Gassy chest pains; a constant feeling of needing to burp...

Billy, have you found out what was wrong with you? I've been having similar symptoms on and off for weeks now and need relief. I'll wake up in the night with a pulsating feeling of trapped gas that won't get out either way, pushing at my diaphragm and leaving me breathless. I also have, almost daily, problems with spasms in my esophagus and food stuck down in there. My GE says it's acid reflux irritating my esophagus but I don't feel any acid coming up. Actually, I had to get myself off ppis after only 3 weeks because they were making me bloated and constipated and generally feeling weak and awful. I suspect SIBO but will have to check with my GE again.

Duk, Have you had an endoscopy?  I had the same symptoms as Billy for the last 2 years and I am finally getting relief.  It was was scary to think that I could live the rest of my life with these uncomfortable symptoms.  With my situation I had for an extended period of time what is called silent reflux.  Which basically means you are refluxing acid and and don't feel it.  This is what was happening to me until it got so intense that if I ate or drank anything I would get this feeling of someone choking me for periods up to 8 hours.  The anxiety would set in with the fear of what if my throat closes in on me and i can't breath.  I finally went to see a GE and they did an endo and found that I had an extreme case of esophagitis.  I had ulcers and a polyp in my esophagus that was caused from stomach acid sitting in my throat while laying down and it was eating holes in my throat.  This is where throat cancer begins to manifest.  He treated me with 40mg's of Omeprazole and it literally took over two months for me to even begin to feel better.  I also got the bloating but with a regimen of Metamucil in the morning and at night I overcame that.  I had a follow up endo done two months after the original endo and I was totally clear.  the Omeprazole is doing it's job.  It was also discovered that I had a hyatal hernia that was causing the problem.  My triggers were chocolate, caffeine, spicy foods, tomatoes, and citric fruits.  Caffeine and chocolate are stomach acid aplifiers so if you are a person who likes fancy coffee this could be amplifying your problems.  I get around this by drink decaf now and I actually feel better being caffeine free.  I would encourage you to get an endo and if you have aready then get back on the ppi's. Maybe try a different one or different dosage.  You need to get checked to make sure you don't have Barrettes Disease.  I was suspect for it but was cleared thank God.  BD is a precursor to cancer and if caught early it can be controlled with ppi's.  Another thing that may have brought out my GERD (gastro esophageal refulx disease) is it also was found that I had sleep apnea.  Sleep apnea causes acid reflux, hypertension, weight gain, fatigue, anxiety to name a few.  This my be worth checking into by getting a sleep study.  The other thing I would consider staying away from calcium bi-carbonate products like Rolaids.  This will only make things worse in some cases.  When you pop these it neutralizes the acid and give you quick temporary relief but when the body senses that the body has become more alkaline it will engulf you with more acid causing the reflux to come back withing in hours and more intense.  Then you pop more BCB's you continue the viscous cycle.  Trust me, I have done all of these things and learned the hard way.  Good luck and keep us posted.  T

I am able to control the pain with a diet. I could give you more details if you are interested, but first, you should see your doctor. In my experience, they are much better guessers than me and the Internet. With self-diagnosis, you'll drive yourself into more anxiety which will probably lead to making your symptoms worse. I'm very happy with my results.

...just wondering, I sometimes get a fluttery feeling in my chest that seems related somehow, but I'm not sure. Does that ever happen to you?

Let me know if you'd like to know more about what I did. I'm really happy with the results.

I know this is easier said than done, but try not to overthink your symptoms.  The anxiety will only compound you symptoms.  Look at it like this, because of your age you have a lesser chance of having throat cancer.  It sound to me like you have a case of GERD or acid reflux.  It would be wise to get an endoscopy to make sure you have not developed any ulcers in your esophagus.  Your symptoms sound exactly like mine and because I waited so long I developed an ulcer.  It has heal 100% with the treatment of omeprazole.  Please try to control the anxiety as it is a wicked compounder for other symptoms.  Remember, scary thought are just thoughts they are not true or reality.  If you struggle with anxiety there is a book called "At Last A Life".  It's a great read and will help you understand anxiety and how to manage it. 

The thought of endscopy gives me anxiety too lol, my doctor told me i don’t really need to do an endscopy.

do you know about barium xray? Does it show ulcers?

I’m certainly getting this book thank you so much for your recommendations, anxiety is ruining my life. 

No problem.  The endo procedure is a piece of cake.  Take if from a person that has Generalized Anxiety Disorder and and has has two endo's this year.  From the time they give you propofol (anesthesia) it only take about 15 to 20 minutes but you don't even know you went to sleep.  That stuff is amazing.  No wonder why Michael Jackson liked it so much.  I was out for 15 minutes and felt like I got the most amazing 10 hours of sleep in my life.  You need to realize that the reflux or gerd in your case is more than likely caused by the Anxiety.  When anxiety hits, your body releases adrenaline causing the nerves in you stomach to react and you get the belly ache.  This constant feeling also caused your digestive system to not function correctly causing an influx of stomach acids which leads to ulcers and acid reflux.  So the target is the anxiety.  Now here is the tricky part. The only way to fix anxiety is to not try and fix it.  Sound crazy I know.  But what keeps the anxiety fed is constantly worrying and trying to fix it.  It just causes more stress which is a precursor to anxiety.  Then when your attempts to fix it fails, you become hopeless & defeated and now you start to head into depression compounding the problem.  This is why anxiety and depression are linked. So the best thing to do is when anxiety hits, literally talk to it and say: "Anxiety I know you are there. So you do what you got to do and I will carry on doing what I need to do and that's it.  I'm not going to fight you or try to fix you.  So go ahead and waist mine and your time. Torment me if you want.  I'm not going anywhere." At that point turn of the thinking cap and live out the rest of your day.  You are not going to die irregardless of what your scary thought have put in your head.  How many of those thought have you had and look, you are still here and none of those thought have every happened.  I still have to beat this into my head a lot.  Anxiety is a big bully.  It talks big and says all these things its going to do to you and it never does it.  You know why, because anxiety is a cowered that likes to prey on vulnerable people. The anxiety attack will go away and you won't even realized it stopped.  Its a challenge and a process so don't be discouraged.  And by all means don't set time or goals of when you are going to fix it.  This is totally up to you body.  I promise you at 21, you have your best years ahead of you.  Start to heal your mind and body so you can enjoy the life that awaits you.   I believe in you.  I truly do and I don't even know you.  If I didn't believe in you I would have never wasted my time writing this to you.  You can do this.  Stop being so hard on yourself.  You'll get through it.  As for the swallow test it will only show if you reflux the fluid (barium) in real time when you swallow.  it wont show ulcers. 

F**k anxiety