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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To acknowledge that my chest pain is stress related and not worry too much about it?

28 replies

CallMeExhausted · 27/02/2015 20:04

I am NC with my mother (for reasons that span decades and aren't relevant to this post). She was diagnosed with lung cancer over 10 years ago, and the cancer recurred about a year and a half ago. I just found out today (third hand, via a Facebook comment that crossed my news feed) that the cancer is terminal and she is in Hospice care.

Not surprisingly, this has prompted me to do a lot of thinking about whether I should contact her and try to reconcile, remain NC, or lay the cards on the table. For the record, I am leaning writing a long letter, sealing it and not doing anything more with it (not sending it), but have not decided beyond that point.

Anyhow, to the matter at hand - since learning this but not prior I have been feeling mildly short of breath and have a distinct heaviness in my chest. I am on medication for high blood pressure, but had cardiac tests about a year and a half ago and nothing concerning was found (tests were because of family history).

The timing is too coincidental to be a coincidence, am I out of my mind to chalk it up to a reaction to the news and the spinning in my head and just dismiss it?

In the interest of full disclosure, and to avoid being accused of drip feeding, I am trained as a paramedic, so am acutely aware of the risks of dismissing it, but I also have no desire to spend Friday evening in A&E for psychosomatic complaints.

OP posts:
ReallyBadParty · 27/02/2015 20:31

You have my sympathy: I too suffer from psychosomatic ailments when my parents really make me anxious!

But I am hesitant to be dismissive of someone else's possible heart problem over the Internet....

Maybe you should just bite the bullet and go and get checked out now before it gets really busy in a and e??

LaurieFairyCake · 27/02/2015 20:33

How busy will it be?

I went to the urgent care centre with chest pains and was hooked up to an ecg and was home within the hour as it was fine.

Age? Other heart disease in family?

If you're over 40, go.

LadyFairfaxSake · 27/02/2015 20:44

I thought I had heartburn & it turned out to be a heart attack - get it checked OP.

whothehellknows · 27/02/2015 20:46

It's true that anxiety can cause chest pain. So can anemia, heart attack, and quite a few other things. So it's best to narrow it down.

MrsBojingles · 27/02/2015 21:25

Best to get it checked- maybe go to out of hours?

PeppermintCrayon · 27/02/2015 22:06

I would get it checked out just to be on the safe side. If it is stress related, don't just ignore it - it's important to be kind to yourself and take care of yourself.

GokTwo · 27/02/2015 22:14

Go and get it checked op. Honestly, it's the best thing to do. I was in a similar situation a few years ago and felt uncomfortable about going to A and E too. When I went though the staff told me not to be silly and that you should never muck about where your heart is concerned. It turned out I did have a problem which is now under control.

Writerwannabe83 · 27/02/2015 22:16

A few years ago I had about 2 weeks of feeling breathless whenever I did anything remotely exerting and I also had the feeling of a very heavy weight on my chest. The heaviness on my chest would come and go but I experienced it everyday. I brushed it off and carried on as normal and over time I started having palpitations too. A month or so after that symptoms started I suddenly felt very peculiar and my heart started racing. DH took me to hospital where they diagnosed me as being in SVT and I got rushed through to Resus. I was given drugs to temporarily stop my heart in the hope of a normal rhythm resuming when it started again. They had to go this twice as the first time didn't work and if it hadn't have worked the second time they would have had to sedate me and use the defibrillator. Ultimately, my heart rate was 170 for almost two hours until they could get things under control. A week later the same thing happened again and I was referred to Cardiology, started on Beta Blockers and had to have a very unpleasant procedure to look at the electrical rhythms of my heart.

Never dismiss any kind of chest pain. They say that people in the medical profession are the worst patients. I'm a nurse so really shouldn't have let my symptoms get as bad as they did, I'm pretty sure everything could have been avoided if I had sought medical advice much earlier.

Doingakatereddy · 27/02/2015 22:17

I ignored heart pain and palpatations for a good few years. Even argued with paramedics as they blue lighted me into A&E. the cardio consultant was pretty brutal in hearing id ignored the pain.

Go to see your GP or OOH walk in centre.

JFDI

apostropheuse · 27/02/2015 22:25

You know that you need to get this checked out, especially as you have high blood pressure.

It's better to be checked and told that all is fine than the alternative.

Don't leave it please.

FreshsatsumaforDd · 27/02/2015 22:26

My father had stress related chest pain....it was a heart attack. Seek medical advice OP.

edballslongslowburn · 27/02/2015 22:58

I've NCd for this.

