I am 45 and a woman. I have been having pain in my shoulders and mid back, trouble breathing, and dizziness. I have been using my inhaler every 2 hours and have been taking 800mgs of motrin for the pain and a gas X and previcid for my stomach. The breathing problems seems better but I am still in some pain. My husband, a nurse, says I am not presenting the symptoms of a heart attack and thinks it is more upper respiratory related. I have also had sore shoulders for a while with limited movement that my doctor thinks is my rotator cuff. Do you think I should ride it out on pain meds and albutoral or go to the emergency room? I'm not in distress as much as I was. Any suggestions? Thanks!
2007-01-06 16:14:11 · 8 answers · asked by fourbearsandacat 2 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Heart Diseases
Very good question. Women present much differently than men do when it comes to your hearts. Atypical is the typical in women. I've diagnosed heart attacks (myocardial infarctions) time and time again in women who only have shortness of breath, nausea, weakness, shoulder pain (rotator cuff!), etc.
The thing I hate hearing most from my patients is that they are having 'gas' pain. So many times it turns out to be cardiac.
When you go to the emergency room they will do an ekg, chest xray, and cardiac enzymes (heart labs), etc. However, this alone does not rule out a heart attack. They will most likely keep you overnight to do atleast two more ekg's and heart labs seperated by six hours and after you 'rule out' they'll probably do stress testing.
Other life threatening conditions such as pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in your lungs), etc can present in a similar fashion.
It may be nothing, but please don't make the mistake of blowing this off. Go straight to the hospital and check it out. I don't want to say what I do for a living on this forum, but please believe me you need to go get this checked out.
2007-01-06 16:37:30 · answer #1 · answered by Scout 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
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2016-05-19 22:40:31 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the pain returns go to the er. Better safe than sorry. When I had my 2 heart attacks at 24 it felt like an elephant was on my chest. But many women don't have the same symptoms as men.
A rotator cuff can cause horrible pain, but it doesn't mean you can't have a rotator cuff problem and a heart attack. Does the chest pain worsen with the albueterol? Because that can increase your heart rate. The pain might worsen with it if it were a heart attack.
I would go in just to be sure, they can do an EKG and check your blood for markers of a heart attack. It's worth it, because you don't want to cause irreversable damage to your heart if it is a heart attack.
I am not trying to scare you in any way, but years ago one of our close friends mother died of a heart attack because she just didn't feel right that morning. She didn't get the crushing pain that men get. By the time she did it was too late.
2007-01-06 21:00:23 · answer #3 · answered by Wicked Good 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Women can present with the symptoms of a heart attack differently than a man and at times it is harder to diagnose and is not always recognized. We can have symptoms like pain in the back and shoulders, shortness of breath and dizziness as you described. You were not specific about the length of time of your symptoms. What I would suggest is, if these symptoms worsen again, it would not hurt to be seen by an MD and have an EKG done. At least in that respect you could rule out if you do have any heart disease.
2007-01-06 16:30:39 · answer #4 · answered by dialysisrn2001 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
woman do have some symptoms that differ from men...the main one is back pain,not sure why this is but it seems to be and that is why heart disease kills more woman because of this one area..if people don't present with the typical symptoms then they work around the heart,so to say.......has your doctor been working you up for a rotator problem or is he/she assuming thats what the pain is from..for peace of mind and all i would definitely make an appt to see the doc and tell them you want additional testing,at least an ekg of it does increase in pain,the breathing is worse and such definitely go to the emergency room...the emergency room would work you up with an ekg,chest x-ray and blood work to check various cardiac enyzmes
2007-01-07 06:30:41 · answer #5 · answered by charmel5496 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
gallstones present similar symptoms, its difficult to discern unless seen by the doc, did you eat fried food recently, anyone in family have gallstones?, Either way, call or go to the ER, it's tougher to diagnose a heart cond. with women. nausea and vomiting come with gallstones also, but by no means am I diagnosing.
2007-01-06 16:34:43 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would either go tot the emergency or I would see and internist and have her refer you to a cardiologist. What do you have to lose and hopefully you will have peace of mind with this issue and put it to rest
2007-01-06 16:35:47 · answer #7 · answered by Eileen M 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wouldn't you feel better if you went and had an EKG to confirm you were having upper respiratory problems? Not worth questioning if you ask me.
2007-01-06 16:22:32 · answer #8 · answered by Who Knew! 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