Two Magic Words -- Chest Pain

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My heart is fine. If I hadn’t already known that yesterday I would know it today. But I’ve got risk factors for heart disease – a family history of same, a sedentary lifestyle and more than a few extra pounds. So when I get chest pains the doctors go through the drill – EKG, enzymes, nitroglycerin, etc. I’m not complaining about that. I understand. But when all was said and done, they never did diagnose the chest pain. All they did was rule out heart disease and send me home.

I think it’s a GI tract problem, maybe a hiatal hernia. Now I have to call the doctor again for a “follow-up” appointment, which is where this all started yesterday.

I got a little twinge of chest pain at work Monday but it only lasted a minute or two. Monday night it woke me up. I was worried at first but it was emphatically not the typical heart attack pattern – no crushing pain, no radiating to arms and neck etc. Just a sharp pain at breastbone level. But it lasted a couple of hours.

I didn’t tell Mrs. Pluto since she would have called 911. I did call the doctor in the morning but as soon as I uttered the magic words, “chest pain”, they went into the drill. This was 8:30 a.m. I got home from the hospital at 4:00.

The worst thing is that now I have to listen to Mrs. Pluto’s lectures. She worries a lot anyway, mostly unnecessarily IMO, about a lot of things. I’d just about managed to soothe her fears about my health and now it blows up. The nurse at the urgent care clinic was filling her head with “this was a wake-up call” and “he needs to take better care of himself” and “you should have called 911”, which is just what she wanted to hear. Now she believes she has medical science on her side.

I should point out that when Mrs. P. is worried she expresses herself in anger. So she says she’s worried but what she does is glare and, from moment to moment, either lecture me or give me the silent treatment. Thanks, hon, I feel so much better now.

Anyway. I’ve got to call the doctor, see if they can squeeze me in on a non-emergency basis and see if they can really find out what the matter is. The doctor yesterday did admit that, after dizziness, chest pain is the hardest symptom to diagnose. But in this case it’s not my heart.

2

I had the same thing happen to me. I had chest pains, ended up in the hospital for three days (it was a Saturday) with extensive testing. The end result, no heart diease, but they determined it was acid reflux and put me on Prevacid. After a couple of months, I stopped taking it and was fine. You may want to consider that, it’s not like your typical indigestion. Mine felt just like it was the heart. Good luck.

3

I had some major chest pains at work one day - a squeezing sensation. Turned out to be my gallbladder. They yanked that puppy out and all has been peachy since.

Hope you figure yours out and that it’s not a big deal! Good luck to ya!

4

My turn –

Man those are magic words. Nothing gets you priority status at the ER faster, except maybe losing a limb.

I had severe chest pains one night last year, even drove myself to the hospital. When I drove up to the ER doors at 2am, the security guard asked me what the problem was. I started to explain, and once I said “chest pains” he had a wheelchair in hand and was helping me out of the car and into it before I could finish the sentence. He even parked the car for me.

I had woken up in bed with pain so bad that it felt like someone was standing over me leaning into my breastbone with a 2 x 4. When I got to the ER they did the whole workup, then finding nothing they gave me a Maalox and (I think) Lidocaine mixture to drink. Pretty much froze my gastrointestinal tract, but didn’t help the pain much.

Turned out it was a drug reaction to an anti-inflammatory I had taken that day for a banged-up shoulder. My doctor figured that out the next day. (Of course, I didn’t belive that that was what really had caused it, so the next day when my shoulder was hurting I took the stuff again. Yes, with the predictable results. DOH!)

Sounds a lot like Mrs. Younger. I’ve found that a lot of that worry comes out of love, but also fear – what would she do if she lost you? It was a lot easier when we were just young bucks – we could eat, drink, party, and generally overindulge in the self-abuse of our choice. There was no one to pay the price except us. Now there’s the wife and kids, and you can’t be a hedonist without throwing their future into question, too. Doesn’t seem fair at times, but it’s part of the price we pay for the considerable benefits.

Take care of yourself and I hope they get to the “heart” of the matter soon…

Paul

5

A friend of mine…a bit overweight, smoker, sedentary, family history, etc called me several months ago, late at night. She had been having chest pains, numbness in the left arm, the whole works. Would I drive her to the ER?

Of course I did. After several hours of prodding & testing & being hooked up to things (and, yes, she was whisked right in) they came up with a diagnosis…

I can’t remember what its called! Duh. :rolleyes: But anyhow, its a chest muscle that if strained or pulled, feels and acts just like a heart attack. And she had been moving the previous weekend, so she probably pulled it then.

Not something to mess with though! An aspirin a day won’t hurt & may help, if you do nothing else. (IANAMP)

6

Mr Carina (MD) just supplied me with the term I was looking for…“Costal chrodritis.” Or chondritis, maybe?

Anyhow, yeah, that’s it.

7

Pluto you poor baby! Don’t be scaring us like that!

I am very glad to hear that you are not on the brink of dropping dead. It does sound to me that you’ve got a little bit of that “I’m too manly to admit that I might be sick” stuff going on. I’m sorry to say, I think your wife was right about the fact that you should have told her and then she should have called 911. Hearty men who no longer enjoy the graces of youth and feel chest pain are among the main REASONS WE HAVE 911!!

(I’m only yelling at you because I care)

My suggestion for the wife situation (with the caveat that I’ve never met her) are to apologize and tell her she was right and that you won’t do it again. I know it will involve swallowing a health heaping of crow, but, in fact, she was right. All of us here respect your macho manliness and one little apology won’t diminish you in our eyes in the least.

So, take care of yourself, OK? I want to see you happy and healthy at the next dopefest.

For some strange reason, I have the word bacon floating around in the back of my mind… How odd.

8

Hey Pluto -

You OK? You haven’t posted since Wednesday, and I’m just a little concerned. How about letting us know that you’re still fine - 'kay?

-katrina

9

Pluto

I didn’t see this thread until now, and katrina already said what I was going to say.

And I’m also concerned, so could you please let us know how you are, okay? I’m very fond of you, you know. Couldn’t have gotten through that first DopeFest without you.

Much Love,

Cheri