Chest tightness, any ideas?

[lecach]

First of all, I went to the Dr. today.

I have been feeling like its hard to catch my breath off and on since sunday. Last night my chest felt tight. So I went to the dr. today. Just walking from the waiting room I was out of breath.

My oxygen level was a bit low. my pulse was higher than normal. My lungs and my heart sounded fine.

The Dr. said that there wasnt a clear cause. And that he'd be willing to do any tests that I felt I needed. He's leaning towards a lung infectionthing that maybe affecting my breathing. so he did a breathing treatment in the office but it didnt help.

He sent me for a chest xray and we'll find out the results by Thursday.

Asthma runs heavily in my family although I have never had any symptoms. I have had more allergy symptoms this year than last.

I've been under stress too so the Dr. thought that could play a part.

If the chest xray shows nothing I just wonder how far I should go with this. I've heard that heart disease and other heart ailments in women present in unusual ways sometime. I'm sort of scared but dont want to have testing just for the sake of testing.

Any advice? Does this sound familiar to anyone?

I know that the DIS Dr's should not be my only source of info - and they arent. But with so many people here there are usually some that have experienced everything. So I thought I would ask.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[*BTMRR*]

He didn't do anything (bloodwork, EKG), other than listen to your heart, to rule out the possibility that you had a mild heart attack?
I hope it's nothing, but I'd be worried too.

 

[RunningGirl]

Don't want to alarm you, but that's exactly what happens to my dad when he has an artery block building. Stress test might be a good idea.

 

[glitterkittyy]

I have allergy-induced asthma sometimes. It feels like that.

Also, how was your pulse? Was it high? Tachycardia also feels like that.

 

[lecach]

I have allergy-induced asthma sometimes. It feels like that.

Also, how was your pulse? Was it high? Tachycardia also feels like that.

Pulse was slightly higher - maybe around 80?

 

[lecach]

He didn't do anything (bloodwork, EKG), other than listen to your heart, to rule out the possibility that you had a mild heart attack?
I hope it's nothing, but I'd be worried too.

no he didnt. I am 40 and look healthy so maybe he thought it wasnt indicated?

He said he'd do an EKG or stress test if I wanted. What do you guys think? Should I ask for a stress test or EKG or both?

 

[glitterkittyy]

Pulse was slightly higher - maybe around 80?

That's too low to be tachycardia so you've ruled that out at least.

 

[MouseketeerOvaHere]

Your symptoms sound exactly like mine did when I had pneumonia. When I would lay down, it was the worse but I always felt like there was a pressure on my chest and simply talking made me gasp for air. Like I had just ran a marathon. I would have to take in a breath mid sentence just to feel like I was taking in enough oxygen. Just curious, what kind of doctor do you go to where they don't look at the xray's right there? That's just odd to me.

Also, just an FYI, if pneumonia is in the beginning stages, the xray may not show signs of the effusion (fluid in the lungs). I had a co-worker CT me a couple days after the initial xray, which showed the fluid.

Anyways, best of luck to you and try and not stress too much. It could be something far less severe than heart disease, especially if your mostly healthy.

 

[3boymthr]

What kind of breathing treatment did he do? Albuterol or similar or something different?

I developed Asthma at 39 so it wouldn't be unheard of.

 

[pigletgirl]

Hmmm, it could be asthma. do you have other allergies? ezcema?

My uncle had esophageal spasms and had the same symptoms. it caused horrible discomfort.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

no he didnt. I am 40 and look healthy so maybe he thought it wasnt indicated?

He said he'd do an EKG or stress test if I wanted. What do you guys think? Should I ask for a stress test or EKG or both?

They will do an EKG with a stress test. I would certainly get one anyway to be on the safe side.

Then you can look for other causes.

I have chest tightening with reflux.

 

[lovetoscrap]

Am I the only one that thinks that it is strange the doctor is saying he will run any test that YOU want him to run??? Are you a doctor? Cause if you aren't then I don't understand why the doctor isn't making the decisions on what tests to run to figure out what is going on.

If my doctor asked me what tests I wanted I would be clueless on what to ask for. And when he tells me he wants a chest Xray, EKG, CT scan, Colonoscopy or whatever he thinks is necessary for my current symptoms I never WANT those tests. I do them because a medical professional is telling me it is in my best interest.

Personally I would find another Dr really fast!

 

[Luv Bunnies]

Am I the only one that thinks that it is strange the doctor is saying he will run any test that YOU want him to run??? Are you a doctor? Cause if you aren't then I don't understand why the doctor isn't making the decisions on what tests to run to figure out what is going on.

