I suffer with daily anxiety and have suffered with acid ever since but these past 6 weeks its been really bad. Ive got the feeling of a bruised sore strum bone (breast bone) and it hurts when you touch around this area. Really bad pains inbetween shoulder blades, some times a hot stabbing pains and other times just a constant dull pain. A pressure feeling in my chest across both breasts, i get a constant breathless feeling and some times acid comes up and some times it doesnt. I get the feeling like i need to burp some times to but i dont and if i do most of the times food or like a little sick comes up. Had bloods and tests and all is fine. My doc thinks it might be reflux and gave me tablets for it and said its my anxiety causing it. Thanks for reading xx
My nose is now blocked all the time too and some face pain which ive also been told can be reflux xx
Hey there 
So I have been diagnosed with a 2cm hiatal hernia and acid reflux.
I have certainly had the kind of sternum pain you are talking about. I always thought the pain would be "burning" or "hot." I have never felt that. What I have experienced is a dull ache and general soreness around my sternum and at the base of my sternum especially. My GI said this was indeed due to reflux. I have also had pain that radiated to my back, between the shoulder blades. My GI said that when the esophagus is inflamed, or having spasms due to acid damage, or if the vagus nerve is being affected due to inflammation, you will feel it in your back and neck and chest.
As far as your facial pain, the esophagus and ears and face are all connected. When your esophagus is inflamed or damaged, you can certainly feel pain in your ears, jaw, and face. For myself, the sides of my neck were extremely tender, my jaw-line would ache, my ears hurt, etc. If acid actually gets up into your sinuses, it can cause post nasal drip as well which will then bring about a whole host of cold/allergy symptoms.
So yes, I think your doctor is on the right track with reflux irritation. Don't panic about it. It sounds like you had a really nasty flare-up that caused all sorts of irritation. Give it time and follow your doctor's advice. If your doctor saw something serious, they would tell you and investigate further.
Cheers!
Yes I have exact same symptoms also my left arm tenses up which makes me think it's related to my heart ...I've hadoads of tests heart , lungs , bloods etc all come back fine ...I thought I was going mad as kept ending up in A&E but then saying I was fine , I've recently been given omeprozole it kind of works but if i take gaviscon tablets i can feel a difference my shortness of breath eases and pain in chest eases , so it must be related to heartburn and indigestion! !! Crazy !!!! 😆
Hi thanks for the reply. Cant sleep at the mo as its so uncomfortable. Do you also suffer with the breathlessness?? I think thats whats tripping my anxiety off more than the other pains.. Cant believe reflux can cause all this xx
I would not say that i have suffered from "breathlessness" exactly. Rather, I have experienced a heaviness that settle on my chest giving the feeling that my breathing is more labored. This may be a different way of describing what you are feeling. My GI said that reflux into the esophagus can cause spasms of the esophagus and tightening of the surrounding chest muscles due to inflammation which, in turn, causes a feeling of heaviness and breathing difficulty.
Aside from that, it is certainly possible for acid to get into your lungs causing asthma-like symptoms, yes. You may be experiencing that. Certainly do try sleeping on an incline of about 6-8 inches. If you are refluxing while trying to fall asleep, that should help somewhat.
Cheers and goodnight!
Hi Bev,
I also suffered with most of the symptoms you described and I too was especially frightened by the pain in my sternum and yes a feeling of heaviness in my chest and also throbbing in my sternum which I’ve never heard anyone else mention.
I agree with everything BEV12028 has written in reply and I must say that it’s really reassuring when you hear that you’re not the only one feeling all these symptoms.
However, you mentioned that you are breathless and I think subconsciously we all breathe a little faster when we’re anxious but maybe you should just ask your Doctor to listen to your chest and check your “peak flows” to put your mind at rest.
I found that by taking Omeprazole and eating a super healthy diet and avoiding all caffeine and processed foods my symptoms gradually subsided.
I also had an endoscopy which was normal apart from showing a Helicobacter Pylori infection ( which I received antibiotics for)
Are you due to have any other tests done? Do you eat and drink really healthily?
Hope all your symptoms improve and you’re better soon.
Take care
Jane
Sorry Bev,
Having re-read my response I should have said I agreed with the reply from “NC10”
Apologies
Jane
Hi
you need to go back to your doctor and get it checked again ? please do that ok ? what you are describing is very uncomfortable I been and had the same in the past and I had to have another endoscopy to look in side and I now have a hiatus hernia as well as problems with my throat and swallowing my food so please get back and get another check up ok and let me know how you get on ok ?
My friend has a hiatus hernia and she said i sound very much like she gets when hers plays up. Im going to mention it to my doctor. xx
Thanks for your reply. No im not eateng health at all at the min.All this started after i over done it in the garden, i think i pulled a muslce which in turn tripped my anxiety off which caused all this. So i tend not to really eat much or the wrong foods when my anxiety starts. Think im going to look up special diets for acid. I have had pains like this before and the breathlessness on and off for 4 yrs but never this bad or for so long so ive never really took much notice but this time its really bad. Ive had chest xrays bloods and scans loads of times for these pains but heart lungs are fine xx
Ill speak to my doctor again about it. But as ive had bloods xrays and scans in the past for the same systems and alls come back fine she doesnt seem to want to do anything more only give me meds for it xx
will you let us know how you get on ?
Yes will do. Only problem is my doctor is beening funny about doing any other tests as my others are fine but i will ask her. xx
hi i also have been feeling this way ever since i started having acid reflux 3 months ago it's been really irriating and i just want it to stop i guess it will over time and i just have to get used to it glad to know other people are experiencing the same thing and and am not alone, also been on omeprazole 2x 20mg and it has helped somewhat but it's just the chest thing atm that's irritating me also have a gastrascopy in a months time so see what that comes up with