Forums >Health and Nutrition>Chest pain + feeling faint when running
Hip Redux
I have been to the cardiologist and my PCP and I have no real answers, so wondering if anyone else has thoughts on what this might be.
For the last two months, I've been having random, mild chest pains... about three years ago, I had a similar thing happen (but more fluttering not pain) and my PCP ran a bunch of tests and found nothing. So I didn't immediately think anything was wrong.
However, four times over the last month (twice in mid-September, twice this week - almost exactly a month apart, actually), I've nearly passed out while running - cold sweats, lightheaded, nausea, weak legs. It's always the same... about 10 minutes into the run, I'll feel a little sluggish. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Then about 15-20 minutes into the run is when I start to feel faint and I have to stop. In about 10 minutes it passes and I will feel normal again.
I had an EKG, stress test and echo all done on Thursday. The EKG was abnormal, and stayed abnormal through the stress test (done twice), with no symptoms during the stress test. At first look at the EKG, the cardiologist thought it was indicative of left ventricular hypertrophy. My echo was normal - she said my heart was "perfect", no signs of LVH, no value issues.
The cardiologist said that the EKG may just be normal for me, and that my BP may be crashing during these runs. She wanted me to intake my salt and water and see if that helped. I went on a run this morning fully hydrated and salted up and the same thing happened. I don't remember any chest pains before the run today, but I am having some now. And I don't think the blood pressure reasoning explains the chest pain part of it, though.
Any advice would be welcome.
(I'm 37 and female, btw.)
Skirt Runner
Oski.... it sounds like it *could* be as simple as anemia....have you been checked?? I recently started looking up symptoms when people were concerned about my low energy. I don't have it....I think my immune system was just trying to fight off something because I came down with a cold shortly after the low energy period of time....but some of the symptoms I had read about rang a bell when you mentioned what was happening to you. MayoClinic says this:
Initially, anemia can be so mild it goes unnoticed. But symptoms increase as anemia worsens.
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I had a physical back in the spring - and at that point, no anemia. However, I originally tested borderline low thyroid... the recheck 6 weeks later was normal. It would make sense to have the bloodwork run again and to look at the thyroid numbers, I think, and can't hurt to test the anemia theory at the same time.
rectumdamnnearkilledem
Anemia...or perhaps perimenopause/"estrogen dominance"? I'm dealing with that nonsense, right now. I'm learning that the symptoms of that can be all sorts of stupid things that look like other things and that I've likely been battling this, myself, for about the past 5 year or more (I'm closing in on 41).
Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to
remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.
~ Sarah Kay
Connoisseur of Cookies
This may be a little late given the time stamp of your post but if you are still having chest pain you need to go to the ER You need to go NOW!
Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go directly to the ER.
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"C" is for cookie. That's good enough for me.
Fight The Future
Ugh, that sounds like a real pain (literally and figuratively). If it's just happening occasionally, I wonder if it could be something that sort of turns on and off, like atrial fibrillation can do. I thought i had that once for two hours after a long run in the humid warmth of summer.
On the other hand, the abnormal EKG with normal echo reminds me of the poster here who had a pulmonary embolism. Any leg pain?
Ludwig Classic Maple
I think you need to get to the hospital and go to the cath. lab. Were you given this option? Why/why not?
Marathon PR: 3:25:35 Fall Classic, 2014
1/2 Marathon PR: 1:35:59, Mt. Sneffels Half Marathon, 2014
It's been a few hours since I had any chest pain - I feel fine. I debated about the ER earlier, but... I didn't go.
And no leg pain.
sbp - No discussion about the cath lab with the doc. I guess because my echo was ok? I don't know.
Your having a normal echo is kind of a side point here. You had EKG changes on an exercise stress test. You then had chest pain on a run. Chest pain is cardiac until proven otherwise.
With what you've told us you cannot be proven otherwise.
Don't play around with this.
Good Bad & The Monkey
This could be lots of benign things, for sure.
BUT THIS COULD BE YOUR HEART. IT IS FAIRLY TEXTBOOK FOR HEART-RELATED CHEST PAIN.
AND YOU HAD ECG CHANGES ON A DAMNED STRESS TEST.
You need to get a cardiac catheterization. Immediately. Don't play around with this.
An echo means nothing here. (Unless it was an echo during the stress test.)
And those signs of anemia, well, you can also get many of them during an acute heart attack...
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
AND YOU HAD ECG CHANGES ON A DAMNED STRESS TEST. You need to get a cardiac catheterization. Immediately. Don't play around with this.
I'm certainly not a cardiologist, but I think it's odd that the cardiologist who actually examined Oski and looked at the lab tests herself did not recommend a cath. Do you think she doesn't know her own field well enough to recognize an exercise induced cardiac problem? Scary thought. How sure are you that she needs a cath right now? I don't think Oski said the EKG changed during the stress test.
I agree. I wonder what information we do not have.
However, most stress tests as you know include an EKG.
If the echo was done during the stress test and it was normal, then perhaps all is okay. Just a lot we don't know.
However, what we do know sounds awfully worrisome.
I'm glad you're following-up for further assessments. Hopefully they'll come up with some diagnosis that isn't scary and is easy to treat...and that you start feeling better really soon.
Good luck!
What is the ECG abnormality, do you know?