Some Chest pain with slight heaviness

[tvg]

Hello just some questions...I am a 35 yr old female with MVP.....I have one leaky valve..i am in good health otherwise was diagnosed at age 26..for the past week I've been experiencing some weird feelings in my chest,,sometimes I feel like heaviness and my heart palpitates,,, get some pain that radiates down to my left side near armpit it radiates to my arm and I have occasionally get fluttering. Well today I have been feeling the most pain in my chest,feels like I have a small lump in my throat and some heaviness in chest pain off and on. ,been trying to rest most of today. What could it be? I don't have medical insurance anymore.. I really can't afford a bill but is this something that needs medical attention right now?

[itdood]

Well those are typical symptoms of a myocardial infarction, though you aren't listing other symptoms, but that means nothing.  I talk to people all the time who had MIs at a young age and the story is always the same, they had vague symptoms, brushed it off as flu or a tummy ailment, and got into the ER within minutes of a bigger problem.

Why don't you search out a free clinic in your area?

80% of patients going to hospitals today are NO PAY.  That's right.  80% of of hospital use goes to collections, never to be seen again.    I don't condone it but if worse comes to worse do the right thing, sort out the money issues later.

[MichelleP_3811]

Unfortunately no one can say for sure without seeing what is going on recorded on a monitor or ekg.  That said, it sounds a bit like you are having ectopic beats of some sort, pacs if they are coming from the atria or pvcs if they are coming from the ventricles.  In a healthy heart they are not a threat.  Even in a diseased heart the chances of isolated ecotopic beats causing a serious problem are rare.  I would say even if you opt out of having expensive tests run I might pop into see the doctor for a simple check up.  Tell them what you are feeling and they can listen to your heart to see if something sounds amiss.  Even a simple ekg which isn't too terribly expensive can tell a lot about the health of the heart.  One thing you can do yourself is feel your pulse when you feel the symptoms.  If you are having ectopic beats you may feel slight pauses in the regularity of the beats.  This is because when an extra beat jumps in it causes the normal beat cycle to be thrown off a bit so it kind of has to wait for the next regular beat to start back up again.  But again, this can only be truly diagnosed by a doctor seeing it on a monitor.  But for your peace of mind if these are ectopics they are deemed normal, everyone gets them they say.  Personally I am not so sure about that but I can agree that they are harmless to us.  They can be a bother and sometimes they do hurt sometimes but for the most part they are more annoying than anything else.  Most of us once diagnosed are left trying to find and eliminate our triggers like stomach issues, acid reflux, diets high in carbohydrates, caffeine, stress and even too strenuous workouts.  I know it is tough when you don't have insurance but if you can swing a doctors appointment it might be prudent to at least get a look over but in general what you describe sounds very much like ectopic beats and you will likely be fine.  They very well will go away on their own at some point but if you are not passing out or have intense squeezing chest pain that does not subside then you are not likely in an emergency situation.  You may want to get checked out but if you are functioning fine despite what you are feeling then most likely what you are feeling is benign.  Take care and do keep us posted on how you are doing.