Have Had A Headache. Started Feeling Nauseous, Pain In Chest, Neck And Shoulder. How To Get Relief?

Posted on Mon, 29 Oct 2012

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 Answered on

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : Hi, I have had a headache in the back of my head radiating into my neck on the left side for about a week. Today I had an excruciating pain in my chest, it felt like it was tearing apart, and my neck and left shoulder area also hurt. I felt nauseous and light headed. I laid down for a bout four minutes and it slowly subsided, along with some stomach cramping. Soon after I had diarrhea. This was about two hours ago. Now I still feel aching in these areas of my chest, shoulder and neck.

Answered by Dr. Anantharamakrishnan (1 hour later)

Hi friend
Welcome to Health Care Magic

     Any chest pain at this age should be investigated as HEART PAIN – UNLESS PROVED OTHERWISE.

     Your pain is highly suggestive of Aortic Dissection (tear in big blood vessel) or Inferior wall Myocardial Infarction (heart attack)

     In suspected heart attack, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE – if detected early, an attack may even be aborted or the amount of damage and complications can be reduced remarkably. The most important time is the first few hours.

You MUST GO THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT - IMMEDIATELY
Better be safe than sorry - treated if a problem is found / Happy, if it turns out otherwise
Headache can also be investigated at simultaneously.

Take care
Wishing you speedy recovery
God bless
Good luck

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar