36 / White / Male / 5’9" / 180 lbs. / non-smoker / occasional drinker / no history of cardiac, gastrointestinal or oncological issues
Here is a long background history. Sorry for the length.
Last Jun I noticed I started getting funny pin prick sensations in random parts of my chest/upper abdomen and a funny heaviness in my chest. Being the height of covid I thought it best to go to Urgent Care. There they did an EKG, standing chest x-ray and a covid test. All very normal. The doctor was convinced I had anxiety and sent me on my way.
As the months went on the discomfort continued and it gradually started getting worse. The pains were less uncomfortable and more painful. I started to get little waves of nausea and dizziness as well. Then one night I woke up to a horrible cramping in the center of my chest. Being a new and scary sensation I called the nurse hotline for suggestions. They said I should go to the ER just to be safe.
The ER did an EKG, lying down x-ray and bloodwork that included tests to see if I had a heart attack. All the tests were normal. The ER doc chalked it up to either anxiety or a digestive problem. They gave me mylanta, that didn’t help, and sent me on my way.
A few weeks after this with no change in symptoms I thought it best to see my GP. He did a whole mess of bloodwork that included a d-dimer test and I provided a stool sample to test for h-pylori. Again, all the tests were normal. Unsure what it could be he was also circling something to do with anxiety, but ordered an abdominal ultrasound. I asked if it was possible I had something like lung or esophageal cancer. He confidently said that given my age, lack of risk factors and his experience that is incredibly unlikely. Of course I’m still thinking that’s what it might be.
The abdominal ultrasound came and went. As usual with all my tests, normal. He then ordered an an abdominal CT. This one was somewhat abnormal. In my lower right quadrant, where I’ve never had pain, I had some mildly enlarged lymph nodes up to 10mm. As I understand it that’s a little over size wise where there could be some cause for concern. They did find some other nodes that were either too small to worry about and some cysts, but the radiologist wasn’t concerned about those. When my doctor told me about the enlarged nodes he was more perplexed if anything given my lack of pain, which made me think he wasn’t worried about it. Either way I have a follow-up CT tomorrow to check stability of these nodes.
I had noticed that since my abdominal CT end of DEC and to today end of MAR the pain had changed yet again. The pin pricks are gone and I have localized pain in my lower left chest that I can trigger if I twist my body. This pain comes and goes every few days. I saw a different doctor a couple months ago specifically for that issue and he took yet another chest x-ray to view that area and it came back normal.
As of today the abdominal discomfort is less of an issue, but it does happen sometimes and it’s like a sharp cramp that comes and goes in my upper abdomen at my rib line. Also, more concerning, when I eat food I get a horrible upper abdominal pressure/burning sensation. It’s like someone is pressing on my upper abdomen and it’s so uncomfortable I’ve been brought to tears. Sometimes the pressure is higher up at the top of my chest and the pressure seems worse depending on the amount I eat. It’s definitely caused me to eat slower and less because I feel fuller faster only because of the pressure.
I’m honestly at a big loss. I’ve tried Nexium and Pepcid to no effect. I haven’t been prescribed any medications. I’m thinking that whatever I have must not be serious only because I don’t have shortness of breath, fatigue, unexplained weight loss and I haven’t had a fever in easily 2 years.
Any thoughts would be helpful. I’m at the end of my rope. I’m hoping this is just simple gastritis, but I’m not sure how to manage it if it is.