Hello I'm new here and I need some help urgently, I've been having on and off chest pain for the past few months and most of the time it's just a dull pain but occasionally I get a sharp pain in my chest and that pain can last a few minutes and I get shortness of breath a lot and can't breathe properly and I'm not sure why that is, and I have a dry cough and I often get a funny taste in my throat when I cough, and I have difficulty laying down flat and I need about 3 pillows to prop myself up, it's really uncomfortable for me to lay down flat on my bed and a lot of the time I feel really weak and my body feels heavy like my bones are made of concrete and I get a high heart rate often and tremors in my chest when I lay down and I also get chills and have difficulty sleeping at night, I've been to the doctor a few times and the doctor said I might have anxiety but I'm not sure if it's just anxiety and I've had an abdominal ultrasound, a urine test, and a blood test and the results for those tests came back normal and fine so I'm wondering why I feel like I do, I am underweight and have a BMI of 16 so that could be why I have problems but I'm not sure, so please help me.
Have you had a TEE or trans esophageal echocardiogram to make sure you don't have an atrial septal defect or ASD? Your symptoms sound suspiciously like mine. It is a genetic birth defect and you can live a normal life as a child although I've never in my life been able to run a mile, and when I was tired there was no second wind for me ever.
Has gastroesophageal reflux been ruled out?
Eleftherios S. Papathanasiou, PhD, FEAN
Clinical Neurophysiologist
Fellow of the European Academy of Neurology