Chest Pain: serious or no?

[Aqualad]

Dr Steve- For the last few days I have had a faint soreness in my chest. It's kind of freaking me out because it's on the left side of my chest. A buddy told me it could just be indigestion but my wife wants me to call the doctor on monday. I'm 31 and in reasonably good shape but am worried I could have some kind of heart problem that I don't know about. Any thoughts?

[Dr Steve]

Dr Steve- For the last few days I have had a faint soreness in my chest. It's kind of freaking me out because it's on the left side of my chest. A buddy told me it could just be indigestion but my wife wants me to call the doctor on monday. I'm 31 and in reasonably good shape but am worried I could have some kind of heart problem that I don't know about. Any thoughts?


Aqualad:

First off, if you have a question that's really freaking you out, feel free to email me at drsteve202 at gmail dot com...I check that mail 10 times a day. Or better yet, call your regular MD first and tell me about it later! :smile:

Ok, the kind of chest pain that is typically associated with heart trouble is a pain that is described as "crushing" or "pressure"...it often radiates down the left arm or up into the jaw, and is accompanied by sweating, nausea, and occasionally palpitations (skipped beats) that usually comes on with exertion and gets better with rest. This usually only lasts a few minutes, and if it lasts longer than that the patient gets VERY sick, VERY fast, so I'm assuming that kind of pain is not what's going on with you.

HOWEVER, not everyone presents the same way...up to 20% of people who are actually having heart attacks are sent out of the emergency room with a different diagnosis, so even today it's a hard one to diagnose.

The kinds of things you worry about when presented with mild chest pain that doesn't go away are pulmonary infections (bronchitis, pneumonia, pleurisy (although that's usually a sharp, severe pain), chest wall inflammation (often the tissue between the ribs gets strained, causing pain), inflammation of other tissues inside the chest, etc.

I usually recommend that you do just what you said you were going to do...get checked out by your doctor just to be safe. It's probably nothing serious (statistically speaking...I don't know anything about your risk factors, etc), but in the few cases where it IS serious, you don't want to miss anything.

Good luck and let us know what your doctor says.


your pal,


steve

PS: if any of you ever have any of the symptoms I mentioned above ("pressure" that radiates down the left arm or up into the jaw, and is accompanied by sweating, nausea, palpitations (skipped beats) that comes on with exertion and gets better with rest), go to the nearest emergency room immediately! Don't stop to write a note on the internet, just go and post later!

[Aqualad]

Just got back from the doctor. He says the pain is in the wall of the chest, and that I probably lifted something heavy or moved the wrong way and that's where the pain is coming from. He wrote me a prescription for something but I should only take it if the pain gets worse, and it seems to be getting better as the week goes on. So that's a load of my mind.
Thanks for your advice!

[Dr Steve]

Just got back from the doctor. He says the pain is in the wall of the chest, and that I probably lifted something heavy or moved the wrong way and that's where the pain is coming from. He wrote me a prescription for something but I should only take it if the pain gets worse, and it seems to be getting better as the week goes on. So that's a load of my mind.
Thanks for your advice!

very cool. I had a case of spasm of the esophagus once...I thought it was "the big one"...crushing chest pain that got worse instead of better; magically vanished when I drank some cold water while contemplating going to the emergency room.

chest pain sucks. very glad to hear yours was benign too.

your pal,


steve

[KnoxHarrington]

My dad, who did have an actual, real myocardial infarction, told me that he remembered his arm actually hurting far worse than his chest did. But his description of it really matches Dr. Steve's -- more than anything, that feeling that something is crushing your chest.

Still, though, there are people who go for days without treatment when they've had -- or are having -- a heart attack. I don't get it.

[Judge Smails]

My dad, who did have an actual, real myocardial infarction, told me that he remembered his arm actually hurting far worse than his chest did. But his description of it really matches Dr. Steve's -- more than anything, that feeling that something is crushing your chest.

Still, though, there are people who go for days without treatment when they've had -- or are having -- a heart attack. I don't get it.

What the hell does any of this have to do with Age of Conan?

EDIT: This post makes no sense now since the spam post was deleted. You might as well delete this one too.