Heart pain or just pain? How to tell the difference

The issue with pneumonia is if it was severe enough it can leave lungs in a very weak state for months. What you're describing sounds less cardiac and more respiratory. Pneumonia is an infection that causes fluid to build up in the lungs, the infection may clear in days/weeks but depending on severity the effects and damage can last up to a year or 2. You should talk to your GP about residual effects and damage to your lungs following the bout of pneumonia.

I'm gathering you don't smoke or have any real heath issues but it sounds like you have asthma.

Heart related pain isn't always accompanied with shortness of breath. I honestly think you should focus less on your heart and more on your lungs. As an ex smoker there will be underlying damage, pneumonia may have caused scarring, scar tissue doesn't stretch like healthy tissue, this can easily cause shortness of breath and make it difficult to perform daily tasks like walking up the stairs. Scarring can easily be missed on x-rays, looks like cartilage in most circumstances or is small enough it goes unnoticed. Do you use e-cigs? If so the vapour can also damage the lungs, it's not water vapour it's oil, the thick substance can make it difficult for the lungs to evacuate the extra fluid.

the water retention i have is very weird it feels at times like water is running down my legs on the outside i nearly always touch them to see before i realise it must be inside it is a real funny feeling.I ave been on 80mg freusimide for over 3 months now some days hardly use toilet so drink more but if i drink more carry more i have put almost 3 stone on in 6 months but am sure most is still water x 

You local GP, if he reffered you to the cardio, should have a report from the cardiologist.

You do know I assume that the person who does the echo is only the driver of the machine they will not tell you anything, its more than their job is worth to comment.

The cardiologist then reads the results of the echo and writes a report to you local GP, so unless you see them immediately after the echo as we did, maybe at her request, and she explained to us exactly what was wrong with husbands heart, GP Dr got that same report a couple of days later. We got a copy when husband collapsed at home, and when we got to the hospital and staff asked had we seen a Dr in the last few days, yes, and gave the Dr's name and where she was, nurses later that night handed me a copy of the letter she sent to the hospital, same letter she had sent to the local GP, as it had his name at the top of the letter.

It makes for very tough reading, even though it had been explained to us in the cardio's office, having it in writing really makes it hit home.

I keep a copy of that letter in a brief case along with all his other letters and reports, from echo's, x-rays, cat scans, GP's notes, I ALWAYS ASK FOR A COPY. and have used this briefcase a number of times when he has presented at the hospital for other issues, even in outpatients cardio appt, and the young Dr said to me, oh we have only been sent his old file, threw the briefcase up on the desk and said what would you like, I have copies of everything incl his last outpatients appt report to our local GP, his face fell, making excuses NOT GOOD ENOUGH, we went though the case together, with me producing the letters he asked for.  I read these letters and try to get an understanding of what they are saying, use the dictionary, to understand the new words and get myself educated about what these medical words mean.

You need to bluntly ask the Dr, do you have a heart issue, YES OR NO, and make sure you understand what they are saying, and TAKE THEIR ADVICE, ask questions, until you do understand, Dr's seem to like you taking an interest in you own health and issues, I certainly have found that out, and the few that have taken offence, changed Dr's, from our first who said their was nothing wrong with husband, I was offended.

Husband is only alive because we took their advice, even though he was very ill when he first left the hospital, I insisted he walk, 20 steps, 3 x times a day for a start, which he was struggling to do in the hospital, and then slowly slowly, every 10 days or so adding another 20 -30 steps, by 18 months walking 3 miles a day, still doing it 6 half years after his estimated death date, we even have a copy if that letter, we can laugh at it now.

Water intake for heart failure patients is very important, you can overload on water very easily, he only drinks 1 & 1/2 litres a day on cool days, if he is walking and sweating, we have to estimate how much he has sweated out, and add that amount to his fluid, I even weigh his t-shirts sometimes when they are very wet, to see how heavy they are compared to dry weight, I have a very good set of balance scales, old fashioned scales but very accurate.

the cardiologists receptionist said the concultant had not had a good look at all my tests together when i phoned last tuesday she said as soon as he does a report will be sent to me and my GP i keep telling myself no news is good news but makes me anxious all the waiting the only thing the lady said at scan was she couldnt see anything major and the doctor will be in touch. i am seeing a GP on Monday so i will ask questions again hopefully we will have results and can have other tests to rule things out the sooner the better though x

 

I do apologise for the treatment you received, without actually seeing a patient all I can do on this forum is speculate. I wish I could have people on here send me their ECGs then I would get a clearer picture of what is happening. If you ever feel like a doctor is not doing his best to help then tell them. We are all trained to do what we can to diagnose, treat/cure. I myself have been studying cardiology since 2002, I currently work as a GP. On these forums you should not expect a diagnosis of any kind, I will say what I believe the problems may be but never will I say "you have" as mentioned above, heart related pain usually presents with a particular type of pain, but you are very correct in that you don't need to have chest pain to have a cardiovascular disorder. The junior doctor you saw sounded like he didn't do a consultation with a senior. How is your husband doing now?

