mild chest pain

Quoted message said:

And yeah, Pippy, I was wearing Nikes each time. Very different pairs,

but they both have the swoosh, mesh uppers, and laces.<

Listen or not, but those nikes will give you "the big one", and not in
a good way either...

"Charlie Pendejo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Charlie, I'm glad you posted about it. I've felt identical symptoms
off/on for the past several years. It only occurs very infrequently - and
yet like an idiot I've not found the time to ask my regular doctor (I've
only been seeing specialists and need to get a general physical).

Quoted message said:

My last few days:

For me, I've been golfing (a long walk) or playing hockey. Running has
been ignored for some months now. Active about 3-4 days/week, sedentary day
job.

Quoted message said:

For about 10 min Sun, say 20 to 30 mins into the run, and then again
this morning for the final 10 mins, I was bothered by a mild (3 on
scale of 10) discomfort in my left chest. Kind of sharp - as in
localized not diffuse, a "pinch" feel - but faint in intensity.
Feeling good everywhere else.

Yes, this describes what I feel. It's about 1/2 below the surface, and
near where my ribs join the sternum on the left side. It's also where the
heart is, as we're all aware. It lasts for a few seconds and fades away,
maybe occurring once a week. In retrospect, it's been happening for several
years.

Quoted message said:

Just had my biennial physical exam two months ago, which included first
ever EKG. Passed everything with flying colors. Living clean, eating
and sleeping well, not smoking, slowly increasing running while
remaining well within my limits (race + longish hot not-so-slow run
within 28 hrs may have been a bit much, but I'd taken prior two days
off). Little or no history, I think, of heart disease in my biological
family. I'm a few months shy of 38.

When I first noticed it, I think I was in high school or college. I was
eating well, training well, no health complications or medications of any
kind. I wrote it off at the time knowing my risk factors put a serious
problem to be of low likelihood. I occasionally got new
pinches/pain/sensations from various parts of my body when I was training
hard in random places, and figured it was all a wash. Now in retrospect I
realize the 'chest pinch' is happening a little more frequently. I'm 28,
drink alcohol in moderation (about 3 drinks/week), and still eat sensibly
(except for my penchant for pigging on sugary foods).

Quoted message said:

So with all that I wasn't terribly worried that this was "the big one"
on either occasion, but what was it? Should I be/have been more
concerned? Walk it off? Take another rest day? Get my will in order?

I for one need to schedule an appt to get it checked out and have a
general physical. In fact, I shall schedule it today. I will report back
with my results.

Dave

Yeah, just ignore it. but let me know if it gets worse. Sincerely,
Saint Peter

David Geesaman said:

I for one need to schedule an appt to get it checked out and have a
general physical. In fact, I shall schedule it today. I will report back
with my results.

good!
i've had chest pains since school (some of those were related to way too
much coffee). they flared up again last year, and i finally asked the
doctor after sweating over it for a month or so, and in my case they
said it was probably a tendon/ligament problem. anyways, even if it
turns out to be a waste of time going, it's not a waste of time, cause
then you can stop worrying about it, if you see what i'm sayin 🙂

h

"h squared" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

David Geesaman said:

I for one need to schedule an appt to get it checked out and have a
general physical. In fact, I shall schedule it today. I will report
back with my results.

good!
i've had chest pains since school (some of those were related to way too
much coffee). they flared up again last year, and i finally asked the
doctor after sweating over it for a month or so, and in my case they said
it was probably a tendon/ligament problem. anyways, even if it turns out
to be a waste of time going, it's not a waste of time, cause then you can
stop worrying about it, if you see what i'm sayin 🙂

That was what I wrote it off as at first - soreness of some sort in that
rib/sternum joint - but thinking harder it doesn't resemble that kind of
problem. It's never sore to the touch afterward, and when I'm feeling it,
deep breaths increase the pain a little (but still very minor). Completely
unrelated to physical activity, except that it's never woken me up from
sleep (and I sleep light).
Now I just have to see about getting the dr. appt between my next 3
weeks of upcoming travel for work.

