I don't even know where to start. I'm a 24 year old male. About 2 months ago, after a weekend of gratuitous drinking, cigarette smoking, a hockey game, and a 10-hour shift Monday morning, I started feeling this ache in my left armpit. Assuming it was something small, I attempted to go to sleep. I got nauseous, then dizzy, then my left hand started tingling. Went to the ER, EKG was normal, chest xray was clean. I was discharged, with a vague suggestion of something musculoskeletal. A few days later, I ran a 102 fever, with nausea and severe body weakness, which lasted 2 days, then went away. Since then, the chest pain has been ever-present, and it's progressed from a dull ache to a sharp stabbing sensation, usually either in the center or left side of my chest, but I'll occasionally have burning sensations in my back, beneath the shoulder blades. I'll have strange, brief pains in my hands, feet, neck, and the side of my face (cheekbone, jaw), as well as weakness. I wake up nauseous almost every morning. On 3 occasions so far, I'd go to bed and find my heart racing, pounding in my chest. I'm fairly thin as it is, an lost another 10 lbs since his started. I can regularly feel/see my pulse in my stomach. I've been to the ER 4 times, seen a cardiologist. I've had X-rays, EKGs, a CT scan, a stress test, an echocardiogram, a slew of bloodwork, and everyhing supposedly appeared normal. I was told I had slight thickening of the heartwall, but that it was normal for an athletic person. My doctor's chalked it up to stress, gave me some Xanax, some Zoloft, and referred me a psychiatrist. I have never been one for bouts of hypochondriasis, so I don't believe it. Someone please give me some insight. I'm very scared, and don't know what to do anymore...
It seems likely that you do have some anxiety about your situation, who wouldn't. Some of your symptoms do sound like stress. Beyond that your symptoms are so various its difficult to even make a guess. All of the tests and blood work you had done are clues but they didn't reveal anything wrong. I know when i've injured my back muscles lifting weights it seems like I had pain in many areas of my body since its all connected. Could you have been injured during the hockey game? If you continue to feel bad I suggest going to an internal medicine (internist) doctor who is trained to deal with multisympton issues. Good Luck and hope you feel better.
You said it says you have a slight thickening of your heart wall?
Tell the doctors you're not okay with that, I have had some of your symptoms before (tingling of hands, pains, trouble breathing, fast heart rate) and I have Hypertropic Cardiomyopathy. It's a thickening of the heart wall. It is what kills athletes during games, when they suddenly go into cardiac arrest.
Talk to your doctor about it. It could be what I have or something similar, like Hyper Cardiomyopathy.
