chest pains

[stylinsam]

right bit of a serious Q for a friday but, my mum has been having these chest pains, now the way she explains them is like a pulling across her chest. now shes been to the doctors and he hasnt a clue what it is he just keeps telling her its muscular. now my mum says she just nos thats not what it is! and she cant even bend down without her chest pulling! its causing her great distress and all the doctors are doing is telling her not to lift anything heavy! (she doesnt need lift anything heavy, i went round there this morning and she was picking the iron up from the floor and that caused her a lot of pain)
so my Q is has anyone suffered with similar causes, or can anyone shine a light on what it may be !

TIA SSxx

[stylinsam]

im not to sure whiffey or redcrx what the doctor actually said, it was on the lines of its muscular and just relax, but obviously he doesnt think its that serious cos he asnt give my mum a sick note!?

[cascarelli]

sam - if you or your mum are still worried by it, take her back to the docs, get an urgent appointment. Tell the doc you/she's still worried about it and get him to convince you and her that its not particularly serious. If youre still not convinced, tell him you'd like to go to the hospital and see if he'll give you a note so she jumps the queue at A&E. If he sees youre really worried he should do something either to convince you or to go for further checks. Good luck, but sometimes you have to push a bit and force their hands.

There's lots of reasons for chest pains and most times its not the heart.

[stylinsam]

thanks cascarelli xxx

[willa]

It's tough, stylinsam, to sort this one out since true heart problems in women can present so differently than in men. My addition to the heart horror stories: a mate's mum complained that her bra straps were too tight all of a sudden. We told her to lay off the flan. But she was, in fact, having a heart attack. (Treatment received; she's fine now.)

Gleaveyweave's on a good track: it could be something like what I have, chest wall syndrome. It's an inflammation of the chest wall that I thought was angina - it feels like the pulling across the chest and is pretty much constant, with different activities increasing the pain. I got it last year when I started weight training. It's annoying. NSAIDs help.

But she's just got to rule out the heart stuff first. Of course, she's also got to realize that she's worth the efforts it takes to sort this out. Good luck!