Dave

"Charlie Pendejo" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

For about 10 min Sun, say 20 to 30 mins into the run, and then again
this morning for the final 10 mins, I was bothered by a mild (3 on
scale of 10) discomfort in my left chest. Kind of sharp - as in
localized not diffuse, a "pinch" feel - but faint in intensity.
Feeling good everywhere else.

I occasionally get something like this, it's a localized medium pain in the
left center of my chest, about 1/2" deep. In my case the pain gets a little
worse when expanding my chest when I take a deep breath, and I can twist my
torso around and make it hurt more or less. It's also sensitive to pressure
(It feels a bit painful when I massage it). No back, shoulder or radiating
down the arm pain.

It comes and goes, maybe once a year, and lasts a few days at most.
Probably breathing too hard on my workouts...

Talked to my doc about it, and he said it's most likely intercostal
neuralgia, or some other minor thing. I just had a stress echogram, and my
heart wall motion, valves, and clearance percentage are super-normal, and my
cholesterol numbers are off the scale good. So he thinks it's nothing to
worry about.

However, if I were you, I'd definitely get it checked out by an internist /
cardiologist. Better safe than sorry.

Although I do wear Nike Air Pegasus, come to think of it.... :-o

-- Dan

Quoted message said:

Probably breathing too hard on my workouts...>

Try not breathing for a few days, see if that helps.

Quoted message said:

Although I do wear Nike Air Pegasus, come to think of it....>

I told you. More people die in nikes, than die trying to cross from
Cuba to florida.

Quoted message said:

Try not breathing for a few days, see if that helps.

Seamus MacDonald tried it; you can see the effects in his posts.

Quoted message said:

However, if I were you, I'd definitely get it checked out by an
internist / cardiologist.

Aw, c'mon Dan, that's a lot of hassle when I already have anecdotes
from a couple strangers on the net!

Thanks to you, Heather and David for your input, and I'll keep your
recommendation in mind. Though it's probably gonna have to either get
worse or more frequent or still bother me in a few more days, to get me
to a doc. Especially given the recent physical & EKG. It seems highly
unlikely that my ticker's the problem, and a lot more plausible that I
tweaked some muscle/ligament/tendon in my chest by breathing or
otherwise maximally exerting during Saturday's race.

If I disappear from rec.running in the next week or two, please
everyone learn from my example and see the damn doc immediately. ;-)

Quoted message said:

If I disappear from rec.running in the next week or two

Don't tease us like that.

On 28 Jun 2005 08:51:51 -0700, in rec.running , "Charlie Pendejo"
<[email hidden]> in

Quoted message said:

My last few days:

Sat: 5M race in moderately heat (low 80's, sunny)
Sun: 2 hour run in pretty serious heat (low 90's)
Mon: DNR, a bit sore from the weekend
Tue: 30 min quite slow, 75 degrees, 95 humidity

For about 10 min Sun, say 20 to 30 mins into the run, and then again
this morning for the final 10 mins, I was bothered by a mild (3 on
scale of 10) discomfort in my left chest. Kind of sharp - as in
localized not diffuse, a "pinch" feel - but faint in intensity.
Feeling good everywhere else.

Just had my biennial physical exam two months ago, which included first
ever EKG. Passed everything with flying colors. Living clean, eating
and sleeping well, not smoking, slowly increasing running while
remaining well within my limits (race + longish hot not-so-slow run
within 28 hrs may have been a bit much, but I'd taken prior two days
off). Little or no history, I think, of heart disease in my biological
family. I'm a few months shy of 38.

So with all that I wasn't terribly worried that this was "the big one"
on either occasion, but what was it? Should I be/have been more
concerned? Walk it off? Take another rest day? Get my will in order?

And yeah, Pippy, I was wearing Nikes each time. Very different pairs,
but they both have the swoosh, mesh uppers, and laces.

I was just stopping by to ask a question and found this. My question
was about shoes (and is in another post), but this requires a
response.

