Chest Pain also wears a Mask!
I am neither big nor small, I am neither left nor right. What am I? — You can’t solve every riddle. Go see an expert!
In the 1994 movie, the mask, Jim Carrey plays as an ordinary man who stumbles upon a mask that gives him the power to change himself and his surroundings at will. If you’ve watched the movie, you might agree that it’s one of the few movies where the protagonist is also very annoying.
This reminds of a very common symptom experienced by people from all works of life, Chest pain. Chest pain also wears mask, It presents in different forms and is a pain to patients and a diagnostic dilemma to many clinicians.
There isn’t one standard formula for the presentation of chest pain. It troubles both male and female, the young and old, those who have an underlying disease and those who have no disease of any sort.
Some patients describe it as a tightening sensation, or crushing feeling, others as heaviness, some as abdominal fullness, others say it’s the worst pain of their life. And the area of the chest affected can be different as well, it can beneath or beside the breastbone, by the side, in the back, it can move to the arm or to the neck or to the back.
A thorough history and evaluation must be carried out to find out the cause and effectively manage chest pain. The outcome always depends on the cause.
What could present as Chest Pain? Common causes of chest pain include:
Heart attack or Myocardial Infarction
Coronary or Aortic artery dissection
Heart arrhythmias
Pulmonary embolism
Pneumonia
Pericarditis/pleurisy
Costochondritis
Gastro esophageal reflux
Esophageal rupture
Gastritis
Pancreatitis
Indigestion
Anxiety
Broken ribs
What to Look out for?
Go see a doctor if; your chest pain comes on while exercising or doing some work, if the chest pain feels like heaviness, crushing, squeezing, tightening, or any kind of pressure. If the pain moves or radiates to your left arm, around your shoulder blades, or jaw.
If the chest pain is associated with shortness of breath, sweating, increased heart beats, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, early satiety.
What Can you do?
1. Educate yourself. Your little bit of knowledge could save yourself or those around you. I love this write up……
2. Get that check up done. A timely intervention could be the difference between life and death. Sometimes the patients who look the most stable turn out to be the ones with the worst prognosis. If you experience any of these symptoms, being evaluated by a specialist won’t harm you. It’s always better to be safe than sorry..”
What if it occurs in the middle of the night?
Call the ambulance or emergency services. If you live in a country with no such service, Go to a trusted facility! If they haven’t done an ECG for you within 15 minutes of presentation at that facility, they are wrong.
The first sign that you are seeing a good doctor is proper questioning, physical examination, an ECG to rule out any heart attacks or fluid in the heart sac and some labs.
The key here is to take your body seriously, don’t underestimate any pain at all, especially Chest pain!
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