Have you had chest pressure and pain that radiates to your back? - Acid Reflux / GERD Message Board

jj9500 · 05-30-2006, 01:18 PM

On ocasion I get this pressure feeling in my upper stomach where the rib cage meets. Feels like something stuck there. Then it radiates to my upper back between the shoulder blades and feels like a squeezing pressure feeling. It is awful. Liek a vice grip squeesing my back. I take Maalox, Tums, etc....and after a while it goes away. The pain actually buckles me over. Seems to be relieved by belching a bit when I do this. Sometimes these episodes last 10 minutes - sometimes 3 hours. Months can go by before I have one of these attacks. I keep getting the run around from the docs on what this is. On another note...on ocasion at night, I will roll over to switch positions and this terrible squeezing pressure in my breast bone area stops me in my tracks. It is aggrevated by changing positions. Then, when I go to sit in the upright position - there it happens again. It just lasts a brief second than goes away. On ocasion I get this sensation of squeezing pressure in the breastbone area when I bend down to pick something up (on the way back up). As I mentioned, this seems to occur on movement. Not sure if these two symptoms are related. Was diagnosed with GERD 2 years ago and I have been on and off different PPIs for about 1.5 years now, had a gall bladder removed in 11/04, have had upper endoscopy, abdomen catscan, MRI of abdomen, esophogram. All looked good. Last endoscopy in 3/05 showed all fine (was on Nexium at the time). Could this still be reflux/GERD? Coronary Artery Disease runs in the family. I requested to see a cardiologist just to play it safe. I am having homocystine blood test and lipid panel done this week before going to talk to cardiologist to rule out heart problems. Just looking to see if these symptoms are similar to anyone else who has been diagnosed with GERd/Reflux. Thanks.

Blue_Streak · 05-30-2006, 02:04 PM

I've been having very similiar problems for the past month, movement at times does seem to bring it on or make it worse, other times it makes it better. Also had chest x-rays, ekgs, holder monitor, blood work & a echocardiogram 3 weeks ago, Dr's said my heart was fine. My pain/pressure last's for hours & sometimes goes on for days, antacids do not really help, nor does belching. Had my gallbladder removed April of 05. I've not gotten a diagnoses yet as to if I have GERD, but I have all the symptoms. My upper endoscope in Feb 05 showed nothing, but that was before GB surgery. Going to the Gi Dr Thursday.

Blue

tm3912 · 05-30-2006, 05:44 PM

I have also had these feeling, had two stress test (one regular one nuclear) both came back clear. I have had pain in the left chest, shoulder and mid back and back pain under shoulder blade pain. Sound like you have spasm of the esophogus which is part of GERD, hiatal hernias, etc. I have posted a little about getting help by taking magnesium. I won't go into a long explaination here but I would check the board under magnesium and see if you agree and if it helps you. Good luck

jj9500 · 05-31-2006, 06:54 AM

Tm3912 -
Thanks for the reply. After all your heart exams with normal outcmes, is your diagnosis GERD? I know that first things I freak out about is heart problems. Seems like everything became worse after the gall bladder was removed 1.5 years ago!

tm3912 · 05-31-2006, 08:12 AM

My Gerd has been diagnosised unofficially/officially...LOL My Dr. has not run any test for GERD (such as a scope or anything else) but since it is not my heart believes it must be. I have been treating myself for GERD and it seems to have worked.

I have only had this condition since around OCT of 2005 and have done extensive research. I can't believe the number of stories I have read about people having their gall bladders removed only to have their condition worsen. The same appears to be with Hiatal hernias (seems best to just leave them alone if they are not too severe)

I think you are doing the right thing in having your heart checked out for several reasons. Mainly to make sure that you don't have heart disease, especially with your family history. (doesn't sound like heart disease but one never knows) Secondly, if you are like me, it will help to reduce your anxiety level about these pains. Even after the test I couldn't convince myself that the pains were not from my heart. This, of course, cause great anxiety. I now have myself 95% convinced that the pains are from GERD/anxiety and it has helped the anxiety part greatly. However on a bad reflux day that "heart" thought creeps back into my mind...LOL

Let us know what your test results are. If they are negative for heart then we can work on getting you some relief from your GERD. Good LUCK

(I'm still very interested in heart health, I'm very interested in the homocystine angle as I take the supplement Sam-e which may or may not raise Homocystine levels)