Is this anxiety chest pain or angina..?

Do you get the pain and tightness then? How often does it affect you? 

I am 48 years old For YEARS (I'm talking 12 years at least) I have been having intermittent chest pain. Exacerbated with stress or strenuous activity. I had all kinds of cardio work up. They found nothing. Then I was told it was costiochondritis. Pain medication didn't help. Then I was told I have fibromyalgia. I probably do, but the chest pains are different than the fibro pain. A couple times I ended up in ER with PVCs, but still echo came back okay. EKG was fine.

Next they thought it was asthma and gave me a rescue inhaler. That didn't help with the chest pain, although it did help me breath better in hot, humid weather.

I was sent for physical therapy. I'm still not sure the reason behind that one.

So they finally decided it must be anxiety and panic attacks. I was put on Xanax by the cardiologist and antidepressants and anxiety meds. The Xanax never really helped with anything, but I think by that point I had been written off as crazy and a hypochondriac. And I sort of gave up even asking for help.

That's my history to lead up to this past month and the purpose of my taking time to post. I've had several episodes of losing consciousness over the last 4 -5 months. They call it transient loss of awareness. My new doctor (we live in a rural area with quick turn over of doctors) performed a brief neurological evaluation which found some abnormalities and she also heard a heart murmur. She asked if anyone had ever told me I had one. I told her yes, but they never made a big deal about it. Along with a neurological workup she ordered an echocardiogram immediately with some kind of contrast where they can tell how much blood is flowing back through. Well, what they found was a 4.6cm aortic aneurism with 2 leaky valves! The aneurism was not there with the echo I had 3 years ago. I then got immediately in with a new, different cardiologist who is taking this seriously for once. He put me on blood pressure meds (always before they had blamed the high BP on being nervous in a dr office even though I am not at all nervous to go to a dr). He also prescribed nitroglycerin tablets to be taken when the chest pain starts. I can take up to 3 five minutes apart. If the pain isnt gone by the third pill I need to immediately call 911!

Well last night the pain started again (now called angina thanks to new cardiologist) and I took one nitroglycerin under my tongue. Within ONE MINUTE the pain was GONE. Obviously angina has been the problem all along.

I am so very angry that it took 12+ years, doctors not listening to me, and now an aneurysm has developed. Who knows if that could have been prevented if my blood pressure and angina had been diagnosed much earlier!

Please don't let them brush this off as anxiety at your young age. You have the opportunity to possibly avoid long term effects of leaving angina untreated. How easy would it be for them to let you try nitroglycerin? If it works, then they know. If it doesn't THEN they can look for other causes like anxiety or panic attacks.

I'm determined to share my story in hopes of helping others learn. I wish I had known about angina and the easy nitroglycerin fix at the beginning of this ordeal. I wish the doctors would have actually listened to me. I have hope that I can get on a path of some kind of healing, even if it means lifestyle changes. I have 12 children. I want to still be around to enjoy my grandchildren if/when I have some!!!

If you got this far, thanks for reading! And I hope I have helped someone.

Have you found a cause or solution for your issues? I've been having an almost identical problem. Im so worried.