Help! Should I go to A&E

[Gloooooo]

For two weeks I have struggled to take a deep and satisfying breath. I just can’t, it’s a horrid feeling and it leaves me constantly yawning, sighing etc all the time. Near the start I went to the nurse at work who said blood oxygen levels, blood pressure and pulse were fine. I had no fever etc, Covid negative. As I had zero other symptoms she said it was probably stress.

The breathing thing carried on. Often waking me at night unable to breathe deeply but otherwise felt fine. Last week I took a long haul return flight for work. Since coming back I keep getting mild chest pain. I thought it was heartburn as it’s in the centre and feels like a mild burning pressure pressing down lightly.

Overnight tonight the breathing has been bad again after a really good day yesterday where it was much better. Overnight the full chest pain has been constant, worse when I try and take the deep breath, but not awful. I keep feeling my heart beating oddly, like fluttering for about 30 seconds then the sensation goes away. That fluttering thing woke me up three times in the night but is gone now. The breathing thing and pain have not gone.

can this wait for a GP next week? I’m fine to walk around, talk etc, I don’t come across as ill at all but my husband is freaking out that it’s a heart thing.

If you have a local
Walk in centre, go there rather than A&E - I would definitely get it checked out

We all know that a trip to A&E cannot be taken lightly and we also know that some serious conditions don't always feel like and emergency until too late.

My husband was ill this week. His GP was uninterested. Luckily he has some friends who are doctors and they advised him to go to A&E. He did, although he stood outside for 30 mins debating whether it was the right decision. He was told by the consultant he could have died if he hadn't gone.

I went to a&e for chest pain a few months ago. It was reflux as I thought, but they said I was right to go. It was in the night and I was literally pacing the floor at home at4am. They did an ecg straight away, then bloods,x-Ray and then the 4 hour wait once ecg was checked.
it was relatively quiet until around 8am so I hope you managed to get seen! Then all those waking up ill trail in…

Given you've done a long haul flight since, I would be concerned about the possibility of pulmonary embolism.

I hope you have decided to go. It's to serious a matter to take a chance on. It's probably fine but there is no point risking it.

How did they find out what was causing it?

You can have symptoms like yours for up to two weeks before a heart attack, chest pain, respiratory issues and a familial history of blood clots are A&E worthy, please go today.

Why don’t you call 111 and see what they say? They normally err on the side of caution and if they say A&E follow their advice. They could also direct you to a walk-in centre of out of hours GP.

I think, if you have time to make leisurely mumsnet post about it. Rule of thumb is its not an emergency.

Make a doctors appointment OP

@Lordofthebutterfloofs my husband was perfectly capable of doing that and much more when he was actually having a heart attack.
What an asinine comment from you.

OP with a long haul flight in your recent history you should absolutely get this checked out at A&E. Hopefully you are already there.

Go to A&E
lots of red flags for pulmonary embolism (blood clot on lung) here.

• chest pain on inspiration
• long haul flight
• palpitations

It might be nothing but PEs can be life threatening.

Anxiety could cause those symptoms. I am not saying what OP should do but am curious what she did do (or didn't).

Go to A and E. It probably won't be as bad as you think. My GP sent me there during the junior doctors strike this week and I was dreading it. But although it looked very crowded at first sight, they had procedures in place to deal with the queues. I was triaged very quickly, bloods taken to rule out a clot and on my way with medication within two hours. I really couldn't fault anything.(Apart from the total knob who was kicking off about the fact he could see a nurse 'sitting on her arse doing nothing.' He'd been waiting all of 5 minutes.)

Don’t worry about not looking ill. You’ll probably find that most people waiting don’t look ill so you’ll past the time trying to work out what’s wrong with them.

Thanks all. Am at A&E - they said it was 100% right to come in. There were only three people in the waiting room when I arrived. They already did an ECG which was good and now I’m waiting for blood tests to rule out pulmonary embolism.

@Gloooooo I'm glad you went! Hope you are home feeling reassured soon.

Really glad you went and got seen quickly

"They" didn't- I did when I realised a family member had the same symptoms, but that was 18mths in.
But each doctors did the same blood tests, ECG and chest xrays and then were at a loss on where to go next. Pretty usless when dealing with the non-obvious and so told me it must be psychosymatic, which i knew it wasn't! We were living in the tropics at the time (so something parasitic should have been thought of once heart/lung/anemia ruled out). I saw doctors in UK and Australia as well as locally - seriously, nine GPs and not one suggested bile blockage could cause breathing issues. I found one decent Swiss doctor, but I told him what I thought it was by then so just a case of testing.
I mention it because the breathing issues sound exactly as OP describes- no mechanical issue breathing in and out, but a lack a satiation with the breath. It's normally associated with iron/b12 anaemia.

Hope it's all okay

That is why I suggested 111 who could assess the situation and advise/signpost accordingly.

I went to A& with what turned out to be anxiety and apologised profusely for wasting their time. The doctor responded that they'd rather I wasted their time than ignore something that might turn out to be serious.

I called 999 after 6 months of mild chest pain when exercising, the GP had diagnosed acid reflux but it wasn’t improving. One morning I had suffered from night sweats, occasional palpitations and a feeling of pressure in my chest that wouldn’t go away, whereas it would usually pass after ten minutes. The call handler took it very seriously, made me take an aspirin and told my husband to fetch the defibrillator from the village hall (I persuaded him not to as I was convinced there wasn’t much wrong). Ten minutes later I was blue lighted straight into the cath lab, having a heart attack. I didn’t tick a single box for heart attack risk - and they present very differently in women. I hope you’re ok!

Glad to see you've gone to A&E, and I'm usually somebody that wants to comment on threads saying "please don't go to A&E for that". Obviously PE is the concern here so you've done the right thing.

Otherwise, if all is clear, it sounds like you have hyperventilation syndrome. I had it 2 years ago and it lasted about 10 months, it drove me crazy!! It started off because I had very bad anxiety at the time, and your body essentially accepts it as your new way of breathing. I had to 'retrain' my brain to breathe normally again. Harmless if that's the case, but scary and a pain in the arse!

That’s very poor advice. I was perfectly capable of showering, drying my hair, getting myself ready to go out and walking to the ambulance whilst having a STEMI heart attack. I was also quite capable of messing about on my phone!

Hope you're ok OP