For anyone with experience in cardiac/vascular issues...need advice.

[LosingMyMindInGA]

Sorry if this is long but I need to give some background info..I don't know if this is all related or not but I'm putting it all out there just in case.

OK so for years, as far back as I can remember, occasionally I get this achy feeling or pain in my chest around the heart area. By occasionally I mean may be once every several months.  Even more rare I get this really sharp stabbing pain in the same area that makes me stop in my tracks and I can't even bend over til it's gone...but it only lasts a few seconds.  Docs have blown it off or told me it was indigestion or heatrburn.  

During my last pregnancy I developed a varicose vein in my right leg at the end of my 2nd trimester.  It started in the front where my leg joins my hip and runs inward towards my crotch, around the inside of my leg and onto my rigth outter labia.  Other than being very unsightly and mildly tender it didn't cause any problems and went away immediately after birth.

Now with this pregnancy it showed up around 13 weeks, same place.  This time though it gets really tender and the whole right side of my pubic mound gets swollen, my leg tends to feel heavy and/or achy.  I noticed several weeks ago I had a "dent" along one of the surface veins on my shin on the same leg.  I showed my obgyn and he said it was a collapsed surface vein and the same one in my left leg is doing the same thing.  He attributed it to whatever pressure is causing the vericose vein.  

Now, wednesday night I didn't sleep well, kept waking up and EVERYTHING ached, every muscle, every joint.  When I got up thursday morning I hurt so bad all over, I was having BH contx before I even got out of bed.  I threw up pretty hard just one time that mornign but I was running a fever between 99 and 100.4 the whole day.  I had also been feeling like I had to do #2 but never could do anything.  At 130 I went to my ob.  My BP was fine and my HR was normal (72 If I remember correctly).  My cervix was closed, they monitored the contx and babys HR and baby was fine, in the 160's like normal, contx were mild so determined them as just BH even though they were moderately painful.  He gave me an an antibiotic and told me to get some milk of magnesia and take it becuase it would help relax my uterus.

Around 5 I was feeling a bit better, contractions had almost all but gone..just one or two every now and then.  I went ahead and took 2 tbsps of the Milk of Magnesia to a) help my uterus but mostly b) to see if it would help me go #2.  Around 6:30 - 6:45 I started having these waves or intense pain in my upper back between my shoulder blades unlike anything I had ever felt.  They would start of mild and build in intensity until it was around a 7 or 8 on the pain scale, it would stay that way for 30-45 seconds then fade out.  A few minutes later another wave would come along.  Sometimes I would feel the pain up into my neck and into my left shoulder and sometimes it would cause a pain/ache i my heart area along with a knot-feeling in my breastbone.  I also had mild shortness of breath during them.  Well my mom said it sounded like it could be the signs of heart trouble.  DH and I opted to go have it checked out.

Since I'm 22 weeks they sent me to L & D who pretty well blew off everything I said.  They checked my temp which at first was 98.8 but I had just drank some room temp water.  They hooked me up to the contraction, heartrate monitor for the baby and did my heartrate and BP.  When I first got there I was still getting a few waves of the pains.  The first time they did my bp/hr my bp was elevated a little, not out of normal range, but higher than normal for me, my HR was 133 and babys hr was running high 170s to low 180's.  The nurse waited a few minutes and took my temp again it was 99.1.  She attributed the high heart rates to the temp.  They monitored me for awhile then called my doc who said give me tylenol and send me home.  

I got to thinking about this last night and I realized that my Temp was HIGHER when i went to my ob earlier that day and mine and babys heartrate and my bp were normal.  But when i went to L & D and was having those pains, it was all higher, however, as the pains started going away while I was there, the heartrates and my bp went down and back to normal.  That seems a little strange to me.  

My question is...does this sound normal? Should I bring this up to my ob at my appt on the 19th?  Maybe ask to have some tests done like an EKG or something to make sure there ISN'T a problem with my heart? I'm fine right now, but that really freaked me out.

Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated, again sorry this was so long.

[LosingMyMindInGA]

Thanks for the reply.  It's nice to be reassured that I'm not just being paranoid LOL.  I've experienced muscle aches, torn ligaments, ribs being out of place, etc and I tell you this was nothing like any of that. I wish I could find a better way to describe it but it practically had me in tears.  When each wave of pain was at its peak it was one of those pains that make you want to move aruond and sit still at the same time.  

I also know that becuase of that vericose vein and the collapsed surface veins that my risk of a blood clot could be elevated a little.  I plan to bring it up to my doc but I'm just afraid he's going to just blow this off like he does almost everything else.  

When I told him about the vericose vein coming back so early in this pregnancy he was just like "yup ok we'll keep an eye on it" but hasn't checked it at all unless I bring it up.  Then with the veins he was like "oh yup those are collapsed surface veins, no big deal right now" I mean that's literally what he said (paraphrasing of course).  

I've been looking back at some of the geneology info I have on my family and I know my maternal great grandmother died of "pulmonary embolism" at the age of 47 and her death cert notes a vericose ulcer on her left leg, my maternal great grandfather died of "myocardial infarction" and it notes "coronary artery disease he was 77.  My uncle died of congestive heart failure and if I remember correctly my maternal grandmother died of heart related problems.  I feel this history makes it a bit more important that they ATLEAST do some tests to make me feel better.

[nickieb85]

Hey I don't have any experience with this but DEF bring it up to your doctor at your next appointment. Everything that happens (especially when it has to do with your chest and pain in your chest) in pregnancy along with pain is scary and I think it is definitely should be looked into further. I know that I had a heart murmur with my first pregnancy and also a torn ligament that I thought was going to kill me!!! It was hard to move and very painful to walk or anything.  I really hope it is nothing serious and that your doctor does more than just attribute it to something else. Feel better soon!