Assuming you are still alive here is a really important suggestion:

*DON'T GET MEANINGFUL MEDICAL ADVICE ON THE USENET*

None of us have an EKG we can use. None of us can do a blood test. And
likely none of us have a dozen years or so of medical training. We
can't diagnose heart attacks or cancer or anything serious.

You want to ask about shin splints. Or training pace. Or proper
nutrition before a race, this is probably a very good place to go.
None of those will kill you if they are wrong. An undiagnosed heart
attack can.

That said, don't "walk it off". If you had a heart attack that would
kill you. Read this: Heart Attack Symptoms & Warning Signs
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4595 or
something similar and learn the symptoms.

Then the next time you think it might be a heart attack *call a
doctor*.

(Sorry for the extreme reaction, but I have lost people who did not
take symptoms seriously. And I had a problem I had never even heard of
and almost did not go to the hospital.)

--
Matt Silberstein

I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun.

Raymond Chandler

I had a similiar problem, went and got another physical, found out it was
Gallstones.

RDO

"Charlie Pendejo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My last few days:

Sat: 5M race in moderately heat (low 80's, sunny)
Sun: 2 hour run in pretty serious heat (low 90's)
Mon: DNR, a bit sore from the weekend
Tue: 30 min quite slow, 75 degrees, 95 humidity

For about 10 min Sun, say 20 to 30 mins into the run, and then again
this morning for the final 10 mins, I was bothered by a mild (3 on
scale of 10) discomfort in my left chest. Kind of sharp - as in
localized not diffuse, a "pinch" feel - but faint in intensity.
Feeling good everywhere else.

Just had my biennial physical exam two months ago, which included first
ever EKG. Passed everything with flying colors. Living clean, eating
and sleeping well, not smoking, slowly increasing running while
remaining well within my limits (race + longish hot not-so-slow run
within 28 hrs may have been a bit much, but I'd taken prior two days
off). Little or no history, I think, of heart disease in my biological
family. I'm a few months shy of 38.

So with all that I wasn't terribly worried that this was "the big one"
on either occasion, but what was it? Should I be/have been more
concerned? Walk it off? Take another rest day? Get my will in order?

And yeah, Pippy, I was wearing Nikes each time. Very different pairs,
but they both have the swoosh, mesh uppers, and laces.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Charlie Pendejo said:

For about 10 min Sun, say 20 to 30 mins into the run, and then again
this morning for the final 10 mins, I was bothered by a mild (3 on
scale of 10) discomfort in my left chest. Kind of sharp - as in
localized not diffuse, a "pinch" feel - but faint in intensity.
Feeling good everywhere else.

According to my cardiologist these types of phantom pains are quite
common. The time to get worried and seek immediate medical attention is
when the pain persists for 5 minutes or more - does or does not have to
be accompanied by feeling of chest pressure, left arm ache, pain between
the shoulder blades, sweating, dizziness, shortness of breath, neck or
jaw pain. There are such things as "silent heart attacks" but it might
be that the people didn't heed the sometimes very overlook-able
symptoms. (A heart that is receiving diminished but not cut-off blood
supply will often begin growing a natural bypass of the narrowed area.)

"Charlie Pendejo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

For about 10 min Sun, say 20 to 30 mins into the run, and then again
this morning for the final 10 mins, I was bothered by a mild (3 on
scale of 10) discomfort in my left chest. Kind of sharp - as in
localized not diffuse, a "pinch" feel - but faint in intensity.
Feeling good everywhere else.

I just visited my doctor today. I showed him a snippet of this
discussion, and he agreed in my case it's probably what Stumpus described -
just inflammation/soreness in the sternum/rib joint. He said heart-related
pain is almost always insensitive to the touch, where I can feel a little
relief if I don't take deep breaths and press my hand to my chest. He also
said that given the results of my semi-recent blood work I have very good
numbers on the key risk factors (cholesterol, for example).
I feel very comfortable knowing that, especially since he used to run
some marathons.

Dave

David Geesaman said:

"Charlie Pendejo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

For about 10 min Sun, say 20 to 30 mins into the run, and then again
this morning for the final 10 mins, I was bothered by a mild (3 on
scale of 10) discomfort in my left chest. Kind of sharp - as in
localized not diffuse, a "pinch" feel - but faint in intensity.
Feeling good everywhere else.

