[jan50]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone has these symptoms. I am w/f 50 yrs old. I have a mitral valve prolapse and acid reflux disease. I am left-handed.
My arms get weak easily. If I do anything like sweeping, mopping, raking leaves, scrubbing, or lifting anything heavy, a few hours later I develop a tightness and heaviness in my chest that is very, very uncomfortable. It usually lasts a week or more. Sometimes it is accompanied with pain in my shoulders, neck, numbness in the left side of my face. Sometimes a strangling feeling or choking feeling in my throat. I don't think it is my heart since I have had this for the past 20 years. When it first started I went to the ER because I thought I was having a heart attack. Now I have realized that it only happens if I use the muscle in my upper body. I have done a lot of heavy lifting since I was in my teens. I don't know have anything that I do for it except try to take it easy until the symptoms go away.

[Lara]

Hi Jan, it's nice to meet you here.

When I read your thread title, I came thinking I was going to tell you to get to the doctor immediately, but since reading the rest of your post, I see you've had this problem for a very long time and have obviously had it checked more recently. ?

Have you ever had any problems in your upper spine?

A lot of what you describe is concerning, esp. shoulder pain, face numbness, throat problem, pain on exertion, heavy feeling in chest etc.. Have you been back to your regular doctor lately about all this happening? I can certainly understand why you thought you were having a heart attack with those symptoms. I suggest getting a check-up asap just to make sure. Might ease your mind to be able to find out the cause of all this.

[jan50]

Hi Lara,
Thank you for your post. Well I haven't been to my doctor with this. I had strep throat a couple of weeks ago and the did a CBC and back in June I had an MRI.
I do have problems with my back. Like I said, I've done a lot of heavy lifting that I really shouldn't have done. I use to work in a nursing home and a hospital and on an ambulance service. In addition, I always moved anything in my house I wanted to move whether it was too heavy or not.
I feel like it is just a tightening of my chest muscles, but it feels scary.
I have problems with my back my neck and my hip joints and my left shoulder. It was fractured a few years ago. I was born with dislocated hips, so I've kinda always had some pain. And I've had this before, but I never found anyone else that had it when they did heavy lifting or scrubbing, etc.
I found this site today and read a lot of interesting things on here and everyone sounds so nice, I thought I'd just ask. Again, I do appreciate your reply. Jan

[Lara]

Jan, I've been experiencing strange muscle and nerve pain in recent times. That's why I asked about your spine. Mine started out just one arm, then that started feeling a little better... then it changed sides and all sorts of weird things have been going on... I have got to the stage after an episode yesterday where I think all my pain is coming from a problem in my c-spine. It's been some years since I had that checked and didn't really feel like doing all that again.
I also did a lot of heavy lifting years ago as a nurse, and in more recent times as a stay at home mum who insisted on doing all the landscaping myself. Not anymore!
I hope the doctor is treating your Strep. throat. That's certainly something I'd be keeping an eye on if you already have mitral valve prolapse. [You didn't have rheumatic fever as a child did you? Just curious.]
Well, hopefully someone else might have some more suggestions for you.

Just be careful, Jan. It's difficult sometimes with so many different symptoms... they can be caused by such varied problems.

[Jomar]

Jan 50 hello -
some of the info you mention here makes me think a bit about thoracic outlet syndrome {TOS} as we call it.

we can get muscle spasms in our chest that feels very nearly like a heart attack.

since you mention heavy lifting and some back issues too...

oh we get the delayed pains thing too!

[Jomar]

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=84

[Lara]

Hi Jo. I was hoping you'd be along.

[Made me wonder the same thing, especially since I've been having so many similar issues.]

[jan50]

Thanks Lara and Jo....
I read a little today about TOS. I'd never read anything about it before. I will go back and do some more reading on it.
No Lara, thankfully I didn't have rheumatic fever as a child.
Although I do have MVP and my oldest daughter has it too.
Isn't it awful all the aches and pains and strange symptoms that a body can have.
Not recently, but a few years ago I stayed at the doctor's office all the time having all kinds of blood work and other tests done and all came back normal and I still felt bad so I just stopped going.
It is very flustrating to not ever get any answers....
Thanks for the help and for listening...

[ConsiderThis]

Hi Jan,

I get a tightness, and I used to think it was my heart... but the heart tests said no. (Though I don't think heart tests are very accurate given that former president Clinton had tests just before he had that major heart episode.)

When I was living in the hydrogen sulfide it was particularly bad. There was also a lot of wheezing at that time. Do you wheeze very much? If so, that could mean some sort of toxin...

The other thing I wonder about is low B12. That's because when I lived in London I had a lot of trouble with a tightness in my chest. I was much younger then and thought little of it. But now that I know about vitamin B12, I wonder if I'd had B12 replacement way back then (I don't even know if the had B12 shots back then) if it would have helped. I was under pretty huge stress at the time, and I now know that stress eats up B12. (so to speak)

As a matter of interest, do you have ridges on any of your fingernails? or have you lost the moons on any of your fingernails?

There are many symptoms of low B12, like tingling and memory loss, depression... but also changes in the fingernails.

[rose]

Keep in mind all: the number of possible symptoms and signs of B12 deficiency is nearly endless, and lack of any one of them does not rule out deficiency.

rose