Heart discomfort and pain in the left arm

Hi People,

I’m 25 years old and never had any major health complaints/issue since November last year. I don’t usually suffer from  Panic Attacks neither chronic anxiety issues.

Main symptoms

Pain on left side of the chest (heart)

Left arm pain

Left arm weakness

Body weakness

Stiff muscles (mainly on the left side of the neck)

Shortness of Breath

Tingling

Fatigue

Memory loss

Left Eye pain (like a needle prick)

Dry body - mainly on left side (hand, feet, throat)

Diagnosis so far

High Cholesterol

Small Vitamin D deficiency

Story

Since November last year, I've been having some weird symptoms. One day I came back from work and was sitting down watching TV with my wife, when suddenly I felt a small discomfort on the left side of my chest. This discomfort started to get stronger and stronger, and suddenly I got this pain in my left arm and left shoulder. My muscles got very hard, mainly on the left side of my neck and shoulder.

Then I started to get worried, since I never had any symptom like this before. I even thought that could be my Ritalin, but since I started taking it (2 years ago), I never felt anything similar. This pain on the chest was getting sharper and sharper, and I got very lightheaded and weak. Then I remembered my dad saying to me one day that before  my Grandma died from Heart Attack, she felt this pain in the left arm. Then I decided to search on Google (as most of you), and, the results were all going to Heart Attack. Together with the light-headedness I also felt very panicked by that. For the first time I really thought I was about to die, so I asked my wife to call the ambulance. The ambulance arrived and they did all the Cardiogram stuff, checked my blood pressure, etc. and  they said everything was fine. They asked if I wanted them to bring me to the hospital, but I believed them and decided not to go and then came back home.

After I came back home, while I was sitting down, the sharp pain in the heart and the lightheadedness came back. So we decided to get a taxi and go to the A&E. There the doctor did all the ECG stuff again, chest X-Ray and many blood tests. They didn’t find anything wrong, so I was sent back home.

After that, I started to have this chest discomfort more often. I even stayed almost 2 months without taking Ritalin and everything that contains caffeine, but the discomfort was always coming back.

So I went to my GP and she referred me to the Cardiologist that asked for a Heart Ultrasound and that Treadmill exam. The Cardio said there’s nothing wrong with my heart, but the symptoms didn’t go away either.

Since this chest pain is always succeeded by a muscle stiffness, I also asked my GP to refer me to a Neck ultrasound, where they also didn’t find anything.

I was getting very hopeless, because I was sure of my pain and where I was thinking   the problem was (heart), the doctors couldn’t find anything, so then I started to search on Google all my symptoms.

Okay, this part is probably the worst of all.

After all these researches, I discovered that I am a bit hypochondriac, I had many symptoms that matched with Multiple Sclerosis and Brain tumour, and I convinced myself I had one of these. Ok, I know most of you (like the doctors) will think all of it is due to anxiety, panic attack or stress, but believe in me, it is not. I’m not stressed, I’m not anxious, I never had panic attacks and I know anxiety can come all of a sudden without any apparent reason, but I seriously doubt this is anxiety.

So I got a referral to the Neurologist where he asked for a MRI Scan off the head.

I went to the Neurologist, and the same results. You have no brain damage, no MS and no Brain tumour.

After few days, these “episodes” weren’t happening often like before, but I could see my memory getting worse every day, my left arm was getting weaker every single day, the need of drinking water was much stronger than before, etc.

Today when I was talking to my colleagues at work, I felt that very weird light-headedness,  followed by the sharp pain in my heart and in the entire left arm. I thought I’d pass out. So I decided to go to the clinic, he did the ECG and everything was fine.

I’m feeling completely hopeless. The doctors can’t find what’s wrong with me and looks like I can feel this pain in my heart and in the left arm getting worse every single day. I cannot drink 2 cups of coffee or 2 cups of coke per day anymore without feel my heart and my entire body weird.

I would appreciate if anybody could help me, or at least suggest the next steps I should take.

Thanks in advance.

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