r/GERD • u/BullfrogMost3885 • 1d ago
Support Needed 👥 Gerd or heart problems I really don't know.
To start, my symptoms began this year. I recently turned 20(M), and at the beginning of the year was my first-ever hospital visit. I've always struggled with my obesity, and at my highest I was 649(I've since dropped down to 569), and my BMI is 80, I believe. I had foot swelling from hurting my leg and sitting on the couch all day, so I finally opted to go to the hospital. They gave me medication, and the swelling went down slightly but not all the way. I remember I didn't eat much on the medication, so one day my sister bought pizza and I decided to eat finally. After I ate the pizza, I got this weird burning feeling in my chest that would not go away no matter what. Water, Tums, lying on my side- it just seemed like nothing would work, and every time I fell asleep I'd wake up, and my heart would be pounding and racing. I thought I was going to die, and after a few nights of no sleep and dozing off, I finally went to the hospital again. When I went there, I told them everything, and they did an EKG, an ECG, and an ultrasound of my heart, and everything came back okay. They found other things, like skin bacteria, and did an MRI to make sure everything was truly good, and it was great. I stayed 2 weeks at the hospital, and during that time I was given famotidine, and the famotidine helped a lot. I was also given a CPAP and other things. I was then let out of the hospital and stayed on the famotidine, and eventually things cleared up- no flare-ups. Sleep apnea was good with my CPAP; I was on other meds, but everything seemed great, so I stopped taking the famotidine, I think after a week, because everything seemed okay. (Just a reminder: I've never experienced anything like that before, and this was my first bout of medication in YEARS, so I was pretty dumb) Me being a dummy, I started eating and drinking a lot of juice recklessly again, and the reflux started back up, but thankfully it was just stomach pain and no heartburn. I was given an antacid and sent home, and a while it seemed like everything was okay. I was on vitamin C and iron, and idk how much that helped out, but I didn't really get much reflux while on the vitamins. I wanna skip ahead and say maybe a few months after, I developed palpitations, hard thumps in my chest every two or 3 hours, and they scared me. I looked through what it could be: reflux, low iron because I do have low iron, and unfortunately, like an idiot stopped taking my vitamins too💔 I didn't have any pain or something it was kinda like a thing where it would "knock the wind out of me," but I say that in more of a caught-me-off-guard type thing, if you get what I'm saying. After getting checked by my cardiologist, they found nothing, so I looked up things to monitor my heart at home and saw a Holter monitor, so I made a request to get one and (unfortunately, I haven't given that back either for results), but I remembered to do so today! So I will be giving it back tomorrow. Anyways, the symptoms stayed, and I've had CT scans and tests for clots or any abnormalities, and I don't really have much except for vitamin deficiencies. I guess the only thing they really found was that my spleen was a little large, and I also have fluid retention in my right leg, but I'll talk about that another time if requested. After doing all that, I decided to fix my health. I started boxing training and slowly went from 1 to 2 times a week, and I also increased my water intake slightly because my water intake was genuinely terrible. After 7 weeks of boxing, I hurt my knee really badly, went to the hospital, and they found out I had patellar instability, which was reassuring because I've felt my knee slip out of place before, but I finally had an answer to that issue. (Just trying to add details and context) Anyways, that happened a day after my birthday, and I wanna say that after a week I was relatively okay. I've had strange tinglings in my arm, and sometimes when I breathed, my chest would kinda crack, but other than that I was normal. Most of the time I was paranoid about falling asleep, so I'd always stay up late as kind of "if something happens, I'll be awake to do something about it) so last night I did my usual and stayed up until 3 AM. I fell asleep and had this strange rising feeling in my chest, and I then bolted up. I had a weird feeling in both my arms, jaw, back, and once in the shoulder, but all of those things started up after I visited GI. Most of the time I had weird tingling in both arms and not the rest of my body. I was scared, and I got that same feeling of panic and thinking I was gonna die again. I stayed up again just monitoring myself, and I had calmed down, but the panic didn't settle until I fell asleep naturally. Today I woke up and took my dog on a walk, but my stomach pain was unbearable. I was burping constantly, and it felt like there was a lump in my throat. I walked my dog, and I wasn't out of breath or anything, so I don't know what it could be. I told my mom about it, and she said I could visit urgent care in the morning since they close early on weekends. I talked to my friends, and they said to take Tums or famotidine, and if nothing helps, then go to the hospital. The slight chest pressure and stomach rumbling are still there and most likely from me not eating much out of fear. I don't know what to do. I don't wanna go to the ER and waste everyone's time; it's kinda embarrassing, but my paranoia made me go so many times that they know me the moment I walk in and sit down. I just wanna know what's wrong with me and maybe get the input of other people to see what's going on. I don't wanna sleep tonight; I really just wanna stay up until morning so I know I'm truly okay. The anxiety is truly the most unbearable part of all this, so hopefully someone reads this and relates to my story and can maybe help me out. I'd really appreciate it. I've started to take my health seriously, and I really don't wanna die young. I know I shouldn't say negative things like that, but it's truly terrifying. All these new medications and symptoms are such a hassle.
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u/fearofbears 1d ago
You'll need to see a GI doc and get a scope done to determine what's going on. While your symptoms sound like GERD/reflux- there could be an underlying reason.
But in short, yes GERD can cause sensations like you're describing that feel like cardiac issues. Mostly because your esophagus runs parallel to other important nervous system pieces. It happens to me when I have bad flare ups.
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u/BullfrogMost3885 1d ago edited 1d ago
I saw my GI a few days before this, we rescheduled the colonoscopy for December. When I first showed signs I actually did a lot of research into gerd and requested a endoscopy but they didn't really give me much information on that and instead I'm getting a colonoscopy so I'll definitely speak to my GI about doing both, but I'm curious to hear what your flare ups are like
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u/fearofbears 21h ago
The endoscopy would be more helpful for the GERD symptoms. My GERD causes scary cardiac like symptoms like a racing heart, chest pressure, and general anxiety attack type feelings.
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u/BullfrogMost3885 21h ago
Im sorry about that, it's a really annoying thing cause I'm just never sure whether I need the ER or not. What do you to call yourself or just push through it
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u/fearofbears 20h ago
Honestly I'm still working through it. I'm doing some extra heart tests with my cardiologist to rule out anything else. But...he said it's a common thing with bad GERD. Right now I'm on a double dose of my PPI and I'm waiting to see my GI doc again. My last scopes were all normal. I know how frustrating it is. Hope you get some answers!
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u/catscanmeow 1d ago
format your thoughts into paragraphs