TOS Flare can mimic Heart Attack

tshadow · 10-19-2007, 10:17 AM

Hi all,

Been in ER twice in this week due to TOS flare that mimiced heart attack.

Starts with high pain, then inability to catch breath, and having labored breath. Feels like I'm trying to breath while constantly blowing up hard balloon.

Next, heart palpitations, and even a pain down the sides of my arm, (in my case, particularly the right arm.)

The upper abdomen, area right below breast gets very hard and very bloated.

The doctors ran CT scans of abdomen, chest, EKGs which showed infarctions, and other tests.

The conclusion is that when the TOS goes into a flare, high pain, that my muscles get hard, and so it is difficult to breathe.

You must treat each one of these as a potential heart attack. Don't guess.

The heart skips beats due to the high pain - the high pain can cause the EKG to have the infarctions. This would be why in rheumy Bluestone's office two years ago it came up with infarctions and he freaked out thinking I was having a heart attack and we went through that whole thing of stress tests, etc., only to find out my heart was perfect. But due to new diabetes II, they were not taking any chances.

The high, hard, abdomen is not due to "constipation" as two ERs have said - (I knew they were ... uh... full of s*&t themselves on that one, as I was not ...) but I didn't want to contradict them. Instead, I followed instructions and came back totally empty of wasted, and still my belly was hard. It was the TOS flared up, making my muscles super-hard, up high.

As soon as they gave me morphine, and also nitro, the muscles smoothed out, immediately, and this totally relieved the situation.

So this is a relatively new symptom, although I believe I've had it before on occasion. I think it comes as a flare after trying to walk or swim extra hard - that is, extra hard for me, since it really isn't extra hard for a NORMAL person.

It was a little hard to get all of the docs up to speed on TOS. Two were right with me on the TOS and how it was working within these symptoms - but others were, how could TOS up at the neck affect your breathing? Or upper abdomen? I then asked those guys, are there ANY nerves involved with breathing - if so, do ANY of them come or go from the outlet? They had to admit yes, and so I said, what if they were being compressed by inflammation currently - what would happen to them, how would it manifest? I literally had to walk them through visualizing what TOS does - how it works. Then they'd "see the light" and say, "oh, I see how this TOS could affect such and such."

Luckily, the first two docs knew the pain levels of TOS, and gave me the IV morphine, as several doctors kept saying, "your pain meds regimen is twice the recommended dose." Then I'd say, "for what? An acute situation? Mine is chronic. What would apply then?" I don't think the doctors like me much. And nurses, even less, because I keep finding them doing mistakes, like trying to give me Metformin right after imaging with contrast, which is a no-no, or, failing to give me my thyroid, etc., daily drugs I must have. I used to like hospitals, but I sure don't now - not now that I'm really sick!

It is very painful, very scary, and just one additional and new concern having TOS. Remember when I went to ERs all last year, and no doctors could figure this out? Well, good ol' TOS was to blame...ha ha ha, that cute little disease...what a sneaky lil' rat it is...

I'm off to Orange County to see my old docs for several days, so I'll be back next week. Y'all take care. Much love.

Jomar · 10-19-2007, 12:45 PM

The severe spasms I had in 04 did many of the same things to me.

I could feel my heart thumping in my chest, but it was beating steady & regularly. I was considering going to the hospital for awhile.
But I was pretty sure it was related to the extreme over use a couple days earlier.
If it was a heart attack I think it would have hit me during the extreme/overuse activity- that was just my logic and my risk.
I wasn't on any meds or didn't have any other complicating conditions.

I did feel like I had to cough a lot - because of the chest muscle spasms
There was inner vibrating - or it felt like that anyway..it was making me have to cough.

My upper back, neck & chest muscles were locked up very tight.

The very worst of it passed in 2-3 days.
Much of the extreme tightness and discomfort lessened after treatments from my chiro, but it took many months to get it mostly resolved. There still was lingering neck tightness that we couldn't get rid of, until that one PT dropped my top ribs.

Eight · 06-29-2014, 08:12 PM

Um, well, this is a very old thread, but it came up when I did a google search for conditions that mimic a heart attack, lol. I love that when I search for anything tos related that 9 times out of ten this forum comes up in the first two pages.

Anyway, after going to the ER for this for the 3rd or 4th time over the past ten years, I have actually been given a name for this, rather than a tos flare up:

COSTOCHONDRITIS

Not that it changes much. Anyway, I was given a shot of toroidal and then 20 tablets to bring home at the ER with a diagnosis of "plursey". My boss brought me to the ER from work. Horribly embarrassing, I'm 34 years old. Follow up appointment with gp gave me this diagnosis with an explain action that since my posture is now absolutely perfect that other things will be in shock.