The extended arch you describe sounds like a P-R interval or perhaps an inverted T wave, this is usually an instant red flag as it means there is evidence of a blockage depending on the lead. Has your husband always suffered from bradycardia? (Slow heart rate)

Also curious as to why that wasn't spotted on the ECG... This case is definitely something that needs looking into.

Mark.

No, bradycardia was a complication I believe of his dialated cardiomyopathy, although never had it directly confirmed by the consultant, it came on very suddenly about a year and half ago, at 6am in the morning feeling weak in the legs, and dizzy, I used our little omron, BP normal, heatbeat 30BPM., I wasn't even dressed, started throwing clothes on, and he disappeared, lying across back seat of car, semi-concious, drove him to heart hospital, they had him on monitoring in ER, with external de-fib, and then transfered him to ward with monitoring, during the night heartbeat dropped to 23BPM, BP still normal.

I believe they came very close to losing him, even though his heart dropped to 23 BPM, they continued to say while his BP remained normal he was OK, I disagreed, his hands and feet were white, and he wasn't peeing, nor were his feet swelling, but could not sit up, lying flat he was concious, and could talk to me, but sitting up lapsed into semi-concious, not with us.

Post instalation of pacemaker he was discharged the following morning, I notice his bowel did not operate for about 10 days, starting to get very concerned, but he was not running a temp, still peeing like horse, and then everything seemed to just come right.

Left branch bundle block was picked up when Dr's doing a prostrate biopsy under sedation, apparently scared them to see a patient so unwell under sedation.

His Ecg looked like to the best of my memory, normal at first glance, except for the big spike of the LBBB, but apparently the arch, is suppolsed to cover about 4 squares of the background micro graph, all being well, and it covered 14 squares, that what the cardio showed me to the best of my memory, and she smiled at me and said the GP should not have missed that.

He is doing amazing well, walks about 3 - 4 km's a day, spends 15 minutes a day on a stationery bike on our deck, his last echo came back at 45%, cardio team very pleased they told us, that was am improvement on his previous echo of 34% when they installed his pacemaker, told unlikely we will get further improvement.

He keeps himself really busy, fixes lawmowers for all our neighbours at cost, mows our lawn, we run air-con on very humid days and nights, as he does start to get really breathless with high humidity, he is very driven, and cannot just sit still, does not understand the meaning of the word.  He would have swum in the 1972 olympics if he could have afforded the costs at the time, held all sorts of records when he was much younger, would have been up against Mark Spitz, I once asked him could he have beaten him, he thinks he would have given him a run for his money.

His lung function is still astounding, the little local GP's lung function test, goes to the top of the graph and bounces along the max setting, GP laughed when I asked was it good, better than good I was told.  The hospital I remember did an enclosed pod test so they would know exactly what his lung function was, but that was 6 years ago.

He is in the care of the Russell Denman team at Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, very very good team even if I have had issues occasionally.

I find it interesting that he does not get swollen ankles, his sister also has a heart issue, electrical, and from what I understand the Dr's have said both husband and husband sister both have no plaque in their arteries, or very little, and that has been a big bonus in his survival.

Have just found out the last few weeks, that there is a genetic issue with the family, nephew has lost multiple children prior to birth, found to have heart issues, suggested it may be marfans.

Is their a genetic test for marfans, need to talk to Dr's, as this could affect our children and grandchildren I suspect.

Also have thought about NO PLAQUE, cannot husband and sister in law give to university study because isn't plaque the biggest killer of them all, I know husband would be willing to give blood, or tissue to help, or are as we told by Dr's no one is interested as all studies are funded by drug co's, and why would they want to discover why a few do not have plaque and can it be found why genetically.

 

Yes, a 24 hour ECG will definitely open a door to what the issue is. If anything it may even rule out a heart problem. Perhaps get a bronchoscopy if you can. Physically seeing the lungs might be the way to go.

Thank you yes i agree apart from the bronchoscopy it terrifies me the thought of having that done im sure my mum had it done 12 year ago and she said the experience was awful she felt like a little bird gasping for air x

Your results sound normal but obviously I can't see the results so that's all I can say... in regards to them advising you to have someone with you it is a simple precaution when waiting for results from heart related tests.

Helen - I can assure you that when results are a worry to the echo operator, and or cat scan have a worrying issue.

