Had a scare yesterday. I started feeling dizzy and having chest pains.

[jobycom]

I was talking to one of my bosses, and started to sway, then had to sit down. I couldn't concentrate, and I started clutching at my chest. So I walked back to my office, contemplating my age, my diet, mortality, my lack of health insurance, how much 9-11 would cost...

Passing the water cooler, I felt thirsty, so I got a cup of water and drank it. Immediately I started sweating. I drank another cup, and started sweating like mad, and felt a little less dizzy, so I filled the cup again and started gulping it like Glenn Beck gulps crazy fumes. I've had the flu all week, so I'm thinking "Maybe I'm just dehydrated and hungry, but I still have this chest pain..."

Then I belched loud enough to rattle the seismographs at the local university. The chest pain went away immediately. :)

I could still stand to lose some of those pounds, though, now that I have a little understanding of what that fear can feel like. :)

[Taverner]

1. Take care, my friend

:hug:

[jobycom]

3. Thanks.

:hug:

[hobbit709]

2. Could be worse

I know somebody that thought they were having a heart attack. By the time it was all said and done it cost him $12,000 to find out he was constipated.

[jobycom]

4. Ouch!

In two ways. :wow:

[Aristus]

5. As a brand-new Physician Assistant, I'll just say that it was probably

gastrointestinal in nature, if a belch relieved the pain.

My differential based on your posted history:

GERD
esophageal stricture
dehydration
nausea


Also on the differential:

stable angina
acute myocardial infarction.

See your doctor...

[jobycom]

9. Great. Medical advice. Now my thread's going to get locked.

:rofl:

I'll denounce your post but secretly take your advice, how's that? :)

[MrScorpio]

6. Get yourself checked for diabetes

Seriously

[jobycom]

8. I get general checkups from time to time

My blood sugars and triglycerides make healthier people envious. My ultimate concern is heart related, since my cholesterol wanders upwards when I'm not cautious. That's why my fear went straight to that. But it was more likely the flu, the fever, the fact that I had drank little for three days and downed a large coke half an hour earlier.

Need to eat better. At 45, thinks don't fix themselves as easily. :)

[bigwillq]

7. Glad you're feeling better.

Take care of yourself. :hi: :hug:

[abq e streeter]

10. Oops--exactly same post as the above one...oh well, Glad to hear you're feeling better too

[handmade34]

11. be well

take care of yourself...

[Kali]

12. I know the no insurance thing too well

check into selling yourself for scientific experiments - seriesly. there are often studies going on that will get you free exams and even pay you for your time - be selective, you might not want to be testing some odd new drug but sometimes they are right in line with what you need. I did an allergy study once and got a VERY thorough physical, plus allergy testing, plus learned something about how antihistamines work for me plus like $100.
Participated in big study on cpap effectiveness for sleep apnea and while I was in placebo group and had to wait almost a year, I eventually got two sleep studies, a cpap machine (worth $500 - 1000) plus $500 cash, for going in 4 or 4 times and spending the night with a bunch of electrodes glued to my head/body.

Recently diagnosed as anemic and just sent in the info to get in a study for that.

I believe you are in Texas? Isn't there a world famous heart institute there? Check into studies they may be conducting. There are websites or just call a few Drs offices or med schools - they can direct you.

[mix]

13. Take care of yourself, sir.

:hug:

[applegrove]

14. I know what it is like to have a scare. I quit smoking a few years ago

but always figured I'd go back to it. I've gained weight since. One night when I was lying in bed I couldn't get air into my lungs. I felt like i was drowning. I'm never smoking again. And I'm going to try dieting again in the fall.

[av8rdave]

15. I'm glad you're OK!

That would have probably scared me into a coronary, if I wasn't having one already.

Take care!

