Ongoing Chest and Heart Pain for 4 Years – No Diagnosis Yet?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

I’ve been suffering from persistent heart/chest pain for the past 4 years. The pain often radiates to my left back and chest area. It sometimes feels like pressure or burning or cutting, and it worsens with stress or fatigue.

I’ve visited many doctors and several departments, but none of them could find the exact cause. Here are the departments I’ve been to:

Family Physician
Internal Medicine
Cardiology (8 different cardiologists)
Orthopedics
Physical Therapy
Chest Diseases
I’ve had the following tests done:

ECG
Echocardiogram (ECHO)
Chest X-ray
CT Scan
Neck MRI
Blood Tests

All results came back normal.

One doctor said it might be muscle pain (myalgia), another mentioned costochondritis, but no treatment or medication has helped so far.

I’ve tried Muskoflex Duo, Arveles, Ecopirin, and Belok Zok, Aseket, magnesium supplements with no real relief.

I started having this pain after receiving two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine, and I’m not sure if there’s a connection.

If you were in my place, what would you do? Which type of doctor or specialist would you see next?

Thank you for reading.

[nolabels]

I see from your age range that you're a much younger person than myself.
I'd imagine that one's age plays a significant part in diagnosing physical symptoms.

I'll tell you of my journey over the last several years.
It may give you some ideas on how to proceed in helping yourself.
I'm not a doctor, nor any other sort of medical professional.

I've found that no one cares anywhere near as much about my own well-being as I do.
Knowing that to be true, I've learned to assertively advocate for myself.

Did you actually have COVID?

Has exploratory cardiac catheterization been performed on you?

Are you sure that all of your testing was normal?
If you have access to the actual reports for any type of testing, I'd say to dig into them to see what you can find.
I've found many anomalies in tests that I've had done in recent years that doctors have completely dismissed as being inconsequential, with them telling me that the tests were normal when, in truth, they really weren't.
I've been making note of those anomalies.
They're beginning to show some trends that were not there, pre-COVID.
Though they've yet to lead to any diagnoses, it's clear to me that things are not as okay as the doctors would have me believe.

I've had many undiagnosed, very debilitating symptoms over the past 5 years, myself.

I had COVID very badly shortly after the pandemic began, then received the two Pfizer vaccines, becoming very sick again for a week both times within hours of receiving them, then had a less severe case of COVID once again a year later.
I'm a shell of the man that I was pre-COVID.

Just prior to COVID, I was diagnosed with antiphospholipid syndrome, a somewhat rare condition that causes my blood to clot much more easily than most people.
Over the last several years, I've had numerous DVTs in my legs and have been hospitalized on an emergency basis for my lungs being riddled with pulmonary embolisms.

I've since been told by a few doctors that COVID is coming to be known to have adverse effects in blood clotting.

In March of 2024, I experienced a widow maker heart attack due to 100% blockage of my LAD, twice going into cardiac arrest during the ordeal.
The resuscitations from my cardiac arrests, with both CPR and defibrillation, were horrifying to me.
As a result, severe PTSD has now been added to my long list of conditions.

After the heart attack, I began to have very frequent chest pain that, a year and a half later, I was finally able to recently attribute to the medicine, Zofran, that had been prescribed for the constant nausea that I experience ever since my heart attack.
My frequent EKGs after the heart attack showed potentially serious anomalies that all of the many different attending doctors have completely ignored.
I'd never have been aware of those anomalies had I not pursued further knowledge of those EKGs than the attending doctors had revealed by just telling me that they were normal.
They weren't normal.
I figured out for myself that the Zofran was to blame for my frequent chest pain.
Now off of Zofran, the chest pain, although not completely gone, is now very infrequent, and my EKGs no longer show those anomalies.

I have extremely little faith in the competency of the medical community, especially since COVID came to town.
I don't entirely blame the medical community for their inability to help me.
COVID has shaken what is known about illness, and the medical community has been severely overtaxed in having to deal with the COVID pandemic.
I don't think that they'll catch up in knowledge, or rest, at all anytime soon.

I've been referred to a rheumatologist, the type of specialist that may most be able to help me, and maybe you, too.
My appointment with them is 7 months from now.
Lovely.
I wish you quicker luck than I if you try to go that route.

Previous to COVID, I had, and still have, some other chronic, very aggravating, but not terribly debilitating, symptoms that one doctor took a guess at possibly being due to fibromyalgia, treating me with both Amitriptyline, an antidepressant, and Bentyl, an anti-convulsive medicine.
I did get some relief but eventually stopped those medications because of side effects that, in hindsight, were relatively minor.
For various reasons, those two medications are no longer suitable to be prescribed for me.

It's my understanding that fibromyalgia is not diagnosable by testing, with it being guessed at and treated by various means.

It was only one doctor out of many who suggested fibromyalgia to me.
That might be something that you'd need to bring up in conversation with a doctor if you have any suspicion of fibromyalgia for yourself.

A few weeks ago, at my request, my PCP prescribed Tramadol 50mg for me for pain.
Tramadol is a relatively lower potency synthetic opiate than are some other opiate medications.
I had taken Tramadol intermittently and successfully some years ago for pain, and so I requested it once again of him.
Where I had previously taken Tramadol intermittently and relatively less frequently, I now take it 3 times a day, every day.
I now find myself appreciative of its ability to largely relieve pain, but it's robbing me of my life.
Pleasurable physical sensation is severely reduced, as well as the pain, and I have almost zero motivation to do anything beyond that which is necessary.
With my wife being in the late stages of terminal glioblastoma brain cancer, I have to remain functional enough to be able to care for her.
Being on a steady regimen of Tramadol, I'm right on the edge of being able to continue to do so.

I want to stop the Tramadol in order to regain my life, but I also don't want the pain to return.
Tramadol, in me, doesn't produce the euphoria that heavier opiates or alcohol can, but I'd have to say that I'm already hooked on them, simply out of my fear of the pain that will return if I stop taking it.

I mention the Tramadol as a precaution for you.
It helps my pain, but the cost in it limiting my ability to fully live is very high.

I don't know if you can glean anything of value to you from my story.
If so, I'm happy for you.

Investigate results of testing and continue to advocate for yourself.
You're doing that by posting this question.

I commiserate with you and wish you the best of luck.

Cheers to you.

[jennifer_bloom]

A Harvard medical graduate said you can improve your heart by combining probiotic dairy with high vitamin c foods like sweet potatoes, obviously cooked before you eat them.

[Mariogirl09]

Have you tried dry needling? Acupuncture

[In_Trance]

Go to a naturopath