Chest Pain Odyssey

Triathlon Forum
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Thought I’d pass this along for reference purposes for anyone who starts in on the “So your having chest pain…” journey. This one ends well just to reassure all us aerobic fiends.

Had chest pains starting just before Christmas last, no cough or viral issues to go with it, just a tightness and burning mostly on the left (yikes) side. I’m 41, 5’11", 148 lbs., male, no family history of cardio problems. Was training moderately, 5000 yds/wk in the pool, all free with some pull sets each time, bike or run weekends.

Thought it was probably nothing but I had never experienced this type of pain ever and I kept complaining about it to my wife and anyone else who would listen. Finally, she said either stop complaining or go get it checked out (it’s early Feb. at this point.) I must point out she is a former collegiate swimmer and current masters star who doesn’t usually give a hoot about my aches and pains but, said she, with a cardio thing, you don’t self diagnose. Amen.

When I called my doc’s office they said earliest appt. is like a month out and I said OK I guess; then, the admin gal says what’s the nature of your complaint and I go, “I’ve been having these chest pains for more than a month…” silence, then, “The doctor will see you tomorrow.”

Go in, he looks me over, listens to chest, has me lean this way and that, and says go sit at the ECG machine and we’ll hook you up. Result: abnormal ECG trace, indication of possible septal myocardial infarction, go immediately to cardiologist for stress echocariograph. Two days later meet the nice ladies at the cardio lab where I get to see a totally cool ultrasound of my heart beating in all different aspects, complete with moving valve action. Get up to 171 bpm on the treadmill (remember to bring running kit next time, was sweating like an ice cold bottle of Coke on a Mississippi summer Sunday). They say results on Monday (three days away, thinking my tri career is over, still have chest pain). Monday arrives, get a phone call from doc’s office (just his assistant) “echo is normal, probably just costochondritis, take ibuprofen and cut back on the training awhile.”

So that’s it. Lesson here, your chest pain probably is just a musco- skeletal thing, but you gotta get it checked out anyway. And, as a bonus, it’s really cool to see your heart beating. Man, am I relieved.

Tim

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There is a condition called “intercostal neuralgia” which as a chirpractor I have seen many times. In fact, I have a patient coming in this morning with this complaint.

At each level of the thoracic spine on both sides there is are nerves that exits the spinal column and runs between each set of ribs to your sternum. If one or more of these nerve gets irritated it can cause chest pain that can mimic heart problems. A few chiropractic treatments can often alleviate this problem.

First, always take appropriate action to rule out heart disease, but be aware that it is not uncommon to have chest pain of a musculo-skeletal nature.

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I work in the cardiovascular disease field, and I’ll probably drop over dead from a massive MI rather than go get checked, because I know all the “other reasons” for pain in the chest, and can always point to one of these reasons as the source of my pain. OTOH, if I ever have the “uh-oh, something’s really not right here” feeling, I’ll be in the ER ASAP…because that prodromal feeling of impending doom seems to be very accurate at predicting, well, impending doom (at least, in the non-hypochondriac population).

Glad you’ve checked out to be OK. Your abnormal EKG is not that uncommon in athletes, BTW. I’ve seen athletes with near textbook normal EKG’s in the early stages of a massive MI, so, YOUR “normal” is more important than a textbook’s normal.