years without any problem other than the pain itself. The chest pains are annoying but nothing like the endometriosis pain or the migraine pain.

 

[Pyrrhus]

The issue for me is that it hurts over the heart and usually left side of chest by armpit and down my arm. It's like classic heart attack signs.

Could be pericarditis. I get this occasionally.

Ryan Prior, while filming his documentary on ME/cfs, was diagnosed with pericarditis too.

 

[Springbok1988]

I also get heart pain and occasional accompanying palpitations. My doctor ordered an echocardiogram which came back normal. From that point on, my heart pain has been ignored.

 

[pamojja]

I always got very strong temporary chest-pain after mental or physcal stress and a myopericartitis 15 year ago. 13 years ago due to a diagnosis of PAD and disability I started to supplement comprehensively. With time found out above 150 mg/d of Ubiquinone (CoQ10) completely prevented any pain. Half the dose in the from of Ubquinol too. However, short after it seemed now after the reducing this CoQ10 doses below the effective brought back the chest-pain, but now witsout any stress. So actually a worsening. Never tried to lower daily intake ever agan. Therefore actually don't know if all that still would hold true.

Examination with cardiologists brought nothing. Most found nothing wrong, only one apprechiated how CoQ10 has helped it. And recommended to keep at it.