Health & Exercise
fbmandy55
member
Short of breath + chest pains= Doctor is stumped
fbmandy55
member
Good morning ladies. I've had a trying weekend and I'm feeling kind of down about my condition. I'll try NOT to make this too long.
Friday evening my father (52 yo) told us that he has cancer. Pregnancy hormones aside, I was devastated. Our family history is horrible. My dad's parents both died of cancer before 65 and my dad's sister died of cancer at 56 a couple years ago. I was hysterical for a bit and then calmed down, got my head on and realized there's a lot we don't know. DH and I went to dinner afterward to calm down and we witnessed a woman choking. It was pretty dramatic and scary and even though she ended up being saved by another patron, the whole thing had me really worked up. I started crying at the table and having chest pains and trouble breathing. I assumed that I was just overwhelmed by everything going on and having a panic attack, which I've never had before.
We worked around the house, ran errands all weekend and these symptoms kept coming back off an on. My chest and shoulders keep getting really tight, it feels like someone is cinching my rib cage and I feel like I can't breathe. I finally woke up at 3am and was struggling to get a breath and asked DH to take me to the ER.
The doctor was dumbfounded. My O2 was 98%, but I know now that baby is getting enough O2. That was my biggest concern. EKG was normal. My BP was high but not dangerous, my WBC was elevated a bit and I was slightly dehydrated. The doctor said that given my symptoms, his only concern was a pulmonary embolism, which is 4 times more likely in pregnancy due to thickened blood. They opted to do a blood test first before exposing baby to xrays and the test came back normal. So PE is out.
They sent me home with no real diagnosis. Possible anxiety/stress and reminded me that growing baby sometimes makes it hard to breath. I didn't have this with first pregnancy and have a hard time accepting that such bad pains and breathing are normal. For now I will try to relax a bit but I really wish I had an answer!
Friday evening my father (52 yo) told us that he has cancer. Pregnancy hormones aside, I was devastated. Our family history is horrible. My dad's parents both died of cancer before 65 and my dad's sister died of cancer at 56 a couple years ago. I was hysterical for a bit and then calmed down, got my head on and realized there's a lot we don't know. DH and I went to dinner afterward to calm down and we witnessed a woman choking. It was pretty dramatic and scary and even though she ended up being saved by another patron, the whole thing had me really worked up. I started crying at the table and having chest pains and trouble breathing. I assumed that I was just overwhelmed by everything going on and having a panic attack, which I've never had before.
We worked around the house, ran errands all weekend and these symptoms kept coming back off an on. My chest and shoulders keep getting really tight, it feels like someone is cinching my rib cage and I feel like I can't breathe. I finally woke up at 3am and was struggling to get a breath and asked DH to take me to the ER.
The doctor was dumbfounded. My O2 was 98%, but I know now that baby is getting enough O2. That was my biggest concern. EKG was normal. My BP was high but not dangerous, my WBC was elevated a bit and I was slightly dehydrated. The doctor said that given my symptoms, his only concern was a pulmonary embolism, which is 4 times more likely in pregnancy due to thickened blood. They opted to do a blood test first before exposing baby to xrays and the test came back normal. So PE is out.
They sent me home with no real diagnosis. Possible anxiety/stress and reminded me that growing baby sometimes makes it hard to breath. I didn't have this with first pregnancy and have a hard time accepting that such bad pains and breathing are normal. For now I will try to relax a bit but I really wish I had an answer!
Re: Short of breath + chest pains= Doctor is stumped