Chest pain, headache, dizzy, numb. H. Stanbro
The Doctors
I am 37 Year old male and I have a recurring problem. My
regular Dr.
says it's all in my head but I do not believe that. A few years
ago I started
having problems
with chest pain and trouble breathing. I get these spells daily
that are
hard to describe. I get dizzy, my arms and legs get numb &
tingly, very
hard to concentrate. 2
1/2 years ago I had a stress test that was botched so they did
a heart cath
which showed clean. Dunno what else they checked cardiac-wise.
Nothing else I think.
These spells have gotten worse and worse and now it's constant.
I have
burning in my chest, chest pain, dizziness, hard to concentrate, my
short-term memory is
shot to the point of not being able to function well in my job.
I wake up
with pain in my ankles and it's hard to walk in the morning. My shoulders
and arms are
always tingly & numb and I have a near-constant splitting
headache. I
have been diagnosed with GERD and I have graduated to Aciphex which
doesn't really help
much. I have also recently had sinus surgery. They removed some cysts,
turbinates and fixed my deviated septum. The cysts recurred
within 6
months according to
a cat-scan they did 2 weeks ago. I quit smoking in January
because of
the extreme discomfort I was feeling when I smoked. Foods I consume
seem to screw up
my thinking and make me disoriented but the only thing that
causes it
without fail is caffiene. So I quit that also. Any suggestions
at all? I am at
the end of my rope.
My job & marriage are on the line here.
Answer
I think you should go back to the cardiologist for a workup. Many
smokers eventually develop heart disease even if they quit. The ankle
discomfort could be due to swelling, which might indicate right-sided
heart dysfunction, as could the breathing problems. If your
heart checks
out completely OK (and an ECG is not really enough to prove
that), you
might also ask about having a sleep study done, since the kind
of airway
obstruction problems that you describe can lead to chronic sleep apnea
and resultant disruption of the normal sleep cycle, which in
turn can
cause muzzy thinking during the day and heart irregularities.
If neither
the heart nor the sleep cycle is abnormal, you might ask a
neurologist if
some kind of seizure disorder is causing these episodic attacks
of chest
pain, tingling, dyspnea, etc. Seizures or ischemic spasms in the brain
stem can mimic heart conditions, etc. and the fact that you have mental
confusion at the same time might point to a neurological cause.
If all
these things turn out negative, you might look for a metablic problem
such as hypoglycemia or excessive adrenal activity. If nothing
shows up
there either, then you might begin to consider whether there is a
possiblity of panic disorder or some other psychological
explanation, but
that is definitely a diagnosis of exclusion---you have to rule
out all the
other stuff I mentioned. I have had two friends who were misdiagnosed
as panic disorder cases on the basis of similar symptoms, one of whom
was in congestive heart failure and the other had some kind of mysterious
adrenal gland problem tied in with chronic fatigue syndrome and
vasovagal dysfunction, so don't let them put you off with "it's
all in your
head"!
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