Get yourself down to walk-in, or A and E.

My DH had uncomfortable indigestion pains during exercise one day. I took him to A and E. Within five days he had a quadruple heart bypass. The rehab people were emphatic: never ignore chest pains. No-one ever died of embarrassment.

DH was on blood pressure meds and had family history of heart issues.

Oh, and don't drive. Rehab were hot on that, too.

wfrances · 27/02/2015 23:16

an ecg , takes seconds
a blood test will take approx 1 hour.
please go .
chest pain in my hospital is triaged immediately.

nocoolnamesleft · 28/02/2015 01:21

I knew, absolutely knew, that my chest pain was because I'd pulled an intercostal muscle vomiting during a migraine. It wasn't. I delayed presentating because I knew it was nothing to worry about. I was wrong. As it later transpired, in resus, it was pleuritic. You know they're worried when they start doing portable xrays...

(Bloody embarassing. But I did eventually twig I needed to see a doctor who wasn't me...)

kali110 · 28/02/2015 01:28

Blood tests can take 4 hours in certain departments, depends where you're sent.
I too suffer from anxiety amongst other things.
I was ill over xmas and had chest pain few weeks ago so put it down to a pulled muscle due to coughing, and my anxiety.
Was at the docs for completely unrelated matter, turns out chest pain was neither of those things,
i had a blood clot.
Get it checked.
If i hadn't have been at the docs for the unrelated matter i would never have gone about the chest pain.
My clot was in my lung.
If id have left it it would have killed me.
Get it checked. Whats a few hours?

CallMeExhausted · 28/02/2015 01:30

I am still home - the discomfort has eased. If it flares again, I will go in.

Right now, though, I am just staring at the TV and trying to distract myself.

Thank you for the concern.

OP posts:
Gruntfuttock · 28/02/2015 01:31

I was in hospital for a week after having a coronary artery spasm. An angiogram showed that my arteries were "pristine" to quote the consultant, but the spasm could have killed me had I not had treatment in the ambulance (I had phoned NHS direct who called an ambulance). I have been on medication because although that might have been the one and only time it happened, the consultant wanted me to take the medication as a precaution.
It happened because I was extremely distressed emotionally. Knowing that it's not a heart attack doesn't mean that it's not dangerous and that it doesn't require treatment.

Gruntfuttock · 28/02/2015 01:34

I should have said that the excruciating pain was as if a lorry had parked on my chest, but there was no nausea and no pain down the arm as there commonly is if it's a heart attack. I was in the coronary care unit of the hospital.

CallMeExhausted · 28/02/2015 01:43

Thank you for your addition, Grunt

I have talked with my DH and agreed that if it starts up again, I will go in, but will follow up with my GP on Monday regardless.

OP posts:
TheCatsFlaps · 28/02/2015 02:12

Nine times out of ten, presenting with chest pain will get you fast tracked through either A&E or urgent care. It is also likely 111 would send an ambulance.

Get it checked. The staff will not mind and will check you over. If there is a somatic or functional aspect, it gives you then the opportunity to address the underlying issue. I spent thousands with Bupa/Spire convinced I had major heart issues - it turned out it was somatic, but it is so difficult to see it sometimes.

You will be fine. Flowers

SmillasSenseOfSnow · 28/02/2015 03:59

TheCatsFlaps, what does somatic mean in this context? Wouldn't that mean that it was heart issues? I'm struggling to understand as a baby med student, and am curious. Google isn't helping.

wfrances · 28/02/2015 11:06

i think it means ,coming from the mind , but the pain is felt is real.

GokTwo · 28/02/2015 11:23

Hope you get it sorted soon op. I totally understand how you feel. I think one poster said "no one died of embarrassment" is a very good thing to remember.

SmillasSenseOfSnow · 28/02/2015 15:29

wfrances, but 'somatic' means relating to the body, especially as opposed to the mind.

Though having thought of it since posting, maybe it's a way of describing pain that comes from the body but that isn't actually to do with something wrong? I have no idea, really. Blush

...

Having taken a moment to google 'somatic pain' instead, it seems it means pain from skin and deep tissues, the opposite being 'visceral pain', or pain coming from the internal organs. I think that's cleared that up. :)

Baddz · 28/02/2015 15:38

Oh :(
Please go to a and e.
My dad didn't.
He had arm pain for days. He was so sure it was muscular.
He collapsed and died in front of me.
He was 67.
Please.