If my doctor asked me what tests I wanted I would be clueless on what to ask for. And when he tells me he wants a chest Xray, EKG, CT scan, Colonoscopy or whatever he thinks is necessary for my current symptoms I never WANT those tests. I do them because a medical professional is telling me it is in my best interest.

Personally I would find another Dr really fast!

This is exactly what I was thinking when I read the OP's post. Why did the doctor ask you what tests you wanted? It's up to him to assess your symptoms and decide what needs to be done. I sometimes get chest pains and a rapid pulse and saw a cardiologist during the summer. He did an EKG at my first appointment. Then I had an echo (ultrasound of the heart) and a stress-echo (walk a treadmill and then have an echo). I also had some very detailed bloodwork that give more information than the standard cholesterol test. All of these tests were ordered by the doctor. Luckily, he didn't find anything wrong with my heart. But he made the decision about the diagnostic process. This is the way I like to be treated by my doctors.

 

[themarquis]

I'm just getting over h1n1 flu and I had about two days of chest pain/tight feeling in chest before it actually "hit" me with coughing and fevers and all that. So I'd keep an eye out for anything indicating htat this might be a viral illness.

Other than that, you have to think about what is most likely. Acute onset chest tightness? Asthma is possible, but it's unusual that it would suddenly happen without any prior breathing problems. Heart attack/cardiovascular? Unlikely, but maybe. Virus, bacteria, pneumonia -- much more likely. Anxiety/hyperventilation -- also likely.

How is bloodwork? Do you have high cholesterol? Blood pressure? Anything else a bit strange? Have them do a comprehensive metabolic panel just to rule out anything weird.

If all else comes out normal, chest xray is ok, see if they'll give you an exercise stress test or echocardiogram or whatever to check your heart function.

 

[maelstrom]

When I was a little girl, I always described what turned out to be asthma as my chest being too tight.

 

[disfan07]

If the chest x-ray comes back clean, i would have them do a work up for asthma.

Asthma can develop later in life, it's not just a childhood disease.

How low was your pulse ox? I know that mine has to get down to 93 before it's considered low...but my normal is also only 98 ( and i can function fairly well until it hits about 82) so 93 is like 95 for most people.

A heart rate of 80 is actually right in the middle of normal. Normal heart rate is 60-100. They start calling it tachycardia once it goes over 100bpm and most of the time, if it gets that high, you'll be able to feel it

Now, that being said, if you are having chest tightness and have no pre-existing conditions and it does not go away, i would get a cardiac adn pulmonology work up.

 

[monkey68]

Am I the only one that thinks that it is strange the doctor is saying he will run any test that YOU want him to run??? Are you a doctor? Cause if you aren't then I don't understand why the doctor isn't making the decisions on what tests to run to figure out what is going on.

If my doctor asked me what tests I wanted I would be clueless on what to ask for. And when he tells me he wants a chest Xray, EKG, CT scan, Colonoscopy or whatever he thinks is necessary for my current symptoms I never WANT those tests. I do them because a medical professional is telling me it is in my best interest.

Personally I would find another Dr really fast!

Yea, I found that odd as well. My docs definitely don't do that, and I'm in medical school, so I am a bit more educated than the general public on medical things. Occasionally, they'll ask me some other scenarios, if I was an 80 year old with the same symptoms, what would I want to consider, etc. as a teaching point (a lot of my doctors love to teach) and how would I manage it, etc., but they would never ask what tests I want to run on myself.

I personally find it odd that someone presenting with chest tightness for the first time didn't get an EKG at the very least. They're easy to do, they can do them in the office. Hopefully it's nothing wrong, but you need to rule out the most dangerous things first, and an EKG would help.

 

[golfgal]

Am I the only one that thinks that it is strange the doctor is saying he will run any test that YOU want him to run??? Are you a doctor? Cause if you aren't then I don't understand why the doctor isn't making the decisions on what tests to run to figure out what is going on.

If my doctor asked me what tests I wanted I would be clueless on what to ask for. And when he tells me he wants a chest Xray, EKG, CT scan, Colonoscopy or whatever he thinks is necessary for my current symptoms I never WANT those tests. I do them because a medical professional is telling me it is in my best interest.

Personally I would find another Dr really fast!

I was thinking the same thing--along with why in the heck will it take until THURSDAY to read the x-ray. Find another dr-start with a pulmonlogist and maybe a cardiologist.

 

[Ohiodislover]

along with why in the heck will it take until THURSDAY to read the x-ray.

My thoughts exactly. X-rays can be developed and read within minutes

 

[golfgal]

My thoughts exactly. X-rays can be developed and read within minutes

It doesn't take much to look at an x-ray and see if you have pneumonia or not, I can do that and I am not a Dr.--but I have helped a couple dr's diagnose it when they couldn't see the big white patch of something in DS's lungs