:hi:

[MiddleFingerMom]

16. I had a premonition once that Orrex's cat will someday have the same symptoms.

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Even though "all it took was a burp" to relieve them, those symptoms are WAY too
serious to ignore.
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Go to a doctor and get yourself checked out. You seemed to have seen it as an
eye-opener, but it's all too easy to rationalize it as time goes by and the urgency
of the moment is lost.
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Go to a doctor.
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[grasswire]

17. one low-dose aspirin tablet every day....

...unless your doctor says differently. And I carry one with me as insurance. If you DO have a cardiac event, the aspirin could save your life.

[old mark]

18. jc...for your peace of mind - and just to be safe-talk to a doctor and see if

you can get a heart checkup. It may take most of a day in a hospital, but you will KNOW if there is anything going wrong and the docs will proceed from there. There are a lot of ways to treat heart problems these days but none of them work till you get that checkup...

Good luck.

mark

[jobycom]

19. It's on my schedule, but the biggest problem was the large carbonated beverage I drank.

The burp cured all wounds. :) The dizziness was part of the flu that's been going around. Two other employees had the same symptoms, and my kid caught it, too. I had been living off cough syrup for three days, and since I had just returned from a week in the sun at Disney World, I was probably not properly hydrated at the time.

It is about time for a checkup, though. I'm just not as trusting of doctors as others. I've had them create a lot more problems for me than solutions. Growing up I got dozens of painful shots and blood tests by doctors who had no clue, making me terrified of needles and doctors (the only one I found that I could visit without going into stressful breathing was a woman my age, and that was because I had a mild crush on her. :) ) I've had them try to take out my gallbladder for classic symptoms of appendicitis (and they only got the right organ after I lectured them on the symptoms I was having and made such a fuss they reexamined me, otherwise I might be one of those statistics by now). I had one as a kid tell me I was faking migraine headaches and I should stop doing it because lying was wrong--these headaches were so severe they made me vomit and pass out from the pain--a nutritionist later traced them to MSG.

Doctors are not my favorite paid professionals. I imagine if I broke my arm and could point to the bone sticking out of my skin, I might trust them to fix it. I also know that ultimately I'm going to wait too long on whatever finally kills me because I don't trust them. But with my experiences, I've had better luck diagnosing myself using the library than getting any proper treatment from a doctor (even the one I had a crush on), so I might live longer that way, anyway.

Okay, rant over. i will go for a checkup, regardless of my experiences. :) But the chest pain was clearly a gas bubble. Ask the people at the seismic lab in Japan, I'm sure they measured the tremor from the belch. :)

[old mark]

20. I think you broke my window here in PA....

I got the drift, but it's always better to KNOW... I have a few MD horror stories to tell you, too...after you get back from the doc (you might never go again otherwise.)

Have a great Saturday night!

mark

[DFW]

21. The last time I had a scare like that, it was very much for real

I went to see a cardiologist on pure suspicion and past family history.

The guy did a stress-echo test, freaked, and told me to get my ass up to the cardiac clinic in
Essen (25 minutes away) RIGHT NOW, do not go to bed, do not pass GO, do not collect two hundred euros.

The big kahuna at the clinic came in first thing next morning, looked at my chart and said clear everything,
this guy comes on at noon. The laid me flat, injected me with radioactive dye, and immediately had an ambulance
standing by to take me to surgery for an emergency bypass if necessary. He looked and started sticking stents
in my cardiac arteries, and told me I was the luckiest guy in Europe that day, and that I had been (switching
to English for this one and only time) "just in time."

I didn't have a heart attack, but I would have had one in the next day or so. My arteries had been 995 clogged
shut, and it was a matter of hours. I have low blood pressure, so I didn't feel any of the warning signs that
people with high blood pressure feel.

Believe me when I tell you that "better safe than sorry" is NOT a trite phrase. It saved my life, and may yet
save yours.

ALWAYS take stuff like that seriously.

[MiddleFingerMom]

22. Good thing you expelled it before it wormed its way even DEEPER into your system.

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I'm serious as a fart attack.
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