Author Topic: Tightness in throat/chest  (Read 2766 times)

Euan Uzami

Tightness in throat/chest
« on: 04 August, 2013, 11:22:08 pm »
Strange 'tight' feeling in throat which is a bit like a sore throat but like it's being constricted, rather than the horrible-taste type sore throat.
Sometimes it's lower down, like around the heart area, and then it's fairly on and off, but now it's higher up in the throat and it's fairly constant. Feels like I need to burp all the time, but can't... No breathing difficulties, cardio issues, or any other symptoms apart from head cold the last few mornings.
Have been to the doctor but didn't get taken seriously at all and pretty much told to bugger off "and have fun and stop worrying - you're young", so decided to solicit speculation from a random bunch of armchair sleuths on a cycling forum instead ... any ideas?

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #1 on: 04 August, 2013, 11:56:34 pm »
No ideas yet but loads of questions...

How long have you had this?
When did it start?
Did it start gradually?
What are you doing when the pain starts?
How long does it last?
Does the pain stop you doing things?
How bad is it on a scale of 1-10? Are you sweaty/breathless/light-headed when you have the pain?
Does anything you do change the pain?

Euan Uzami

Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #2 on: 05 August, 2013, 12:29:11 am »
No ideas yet but loads of questions...

How long have you had this?
couple of days, recently

When did it start?
Saturday, but have had it before

Did it start gradually?

What are you doing when the pain starts?

sort of woke up with it I think

How long does it last?
Pretty much constant

Does the pain stop you doing things?
Not really

How bad is it on a scale of 1-10?
4 to 5 - never really debilitating but just always aware of it

 Are you sweaty/breathless/light-headed when you have the pain?
No

Does anything you do change the pain?
Not really I don't think.
inline....

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #3 on: 05 August, 2013, 01:02:19 am »
Wait, watch and see.
I don't know exactly what's going on but wouldn't be surprised if it just went away.
Seek further advice if it gets worse.

Euan Uzami

Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #4 on: 05 August, 2013, 09:41:42 am »
Wait, watch and see.
I don't know exactly what's going on but wouldn't be surprised if it just went away.
Seek further advice if it gets worse.

had it when cycling this morning but seemed to get better when I had a max strength halls soother but whether that was placebo effect I'm not sure, but don't care if it was.
Now I come to think, I've had it on and off since the weather got hot (and not really before), you haven't heard of anything like this to do with hayfever or anything?

feels a bit like what i would imagine tonsillitis to be at the moment but i'm assured it's not that.


Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #5 on: 20 September, 2013, 10:32:14 pm »
Tonsilitis makes you feel really ill. Sure you are not not allergic to something?
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #6 on: 20 September, 2013, 11:16:57 pm »
Is your helmet strap too tight?
It is simpler than it looks.

Jacomus

  • My favourite gender neutral pronoun is comrade
Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #7 on: 21 September, 2013, 12:29:41 pm »
They were the first symptoms of my recent heart problem, uncomfortable tightness/burning sensation that seemed to go down my throat to sternum level, accompanied by unusually high heart rate. HR would settle down to normal if I stayed still for a while.

Personally, I would fancy having an ECG. It might mean a long wait in A&E or being stroppy with your GP. I sure wish that I'd pressed the issue when I was asked about it when I first felt ill.

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity." Amelia Earhart

Euan Uzami

Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #8 on: 24 September, 2013, 02:01:31 pm »
They were the first symptoms of my recent heart problem, uncomfortable tightness/burning sensation that seemed to go down my throat to sternum level, accompanied by unusually high heart rate. HR would settle down to normal if I stayed still for a while.

Personally, I would fancy having an ECG. It might mean a long wait in A&E or being stroppy with your GP. I sure wish that I'd pressed the issue when I was asked about it when I first felt ill.

hmm, sounds similar, apart from the fact that my heart rate is always normal.

It's not been that bad recently, but i'll go back and see a different doctor if it gets worse.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #9 on: 24 September, 2013, 02:57:16 pm »
Sounds like oesophagitis to me, or even a hiatus hernia.  The hernia can be caused by wearing trousers that are too tight: it happened to me in the 80s when I lost a lot of weight, had my pants taken in, and then went on a trip to Denmark and drank too much beer. The hernia happens when the stomach pushes up so hard against the diaphragm that the sphincter closing the oesophagus fails and a bit of stomach pokes up through to form a little pocket in the thorax. Gas or liquid can accumulate in this: you can feel it but not belch it away. It can also cause very sharp spasmodic pains that give a good imitation of a heart attack, as my doc joyously told me.  If you drink anything fizzy the gas inflates the pocket and you desperately need to belch but can't.