For example husband had a cat scan about 8 weeks ago, late in the afternoon, about 4pm, told the results would come in about 3 days.

Husband collapsed later the same afternoon, and hospital was interested in the results of the cat scan, asked where it was done, I suggested the clinic was closed, and told not to worry about that.

I don't know quite what happened, but results through by 8pm that evening, faxed to the hospital on the cat scan clinics letterhead, given a copy by the hospital staff.

I assume the radiologist was called in to the cat scan clinic and or the cat scan was forwarded to the hospital, but it was read that afternoon/evening, so if its deemed urgent, they get the reading done ASAP, so in your case, not urgent enough to rate a few days wait is good news I would think.

Similar happened may years ago with daughter, asked to wait for results, radiologist came out and said I don't want to frighten you, but you need to go straight to the hospital, here is the MRI Scan, and report, they must have rung the hospital while we were on the road, because as soon as we arrived and gave our names we were seen immediately, and daughter admitted for assessment, consultant seen with his big team of juniors, saw surgeon the same day, end result in-operable brain tumor, and or damage to get it out would be catastrophic, that explained her headaches, but it has never grown any more, she still sees consultant on a regular basis, and they MRI her every so often, she is very well and touch wood has not had any more problems, even had two children with consultant's cautious approval.

 

I think one of the reasons i was told to make sure someone was with me was my breathing was very bad  i was wheezing really badly and probably sounded worse over the telephone. I agree i dont think there is going to be any problem at all with my heart i would just like the results so we can look into what actually is wrong x

I have attended an appointment with my GP today still no results from the heart scan but GP said he will chase them up as my health is deteriorating rapidly my ankles are really swollen so increased water tablets now on 12mg daily to have inhaler as much as i need. He said i will be admitted to hospital soon and things will go faster if my condition deteriorates much more i am breathless all the time but even more so when going upstairs etc so was told to rest as much as i can its a viscious circle if i sit feet swell and i become stiff if i move about i get chest pain breathless i cannot cope with much more feel dreadful GP said hang in there but how much longer x

I am very sorry to hear your condition is worsening. Water retention is not fun at the best of times, something that may help.. When you go to bed sleep with your feet elevated, use pillows or something to raise your feet a bit. Gravity will help reduce swelling and excess water will be absorbed and evacuated naturally. Also see if you can get hold of a vitamin B6 supplement. All the above plus your medication should help reduce water retention. I am just curious.. have you been tested for or diagnosed with diabetes?

I do have feet elevated the whole time when resting. that was supposed to say 120mg frucemide. I have today received letter from the cardiologist saying no heart problems basically but due to increased shortness of breath to look at respiratory causes also with the oedema in ankles fee tto look at vascular causes so this is reassuring in the fact it isnt my heart at all. no i dont think they have looked at Diabetes this time they ruled out Thyroid after second test was ok Thank you for your advice x

i am a little confused as if its vascular does that mean lung. if so i dont understand i had a spirometry test at the surgery and they said it was fine 92% so took me off the inhalers this is when i went down hill breathing plummeted also mobility they put me back on the inhalers and i have more or less remained stable mobility is getting less as shortness of breath has increased. x

Hi,

vascular conditions refer to the arteries, in your case this could well be the thickening of the artery walls, or an autoimmune disease... You may wish to get checked for vasculitis, specifically "takayasu arteritis" I hope I spelt that correctly... So yes it will not explain the water retention to a point but it's a place to start to finding some answers and hopefully ruling out arterial deterioration.

Also I mentioned it sounds a lot like you have asthma, This and water retention can go hand in hand especially for women, definitely look into getting this checked out.

Ask your doctor about the above for a second opinion as I may have missed something (can't be too careful)

Do let me know and I wish you all the best.

Mark

Thank you i am really getting tired now i am unable to walk more than a few steps so tired i cant eat properly now as i cant breathe and eat i am wheezt and out of breath just sat if i go upstairs i am worse and need to rest a few minutes before coming back down. i talked to a doctor last week but because my regular GP was not there they were reluctant to do anything just saying she had put a not for him to telephone me Monday if i were to get worse they would see me at Aan E I AM WORSE EVERY DAY I HAVE REVILLAR INHALER EVERYDAY AND BLUE VENTOLIN WHEN NEEDED I DARENT TAKE IT ALL TIME SO LIMIT TO 3/4 times a day when need it most i feel like i have a tight corset on constantly and niggly chest pains tomorrow cant come quick enough i am just hoping he is able to give me something else while waiting to have lung tests if thats what he has decided to do if not i will have to take a trip to the hospital emergency something i am reluctant to do i dont like tying the emergency doctors up but cant go on like this x