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Suggest Treatment For Pain In The Left Side Of The Chest
Posted on
Tue, 8 Nov 2016
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Tue, 8 Nov 2016
Answered on
Tue, 29 Nov 2016
Last reviewed on
Question : Hello my name is XXXX. This all started a month ago and idk what to do I feel defeated. I had 4 days after quitting smoking where I drank red wine (port) which I love. I'm not an alchoholic by any means I just had a few rough days. After those day I came into work Friday and when I started to work I felt like I had a brain zap or whoosh that kept happening all day. After that day I started to have heart palpitations that would happen about overt 20_30 mins. And I saw my doctor and checked me and of course nothing happened while I was there. He is looking at me like I'm crazy. Now a month later I'm still having them but now it feels like episodes. When I have them they can last all day or 2 hours usually nothing less. But they feel like a fish is in my chest as you can imagine this is worrying me. Anyway I have had an ecg. Blood tests and everything came back normal. Even a chest x ray. Last few days I have had intense chest pain on my left side then lasts 5 mins and then I'm back to normal and when I mean pain it usually makes me heal over. Also I started to sweat sometimes at night as well but maybe just because I'm too hot.
Brief Answer:
I would explain as follows:
Detailed Answer:
Hello XXXXXXX
Thank you for asking on HCM!
I carefully passed through your question and would explain that your symptoms do not seem to be related to any cardiac disorders.
Anxiety seems to play an important role in all this clinical scenario.
The chest pain you refer is not typical of any cardiac disorders. It could be explained by a musculo-skeletal pain or inflammation. Is the pain triggered by respiration or body movements? Does touching or pushing on the chest influence on the pain? These pain characteristics could indicate possible musculo-skeletal issue.
Your performed lab tests are very reassuring that nothing serious is going on.
Have you measured your body temperature? You say that you are hot and have increased sweating. These symptoms may be indicative of an infection or inflammation.
The palpitations that you refer to feel in your chest could also be caused by palpitations.
Coming to this point, I would recommend performing further tests to investigate for the possible causes underlying your symptoms:
- an ambulatory 24-48 hours ECG monitoring (Holter) to examine your heart rhythm trends and exclude possible cardiac arrhythmia
- thyroid hormone levels to exclude possible thyroid dysfunction which can trigger these symptoms
- inflammation tests (PCR and sedimentation rate) to exclude possible infection or inflammation.
If all the above tests result normal, you should consider anxiety as the main cause of all your troubles.
In such case, you should discuss with your doctor on making some changes to your actual therapy (sertraline), probably increase the dose in order to have a better management of anxiety.
Hope you will find this answer helpful!
I remain at your disposal if you have any other uncertainties!
Kind regards,
Dr. Iliri
I would explain as follows:
Detailed Answer:
Hello XXXXXXX
Thank you for asking on HCM!
I carefully passed through your question and would explain that your symptoms do not seem to be related to any cardiac disorders.
Anxiety seems to play an important role in all this clinical scenario.
The chest pain you refer is not typical of any cardiac disorders. It could be explained by a musculo-skeletal pain or inflammation. Is the pain triggered by respiration or body movements? Does touching or pushing on the chest influence on the pain? These pain characteristics could indicate possible musculo-skeletal issue.
Your performed lab tests are very reassuring that nothing serious is going on.
Have you measured your body temperature? You say that you are hot and have increased sweating. These symptoms may be indicative of an infection or inflammation.
The palpitations that you refer to feel in your chest could also be caused by palpitations.
Coming to this point, I would recommend performing further tests to investigate for the possible causes underlying your symptoms:
- an ambulatory 24-48 hours ECG monitoring (Holter) to examine your heart rhythm trends and exclude possible cardiac arrhythmia
- thyroid hormone levels to exclude possible thyroid dysfunction which can trigger these symptoms
- inflammation tests (PCR and sedimentation rate) to exclude possible infection or inflammation.
If all the above tests result normal, you should consider anxiety as the main cause of all your troubles.
In such case, you should discuss with your doctor on making some changes to your actual therapy (sertraline), probably increase the dose in order to have a better management of anxiety.
Hope you will find this answer helpful!
I remain at your disposal if you have any other uncertainties!
Kind regards,
Dr. Iliri
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Wouldn't my chest X-ray show any problems if it was skeletal? Also my Temprature is fine no spike. I didn't tell you that yesterday I had a huge dizzy spell at work and I wondered if that had anything to do with. Also this is not my anxiety because these symptoms started when I was on meds and I didn't have any anxiety
Also yes it feels like they happen more when I'm working / moving a lot
Also yes it feels like they happen more when I'm working / moving a lot
Brief Answer:
My answer as follows:
Detailed Answer:
Dear XXXXXXX
These pain characteristics seem to be related to a musculo-keletal problem. Besides, the chest X ray study is performed usually to exclude a lung disorder and study the ribs and the mediastine. But, it can not detect inflammation of the muscles which is usually related to muscle cells dysfunction. We usually expect the chest X ray study to be normal in muscular pain. I would recommend taking acetaminophen for this purpose. It will help relieve the pain.
But there is nothing to worry about your heart. The chest pain is not related to your heart.
Regarding the dizzy spells, I would like to know if you measured your blood pressure and heart rate during that episode.
Anyway, I recommend performing the above mentioned tests to be sure that everything is OK.
A close monitoring of your heart rate and blood pressure is necessary in the next days, to rule out possible low blood pressure, which can cause dizziness and lightheadedness.
Hope to have been helpful!
If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to ask me!
Best wishes,
Dr. Iliri
My answer as follows:
Detailed Answer:
Dear XXXXXXX
These pain characteristics seem to be related to a musculo-keletal problem. Besides, the chest X ray study is performed usually to exclude a lung disorder and study the ribs and the mediastine. But, it can not detect inflammation of the muscles which is usually related to muscle cells dysfunction. We usually expect the chest X ray study to be normal in muscular pain. I would recommend taking acetaminophen for this purpose. It will help relieve the pain.
But there is nothing to worry about your heart. The chest pain is not related to your heart.
Regarding the dizzy spells, I would like to know if you measured your blood pressure and heart rate during that episode.
Anyway, I recommend performing the above mentioned tests to be sure that everything is OK.
A close monitoring of your heart rate and blood pressure is necessary in the next days, to rule out possible low blood pressure, which can cause dizziness and lightheadedness.
Hope to have been helpful!
If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to ask me!
Best wishes,
Dr. Iliri
Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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