.

Jomar · 06-29-2014, 11:56 PM

Mine wasn't from Costochondritis, it was from severe muscle spasms in my neck/shoulders/upper back that also involved the inter-coastal rib muscles. It was very different from the Costochondritis I had during pregnancy #2 , that time it hurt right in the breast bone area and it was tender to pressure there also. Really painful when baby kicked or pushed on the area internally.

[Costochondritis is inflammation of the junctions where the upper ribs join with the cartilage that holds them to the breastbone or sternum. The condition causes localized chest wall pain and tenderness that can be reproduced by pushing on the involved cartilage in the front of the rib cage. ]
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/costo...article_em.htm

The spasms affected my whole rib cage, I still have some lingering tender spots in the inter-coastal muscles. Those could be unrelated to the spasms so long ago though.

Eight · 06-30-2014, 09:46 PM

I'm not feeling muscle spasms. In fact, those in my neck and face that I found so bothersome have now gone away since 2nd botox shot. Did you feel the spasms?

Jomar · 06-30-2014, 10:22 PM

Yes-
did feel like I had to cough a lot - because of the chest muscle spasms
There was inner vibrating - or it felt like that anyway..it was making me have to cough.

My upper back, neck & chest muscles were locked up very tight.

chroma · 07-03-2014, 02:33 PM

Just wanted to chime in and add my own experience to this thread for future reference. In 2011, I also had the faux heart attack from TOS though I didn't yet know I had TOS nor had I ever heard of it. I went to the ER where they gave me a nuclear stress test, cardiac enzyme test and of course examination. All was clear. After I was partially recovered, they kicked me out with no diagnosis but still sent me a hefty bill.

Next I want to a cardiologist who reviewed my ER records, gave me an echocardiogram and examination. He said my heart was perfect. His diagnosis was a virus that temporarily affected my heart function.

I continued to have more episodes. I told everyone about the funny arm numbness and coldness in the weeks preceding, but they couldn't connect the dots.

In hindsight, vascular TOS is exactly what I had. Compression points included pec minor, under the collar bone and the scalenes. Propping my left arm up in order to raise the shoulder girdle and collar bone gave me substantial relief when my symptoms flared.

Btw I could feel my heart cramping which is a strange and awful sensation. I presume that flow was backing up and reducing the rate of circulation through it.

These days I keep the collar bone down and the rib up. I stretch the pec minor. I haven't yet gotten control over my scalenes, but my chiro works on them. No more faux heart attacks.

Eight · 07-04-2014, 10:57 AM

This was the fourth or fifth time I've gone to the ER with this problem. They give me an EKG, some times. Lung x-ray and send me home. They usually offer some pain pills and I usually decline.

This time the ER gave me a diagnosis of pleurisy, but my gp said that was wrong. The ER gave me a shot of toroidal and an Rx for toroidal pills. My gp told me to take 800mg of Ibuprofen 3 times per day for 5 days at the minimum. I also took the toroidal when I actually had symptoms for the first few days following this episode. This is symptom is pretty much gone now, I'd like to report. The sternum is still tender when pressed on, but not as much as before.

Anyway, my first surgery is scheduled with Donahue in September and it is on the left side, so that should fix this problem, like forever.

Akash · 06-04-2015, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chroma

Just wanted to chime in and add my own experience to this thread for future reference. In 2011, I also had the faux heart attack from TOS though I didn't yet know I had TOS nor had I ever heard of it. I went to the ER where they gave me a nuclear stress test, cardiac enzyme test and of course examination. All was clear. After I was partially recovered, they kicked me out with no diagnosis but still sent me a hefty bill.

Next I want to a cardiologist who reviewed my ER records, gave me an echocardiogram and examination. He said my heart was perfect. His diagnosis was a virus that temporarily affected my heart function.

I continued to have more episodes. I told everyone about the funny arm numbness and coldness in the weeks preceding, but they couldn't connect the dots.

In hindsight, vascular TOS is exactly what I had. Compression points included pec minor, under the collar bone and the scalenes. Propping my left arm up in order to raise the shoulder girdle and collar bone gave me substantial relief when my symptoms flared.

Btw I could feel my heart cramping which is a strange and awful sensation. I presume that flow was backing up and reducing the rate of circulation through it.

These days I keep the collar bone down and the rib up. I stretch the pec minor. I haven't yet gotten control over my scalenes, but my chiro works on them. No more faux heart attacks.

Much the same man, much the same. Wow.