Hey guys,

im 17 and a male and my doc doesnt believe me that I could possibly have heart problems, due to good stress test and the echo, plus im underweight and barely eat any fatty foods. so he blames it on GERD. But see...can GERD be really this bad? ill tell you what happens almost every night.

When I lay down for a moment I start feeling weird, like my chest and throat area is inflated, I honestly cant give a better description for this since this feels so weird, it feels like I almost dont even have a chest or throat and when I breathe in and out I dont feel nothing, it feels like this empty space and the problem is that I feel like I cant breathe or that maybe my lungs have holes in i and it all goes out from he sides, it feels awful. Another description is that it feels like everytime I breathe in it feels like it tries to force the air out of me quickly and cant keep it in too much at all.

I feel like there is something in my throat or that im about to swallow my tongue and sometimes I feel like im going to gag any second but I NEVER do it no matter how long it lasts, usually lasts till I fall a sleep.

I can barely fall asleep because when I lay on my back it feels like my chest is caved in or that something is sitting on it but just slightly not that bad that I cant breathe.

I get quite a bit of burps too from it.

I never get sweats though so that KIND OF rules out heart problems.

The worst times this happened is when I would wake up and its happening and part of my face even feels paralyzed and prickly and again feel like I dont have an upperbody or that all the air I breathe in is going out somewhere.

so...GERD or what? :confused:

Please, anybody got a clue???

I don't know if I can help you much, but I'm willing to try. I'm sixteen and have GERD and sometimes the tests come up with ZILCH, as they did with me. So even though the tests don't say anything, that doesn't mean necessary that you ABSOLUTELY do not have that. Sometimes the tests just can't see. The burping and the feeling of something in your throat is similar to GERD. I burp like 200 times everyday, I swear. But it does seem like you have more trouble breathing than anything. Try not to lay on your back so much, that could trigger the problems you are having at night. I would talk to my doctor the most about your breathing problems, because that's the most important. If none of this has helped I'm sorry, but I can give you one piece of advice that will help you tremendously.

DO NOT DOUBT YOURSELF ABOUT WHAT YOU BELIEVE YOUR PROBLEMS ARE. TELL THE DOCTOR EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR PROBLEM AND BE VERY FORCEFUL ABOUT IT. THIS IS YOUR HEALTH AND YOU HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT. MAKE EVERYTHING SOUND LIKE YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE AND THAN THAT IS MOST LIKELY TO GIVE THE DOCTORS A BIG BOOT IN THE BUTT TO FOCUS AND DO SOMETHING. (sorry about caps, was going for as much emphasis as possible)

Are you experiencing any pain in your chest when you lay down or start to feel weird? That's something to look at too.

Hey thanks, yeah I agree with you but I cant do anything cause nobody could believe that i would have heart problems, but man...I've had so many different feelings and pains in my chest area for a while that I think I pretty much one of those was heart related, I've head the heavy feeling, the stabbing pains, the acid burning like pain...just all different types of pains.

But when I have THAT, I dont usually have pain, just when im lying down, in the middle part of my chest just a little tiny bit to the left I feel pressure, thats all. it doesnt exactly hurt but its uncomfortable.

Thanks for responding but im SO worried that nobody ever even had this type of feeling before... :confused:

Sounds like you're going through hell and it also sounds very frightening.. Have you talked to your doctor about testing for illnesses as well? It almost sounds like you have something more going on other than GERD..


Hey guys,

im 17 and a male and my doc doesnt believe me that I could possibly have heart problems, due to good stress test and the echo, plus im underweight and barely eat any fatty foods. so he blames it on GERD. But see...can GERD be really this bad? ill tell you what happens almost every night.

When I lay down for a moment I start feeling weird, like my chest and throat area is inflated, I honestly cant give a better description for this since this feels so weird, it feels like I almost dont even have a chest or throat and when I breathe in and out I dont feel nothing, it feels like this empty space and the problem is that I feel like I cant breathe or that maybe my lungs have holes in i and it all goes out from he sides, it feels awful. Another description is that it feels like everytime I breathe in it feels like it tries to force the air out of me quickly and cant keep it in too much at all.

I feel like there is something in my throat or that im about to swallow my tongue and sometimes I feel like im going to gag any second but I NEVER do it no matter how long it lasts, usually lasts till I fall a sleep.

I can barely fall asleep because when I lay on my back it feels like my chest is caved in or that something is sitting on it but just slightly not that bad that I cant breathe.

I get quite a bit of burps too from it.

I never get sweats though so that KIND OF rules out heart problems.

The worst times this happened is when I would wake up and its happening and part of my face even feels paralyzed and prickly and again feel like I dont have an upperbody or that all the air I breathe in is going out somewhere.

so...GERD or what? :confused:

By illnesses do you mean like an respiratory infection or something like that? It could be, right? just ANYTHING but my heart and its ok with me! :o

DarkChange,

To me your symptoms sound most like an anxiety issue that results in hypervigilism (lookinginwardly too closely for something wrong.) That's my best guess.
If I'm right, you can learn some yogi techniques that will allow you to focus on your breathing or some mantra rather than the internal workings of your organs when your wating for sleep to settle in.

You think? everyone says that but to me everything I feel is too real, I dont panic about these things anymore, its been so bad that I just lay there and try to fall asleep because Im sick of and I dont care anymore. Im not worried if its something else, BUT my biggest fear would be heart failure...because I read a feeling like that could mean fluid build up in your lungs or something :confused: