Chest pain, should i return to work?
Posted , 6 users are following.
Three days ago i was admitted to A&E by ambulance with chest pains similar to heart burn, pain in the left side of my ribs, shortness of breath and pins and needles in my left arm. Im 42 years old, non smoker and in generally good health.
ECG, chest xray and bloods all came back normal, however i was told i must see a cardiologist within a week as i may have Pericarditis. I was not given any further advice and have been home resting since. The pains come on and off during the day, but arent quite as bad as they were and when i saw my GP she said it was nothing to worry about and sent me home, again with little or no firm advice.
I generally feel ok other than the tightness and pins and needles coming on and off.
I work in an office, with little manual labour, but have over an hours commute by road to and from work. Am i able to return to work, or should i rest at home until I have seen the cardiologist which is not for another week?
Should i be taking aspirin to help?
Any help, thoughts or advice from people who have experience something similar would be much appreictaed.
0 likes, 7 replies
peter01729 david19535
Posted
I wonder why they said pericarditis? I too went to A & E last Thursday, mainly because the people at work could see I was about to collapse from exhuastion, but for my personal question about the intense feeling of almost painful heartburn. Now I have an ECG machine that shows I have high and wide "T" waves, one of the indications of high T waves is pericarditis. Reading up about pericarditus I see it is frequently caused by a cardiac ablation, I had an ablation in April and have been steadly feeling worst. I think I even mentioned such to the doctor at St Thomas' but no tests for pericarditis for me? How do you feel in yourself otherwise?, I feel like something is really ill inside of me, that I am half way to being dead.
linda89207 david19535
Posted
dave36090 linda89207
Posted
MY name name is Dave I have done several test like 3 ECG both resting and stress ,chest X-ray ,troponin and ct scan ,2 D echo they all come back normal !! I still get this chest pain and dizziness and I am
Tired of it ! I don't know what to do
linda89207 dave36090
Posted
It's not easy but only a week to wait to see cardiologist which is really good so try not to stress and see what he says if you find you are feeling in trouble then 999 an ambulance
david19535 dave36090
Posted
Dervla50 david19535
Posted
Hi David, agree with Linda, I would wait and see the Cardiologist first, best err on the side of caution it you're worried, reassurance from the Cardiologist that you're ok to go back work will give you more confidence mentally.
Scotgal david19535
Posted
David, for the most part you probably have nothing to worry about, and I say that
because you are in generally good health, young, and a non-smoker. Pericarditis
runs it's course with little sequalae, unless you had other co-morbidities, and if you
had other cardiac risk factors as well. I had a relative who experienced this same
thing, but they were in their sixties, a smoker, and had coronary artery disease requiring a stent placement. Since all your tests came back normal, your doc
wasn't concerned, but most clinicians err on the side of safety and advise their patients to follow up with a cardiologist. Whether you should go back to work or
not is entirely up to you, that is, unless you were told not to. Good luck with your
follow-up.