Hello everyone,
I'm posting here because I've reached peak frustration levels with some mystery symptoms that have yet to be diagnosed by medical doctors, and I thought maybe someone would have a similar experience and could offer insights.
I smoked cigarettes for about 20 years, quit for 2 years, started again like an idiot and smoked for a year, and then discovered Juul (5% menthol) and quit tobacco completely for more than a year now. Started out moderately, but pretty soon I was Juuling at my desk during all waking hours, so I knew I needed to cut down, but kept doing it.
About 3 months ago, I started noticing mild pain/tightness in my left chest area. The main spot is in my left pectoral region, right around my left breast, over to my left neck area, armpit and shoulder, and down my left ribs, left arm and left hand, and left side of my back. It's not super painful, but it almost feels like a giant bruise or bad muscle strain on that left side. And whenever I vaped, it got tighter and more intense in that area, along with feeling like my heart was racing or fluttering.
So I cut down on vaping, and even tried to switch to lower or no-nicotine liquids. But no matter what, the symptoms got worse whenever I vaped. I even bummed a cigarette to see what would happen (I know, so stupid, but I didn't start again!), and that caused the symptoms to become worse. So I tried switching to nicotine lozenges or nicotine gum (2mg). That caused the pressure/tightness to become worse, too. Finally, I just quit everything and I've had zero nicotine products, vaping, etc. for 11 days now. It's hard to enjoy when you feel like you're having a heart attack, so I figured I'd use my fear of death to finally just quit cold turkey.
Problem is, even without vaping or smoking or using the lozenges, the symptoms still remain. Going on 2 weeks with zero nicotine, and I'm still waking up with a tight feeling in my left chest area.
And now, for the past 3 days, I'm also having a burning acid reflux feeling, and issues swallowing and feeling like there's food caught in the middle of my chest when I eat. I'm trying not to freak out and assume it's esophageal cancer or something, but it's hard not to imagine worst-case scenarios when you don't know what is going on and you keep googling symptoms. There's a chance all my anxiety about this stuff is causing GERD.
I have already been to the emergency room 3 times, and every time my EKG is normal. In the past 2.5 months, I have had a chest X-ray, an MPI, a nuclear stress test, a lung function test, a cardiac monitor (5 days), a CTA of the chest, a thyroid ultrasound, a bunch of blood tests, and none of these show any signs of heart or lung problems. Perfectly healthy.
Next week I'm getting a cardiac PET scan and another type of CTA to make sure it's not weird microvascular issues. I don't think that's it, though, because the cardiologist gave me nitroglycerin as a trial, and it didn't do anything to ease the soreness in the chest.
And I'm going to request an upper endoscopy to make sure there's not some big issue with my esophagus or GI system.
Anyway, this is my health saga. If anyone has had a similar experience that finally just went away, please let me know. I'm trying to alleviate my anxiety by posting here, which is probably a mistake, but I thought maybe someone out there has had similar symptoms, and maybe you'll say: "Oh, that's just GERD, don't worry!"
I'm posting here because I've reached peak frustration levels with some mystery symptoms that have yet to be diagnosed by medical doctors, and I thought maybe someone would have a similar experience and could offer insights.
I smoked cigarettes for about 20 years, quit for 2 years, started again like an idiot and smoked for a year, and then discovered Juul (5% menthol) and quit tobacco completely for more than a year now. Started out moderately, but pretty soon I was Juuling at my desk during all waking hours, so I knew I needed to cut down, but kept doing it.
About 3 months ago, I started noticing mild pain/tightness in my left chest area. The main spot is in my left pectoral region, right around my left breast, over to my left neck area, armpit and shoulder, and down my left ribs, left arm and left hand, and left side of my back. It's not super painful, but it almost feels like a giant bruise or bad muscle strain on that left side. And whenever I vaped, it got tighter and more intense in that area, along with feeling like my heart was racing or fluttering.
So I cut down on vaping, and even tried to switch to lower or no-nicotine liquids. But no matter what, the symptoms got worse whenever I vaped. I even bummed a cigarette to see what would happen (I know, so stupid, but I didn't start again!), and that caused the symptoms to become worse. So I tried switching to nicotine lozenges or nicotine gum (2mg). That caused the pressure/tightness to become worse, too. Finally, I just quit everything and I've had zero nicotine products, vaping, etc. for 11 days now. It's hard to enjoy when you feel like you're having a heart attack, so I figured I'd use my fear of death to finally just quit cold turkey.
Problem is, even without vaping or smoking or using the lozenges, the symptoms still remain. Going on 2 weeks with zero nicotine, and I'm still waking up with a tight feeling in my left chest area.
And now, for the past 3 days, I'm also having a burning acid reflux feeling, and issues swallowing and feeling like there's food caught in the middle of my chest when I eat. I'm trying not to freak out and assume it's esophageal cancer or something, but it's hard not to imagine worst-case scenarios when you don't know what is going on and you keep googling symptoms. There's a chance all my anxiety about this stuff is causing GERD.
I have already been to the emergency room 3 times, and every time my EKG is normal. In the past 2.5 months, I have had a chest X-ray, an MPI, a nuclear stress test, a lung function test, a cardiac monitor (5 days), a CTA of the chest, a thyroid ultrasound, a bunch of blood tests, and none of these show any signs of heart or lung problems. Perfectly healthy.
Next week I'm getting a cardiac PET scan and another type of CTA to make sure it's not weird microvascular issues. I don't think that's it, though, because the cardiologist gave me nitroglycerin as a trial, and it didn't do anything to ease the soreness in the chest.
And I'm going to request an upper endoscopy to make sure there's not some big issue with my esophagus or GI system.
Anyway, this is my health saga. If anyone has had a similar experience that finally just went away, please let me know. I'm trying to alleviate my anxiety by posting here, which is probably a mistake, but I thought maybe someone out there has had similar symptoms, and maybe you'll say: "Oh, that's just GERD, don't worry!"
