Is it My Overactive Thyroid? Is it GERD? Something else?

At the end of June (2021) I started getting these pains in the center of my chest. They were sharp/stabbing, kind of tight. Along with that I was experiencing a difficulty breathing, like someone was sitting on my lungs and I would have to take deep breaths to feel a full breath, otherwise I guess my breathing was kind of shallow? I went to the ER, and they did a chest x-ray, EKG and blood work and found nothing. They said my lungs looked clear, sounded good, my heart looked and sounded fine, etc. They sent me home with a paper claiming I had non-specific chest pain and acute bronchitis, even though I only had the shortness of breath, and did cough up clearish/cloudy-ish plhem ONCE. So I was sent home with medication, which was Presnisone, Azithromyacin, and a rescue inhaler. I started taking this medicine as perscribed, but I wasn't noticing any change. I was only getting worse, waking up in the middle of the night struggling to breathe (needing my inhaler for those nights), I would wake up in the middle of the night randomly with anxiety and my body would be trembling, and as I would lay there trying to go back to sleep, I would only shake harder. My chest pains would hurt so much they would be felt through to my back. I got heartburn for the first time in my life. I got it a second time and it lasted for over 4 hours, where my chest and entire throat felt like I had swallowed fire. The antacids I took didn't touch it. I even felt the pain still lingering in my throat the next day.

Finally I was able to see my primary doctor, and by this point I had finished my round of medication the ER had given me. I told her of my symptoms, and I told her about how I was reading about GERD and I wondered if this had anything to do with it, because I had been to the ER almost two years ago for abdominal pain and they suspected GERD, but I never had an endoscopy done to find out for sure. She put me on Pepcid (twice a day, daily) and anxiety medication, because she thought that could possibly be my issue (and I had mentioned anxiety that I was having then, and even before this started happening). She ordered a thyroid blood test, complete CBC tests, Celiac disease test, and a stool sample for H. Pylori. Long story short, I was negative for H. Pylori, negative for Celiac, and my CBC tests looked normal. The only thing that came back different was my Thyroid test. It appeared that my Thyroid was overactive. So she referred me to an Endocronologist to have more testing done. I have yet to see the Endo because my appointment is later out.

So while I was waiting for that appointment to come around, I took my Pepcid as perscribed, and I waited. I stopped taking my anxiety medication after a few days because it only made things worse. After some time, I started to feel a little better. I wasn't breathing too bad, it seemed to be fairly normal, and I was even having less chest pain. It wasn't gone completely, but it was minor and off and on. But then I started to cut down on the medication, because I had read not to take it for longer than two weeks without your doctor's sayso. That seemed to be when the symptoms were getting a little whacky again. I was only taking one a day. I was having breathing issues every other day. I tried to stop taking the Pepcid, and a day or two later I got mild heartburn, so I took one. I went back and forth between one a day, or two a day. I don't know if the Pepcid had anything to do with it, or if my body was just giving me a break for a week or less, but the symptoms fired back up just like before: waking up with anxiety in the middle of the night, difficulty breathing, chest pain that is almost constant and barely relieves itself when I rest/lay down. I don't know if this is related, but I've also been having a stuffy/plugged feeling nose for the last month or two. It could be the humidity and weather but I'm not sure. I started taking my Pepcid every day again, as I was before, and the symptoms have yet to relieve themselves, which makes me think that maybe it wasn't the Pepcid that was helping me.

So anyway, I decided to see a GI doctor. I told her of my symptoms, I told her what my primary said, that it could be GERD. She said it could be GERD, or it could be my Thyroid, but the visit was no help at all. I'm set up (again, later out) to get tests done and hopefully get an EGD done to see if it could be GERD or something going on with the esophagous at all. But I don't know what is going on and it is frustrating having to deal with daily breathing struggles and chest pain, which no relief, and no idea why this is happening.

Could GERD really be the cause of all of this? Are these symptoms of an overactive thyroid? Or is there something else that could be going on and I'm seeing the wrong people?

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