dcguy

I'm 36yo male, excellent health except for being kinda sedentary and probably 30lbs overweight. No family history of heart disease. Blood tests always show low chloresterol and normal blood pressure. I did drink a lot in highschool and through college, but these days I am only prone to binge drink once in a while.

Well, one of those times was when I recently went to St. Thomas for a private charter cruise. The first night we go there we all drank heavily. The next morning (and for most of the cruise afterwards) I felt like death. Besides having the "normal" hangover effects, I was now noticing a bit of labored breathing and some tingling all up my neck, face, down my arms and legs, difficulty swallowing, and some weird aches between my shoulders. I felt dizzy and weak, and definitely stayed away from any on-shore excursions or other exertion. I mostly just tried to rest, but even that was hard because there's always noise on a sailboat and it keeps me up most of the night.

When I got back home after a week my symptoms did not go away right away, which worried me. I thought all I needed was a few good nights of rest. I went to see my doc and he said I probably had heartburn or acid reflux, but that doesn't really explain the tingling or labored breathing (I wouldn't really call it "shortness of breath"). And I've never had heartburn of ANY of these symptoms before in my life. So he sent me for a chest xray and to a cardio guy. The xray was fine, the stress test and echo cardiogram were all fine.

I'm taking Prilosec but I have to take Gaviscon or Pepto a few times a day on top of that, plus I ocassionally still get some weird chest soreness on the left side, and at the same time feel a bit weak.

Could I have had an angina attack (the first ever, I guess)? And could it be coming back or somehow associated with my acid reflux?

I still have to go get some tests done but you know it always takes a couple weeks to get in a get tested, get results, etc., and I just wonder if I should be worried that I have a more severe problem.

I told my cardio guy about the dizziness and weakness along with sweating (of course, that could have been the Caribbean sun) and he just said at my age and with my low cholesterol it was unlikely heart related. But I don't want to be blown off because of that. How would I really know?? What is the big difference between angina and bad acid reflux?

Thanks in advance.