I just visited my doctor today. I showed him a snippet of this
discussion, and he agreed in my case it's probably what Stumpus described -
just inflammation/soreness in the sternum/rib joint. He said heart-related
pain is almost always insensitive to the touch, where I can feel a little
relief if I don't take deep breaths and press my hand to my chest. He also
said that given the results of my semi-recent blood work I have very good
numbers on the key risk factors (cholesterol, for example).

Please do not think that having "normal cholesterol" makes a person
automatically immune to heart attacks.

About half of the people who have heart attacks have normal
cholesterol.

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/03.23/heart.html

``"Cholesterol screening is currently the gold standard for predicting
heart-attack risk, but nearly half of all heart attacks occur among
men and women with normal cholesterol levels," notes Paul Ridker, a
cardiologist at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women?s Hospital in
Boston.''

That article is actually worth reading.

Despite eating the dreaded "saturated fat", I happen to have normal
cholesterol, but it does not make me think that I am safe. Bad
cholesterol is, at best, sometimes a sign of other problems.

``To clarify the relationship between various markers involved in this
process, including C-reactive protein, total cholesterol, low density
cholesterol, and other compounds, Ridker and his colleagues checked
blood samples from 28,263 healthy, middle-aged women. The women were
followed for three years, and levels of 12 different markers were
compared with incidences of death from heart disease, heart attacks,
stroke, and need for procedures to unblock their coronary
arteries. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels turned out to be
the strongest and most significant predictor of who would suffer these
cardiovascular problems. The relationship held true even among people
with cholesterol levels considered safe by national guidelines.''

i

"Ignoramus23077" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 12:11:19 -0400, David Geesaman

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

numbers on the key risk factors (cholesterol, for example).

Please do not think that having "normal cholesterol" makes a person
automatically immune to heart attacks.

Please do not be so stupid to think that my commenting on a "key risk
factor" implies immunity to heart attacks. I'm pretty sure everyone here is
smarter than that, and I don't appreciate you trolling that off of my post.
Then again your handle suggest you're reacting within character - I
guess I need to update my killfile list.

Dave

"David Geesaman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Ignoramus23077" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 12:11:19 -0400, David Geesaman

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

numbers on the key risk factors (cholesterol, for example).

Please do not think that having "normal cholesterol" makes a person
automatically immune to heart attacks.

Please do not be so stupid to think that my commenting on a "key risk
factor" implies immunity to heart attacks. I'm pretty sure everyone here
is smarter than that, and I don't appreciate you trolling that off

i think you're exaggerating Dave. i believe there are plenty of people here
that are not smarter than that.

of my post.

Quoted message said:

Then again your handle suggest you're reacting within character - I
guess I need to update my killfile list.

Dave

David Geesaman said:

"Ignoramus23077" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 12:11:19 -0400, David Geesaman

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

numbers on the key risk factors (cholesterol, for example).

Please do not think that having "normal cholesterol" makes a person
automatically immune to heart attacks.

Please do not be so stupid to think that my commenting on a "key risk
factor" implies immunity to heart attacks. I'm pretty sure everyone here is
smarter than that, and I don't appreciate you trolling that off of my post.
Then again your handle suggest you're reacting within character - I
guess I need to update my killfile list.

I am not sure just what made you fly off the handle here. I made a
fairly sensible comment.

i

"David Geesaman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I just visited my doctor today. I showed him a snippet of this
discussion, and he agreed in my case it's probably what Stumpus
described - just inflammation/soreness in the sternum/rib joint. He
said heart-related pain is almost always insensitive to the touch,
where I can feel a little relief if I don't take deep breaths and
press my hand to my chest. He also said that given the results of my
semi-recent blood work I have very good numbers on the key risk
factors (cholesterol, for example).
I feel very comfortable knowing that, especially since he used to
run some marathons.

I sure hope he did an EKG just to sure.

-DF