Hi, I have been experiencing chest pains since I was 15 (now 30). When it first started, I woke up one night with a sharp pain in the extreme left of my chest. The pain worsened when I either exhaled or inhaled completely. I went to the ER but by the time I was seen the pain had diminished to almost nothing, and X-rays and ECG showed nothing. This happened once a year for about 5 years. Then in my early 20s this started to occur about twice a year, but with repeated episodes each time. The pattern of showing up at the ER and then only being seen once the pain was already gone started to become ridiculous. Finally, I was able to have an x-ray done before the pain subsided, but I was told that the x-ray was normal (except something to do with one of the disks in my spine?). Nothing further was done. Frustrated, I went to my family doctor who sent me for a chest CT, echocardiogram, and abdominal x-ray. The chest CT showed nothing, and even though there was some question about calcification in my echocardiogram, I was told everything was fine. The abdominal x-ray suggested some ‘fullness’ in my lower abdomen, but again, I was told that everything was fine and that I would just have to live with it. Finally, I had my worst episode in August 2010 and called 911 as I was not able to breathe at all without significant pain. The pain intensified tenfold if I tried to bend forward, and after lowering my left arm (which I raised as it seemed to help relieve the pain a little). Of course I had yet another inconclusive chest x-ray, and had a chest CT done as they found an elevated level of some enzyme in my blood and were concerned about a clot. They found nothing, so sent me home. Since July 2010, the symptoms have become almost weekly, where I have a sharp pain in my left chest, now usually under my ribs on my left, front side near the bottom of my rib cage. The pain can be triggered by sleeping on my left side, making certain movements (such as twisting, bending forward, bringing my knees to my chest), all much more likely after eating. I noticed that I often get the symptoms just before I have a bowel movement or just before passing gas, and when my bladder is full. I now have gastritis and burning, aching and cramping in my stomach, which I attribute to the stress that this has caused me for the past 9 months (a biopsy of my stomach came back normal). I am wondering if this could be a sliding hiatal hernia, and what tests could be done to figure this out, even when I don’t have symptoms (as I am not usually seen in the ER before the symptoms subside- with my shortest wait so far at 4 hours). I would appreciate any help or advice concerning this as it seems that I am having to take this into my own hands (though inexperienced as I am not a doctor). This is seriously affecting my life as I have had to give up teaching as bending over is something we do all day with children, which I cannot do right now. Again, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.