One of the other consequences of this that since the sphincter fails to close completely, stomach acid can invade the oesophagus and give you heroic heartburn.  The irritation also makes swallowing unpleasant. NSAIDs can make it worse because they reduce mucus production, and the interior of the oesophagus has a protective mucus coating that needs to be constantly renewed. You might need to avoid anti-inflammatories like Ibuprofen and Naproxen for a while. Medicines are available that depress stomach-acid production and help recovery. They can also counter the side-effects of NSAIDs, in fact it's common to prescribe the two together.

According to my doc, surgical procedures to alleviate the hernia are about 50% successful. Better live with it, he says. Fortunately, the intra-thoracic pocket can recede of its own accord and the symptoms disappear: however the weakness is there and overconstricting the midriff can bring it back PDQ.

In your place I'd return to the first doc and rearrange his fundament with my boot, because hiatus (aka hiatal) hernias afflict a hefty portion of the populace and you don't have to be old to have one. I was 39 when mine happened.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #10 on: 26 September, 2013, 09:00:28 am »
Sounds like oesophagitis to me,

I have this - I take Omeprazole.

Without the drugs, even with very careful diet control, I get inflamation in my windpipe with severely restricts my breathing. Pains in chest, difficulty breathing. At first a doc thought I had copd or asthma.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Euan Uzami

Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #11 on: 26 September, 2013, 01:51:20 pm »
Sounds like oesophagitis to me, or even a hiatus hernia.  The hernia can be caused by wearing trousers that are too tight: it happened to me in the 80s when I lost a lot of weight, had my pants taken in, and then went on a trip to Denmark and drank too much beer. The hernia happens when the stomach pushes up so hard against the diaphragm that the sphincter closing the oesophagus fails and a bit of stomach pokes up through to form a little pocket in the thorax. Gas or liquid can accumulate in this: you can feel it but not belch it away. It can also cause very sharp spasmodic pains that give a good imitation of a heart attack, as my doc joyously told me.  If you drink anything fizzy the gas inflates the pocket and you desperately need to belch but can't.

One of the other consequences of this that since the sphincter fails to close completely, stomach acid can invade the oesophagus and give you heroic heartburn.  The irritation also makes swallowing unpleasant. NSAIDs can make it worse because they reduce mucus production, and the interior of the oesophagus has a protective mucus coating that needs to be constantly renewed. You might need to avoid anti-inflammatories like Ibuprofen and Naproxen for a while. Medicines are available that depress stomach-acid production and help recovery. They can also counter the side-effects of NSAIDs, in fact it's common to prescribe the two together.

According to my doc, surgical procedures to alleviate the hernia are about 50% successful. Better live with it, he says. Fortunately, the intra-thoracic pocket can recede of its own accord and the symptoms disappear: however the weakness is there and overconstricting the midriff can bring it back PDQ.

In your place I'd return to the first doc and rearrange his fundament with my boot, because hiatus (aka hiatal) hernias afflict a hefty portion of the populace and you don't have to be old to have one. I was 39 when mine happened.

so is the actual hernia itself episodic (as it sounds) or is the hernia permanent, but the symptoms of it episodic?

thanks for the info anyway.

Pedaldog.

  • Heedlessly impulsive, reckless, rash.
  • The Madcap!
Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #12 on: 27 September, 2013, 12:10:10 am »
Does it affect your voice production at all?  I got to see the Consultant a couple of weeks ago and by Yesterday he had me in a Barium swallow at the hospital and his secretary told me they need to "Carry out further Investigation" on the Cyst he found on my Voice box. I have the same sort of physical discomforts you mention in your first post as well as the fact that I shout to speak  and get a bubbly whisper coming out of my mouth a lot of the time.
You touch my Coffee and I'll slap you so hard, even Google won't be able to find you!

Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #13 on: 27 September, 2013, 08:23:07 am »
If I don't take the omeprazole, I start to have problems with my voice.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Tightness in throat/chest
« Reply #14 on: 27 September, 2013, 10:33:14 am »
Sounds like oesophagitis to me, or even a hiatus hernia....

so is the actual hernia itself episodic (as it sounds) or is the hernia permanent, but the symptoms of it episodic?

thanks for the info anyway.

Sorry to be so slow, I lost sight of the topic.

The hernia can come and go, but the damage to the sphincter is permanent.

The voice can be affected as well because, with the sphincter never closing all the way, stomach fluids can remount the oesophagus and occasionally reach the vocal chords.  Since I acquired mine, my pleasing bass-baritone singing voice has become hoarse and lacking in range, and if I try to sing for more than a few seconds I start coughing.  At the time I thought this was merely the effect of the Inlaw Maw moving in with us but she shuffled off the coil 20 years ago and it's still a mess: it's the acid.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight