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chest and left arm pain
hi all, i am hoping somebody could give me some insight as to what is going on w/ me. i'm 43 yrs old, 6', 230 lbs, but in good shape, non-smoker. I have been having intermittent chest pains and left arm numbness for about the last 9 months.I have had ekg's. stress test, nuclear stress test, coronary cta, all blood work comes back normal. i have also had an upper endoscopy and colonoscopy, both came back normal . i also have had a HIDA scan to rule out gallbladder prob., also negative. I have also seen a psychologist thinking that maybe it is anxiety driven. my primary care dr. put me on lexapro but discontued it because i was having such bad side effects.i am now taking cymbalta to see if that would help. I've been on it now for a week and have not really seen any improvement. I do also take xanax but i break the pill in half if i feel an anxiety attack coming on.
i did stop working out because i was afraid something bad would happen. my dr wants me to start again but i'm nervous. I should also mention that i own my own carpentry buisness and as everybody knows, that's not the most booming industry these days. I also have 2 sons ages 5 and 3 that i feel are not getting the quality time they should due to what's going on w/me. Can anxiety really be the cause of these pains ? What I really need is closure so I can move on w/ my life. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
i did stop working out because i was afraid something bad would happen. my dr wants me to start again but i'm nervous. I should also mention that i own my own carpentry buisness and as everybody knows, that's not the most booming industry these days. I also have 2 sons ages 5 and 3 that i feel are not getting the quality time they should due to what's going on w/me. Can anxiety really be the cause of these pains ? What I really need is closure so I can move on w/ my life. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Best Answer
thanks for the imput. Even just reading the posts and comments seems to calm me down a little. It really is amazing that anxiety and stress can be the cause of my aches and pains. I guess I still have not yet come to terms that it is anxiety driven. Just yesterday I was at work building a fireplace mantle for a customer. Not a strenuous job at all. I started having some mild tightness in my chest and shoulder. Soon all kinds of thoughts were going through my mind. I ended up leaving work and going home. I called my psychologist and made an appointment for tomorrow. I really wish I could put these these thoughts to rest or at least be able to deal with them better.
You are so over loaded with work family life and stressthat you are not just anxious,but tired and warn out,everything you are suffering is related to anxiety,i dont take or never have taken pills for my anxiety,but i can tell you that as soon as you except thatu are only human and start asking for help and speaking to people about how you are feeling things should ease.
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I also tend to believe that when we are nervous about a particular part of our bodies we tend to become oversensitized to that area. For example, I still feel every palpatation, pain, twinge in my chest. I also thing we tend to misinterpret our 'symptoms' as well.
For me, the most important step I took was to seek counseling. By learning about it, it became much less confusing and it gave me steps to take to confront and deal with it. I too, went from being extremely active to being afraid to even go outside on a walk at one point. Not only did it scare me, it also robbed me of who I thought I was.
But, looking back on it now, I am happy for the experience. It has made me more patient, a better husband and father and I work out just as hard as I did before all of this happened. I also took a similar type of medication like Lexapro, but sometimes it can be a little trial and error for which works best for you. I used Zoloft (which worked well with me), but just remember none of these medications will 'cure' you long term, but in my opinion, they can be very useful as you learn about this through therapy....keep us posted!