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You should know these symptoms of heart problems. [1]
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Date: 2022-12-07
Heart Attack ?
(TLDR at bottom.)
A few weeks ago I awoke with a stiff neck. My left trapezius muscle (shoulder, neck, back) was sore. No big deal, the bedroom was cool and my shoulder had probably been chilled — right? After all, the pain was mitigated by warmth, by aspirin, or by liniment — all the usual treatments for stiff neck.
But after a couple days I also had a bout of GERD — reflux — a problem I’ve dealt with for years. I used an OTC proton-pump inhibitor (to reduce stomach acid) and that worked fine (because that symptom I got right — it really was a bout of reflux).
However, the combination of a pain in the middle (GERD, reflux, heartburn) combined with the pain in my shoulder prompted me, once again, to look up the symptoms of heart attack. That “research” was inconclusive, but considering that I was already taking a statin for my blood LDL and that my calcium score was high (hardening of the arteries), I visited a local urgent care facility. They took an EKG, which looked uninteresting — but they still recommended I visit the ER. So I did.
In the ER, they again ran an uninteresting EKG, but also tested my blood for troponin level — a protein indicative of heart attack. That, too, was below the threshold of concern, but a second such test (also below the threshold) was enough higher than the first that the cardiologist ordered a catheterization. In this test, a catheter is slid up an artery in arm or groin to the heart, where it’s used to inject an X-ray “contrast” (photo-opaque dye) to allow them to view the blood flow in the cardiac arteries. Not unexpectedly, there was some obstruction, but not enough to warrant inserting a stent. Instead, I was advised to visit my regular cardiologist in a week.
In the interim, I experienced an additional symptom: It was as if I’d just hiked up a hill and my heart was pounding — not fast, not irregular, not at all painful, just disconcertingly “hard” beats. Such pounding may be normal during hard exercise, but not when one is lying in bed or sitting still, as was this case.
At that subsequent visit, my cardiologist reviewed the whole situation, and this time I emphasized to him that the reflux event was apparently just that and no further concern, but the “stiff neck” had by then continued for over three weeks, despite the several remedies I’d tried, and the “pounding” of my heart. As a result, he prescribed a “nitrate” drug (more or less equivalent to using nitroglycerin) in pill form.
This drug was a revelation. Yes, it can cause headache, which is a nuisance, but it almost immediately stopped both the pounding of my heart and the shoulder pain. My conclusion is obvious: Both the “stiff neck” and the were symptoms of my heart problem. I seem not to have suffered any obvious consequence for the prolonged shoulder pain, but now I know I should have sought medical attention as soon as the pain was not cured by the usual remedies for stiff neck.
TRDR: I conclude that a “stiff neck” across the area of the trapezius muscle, and a pounding of the heart while sedentary, may be symptoms of heart problems, and warrant immediate medical attention. The “traditional” description of an “intense pain radiating down the left arm” is incomplete. Caveat: I am not a doctor. (However, in retrospect this description is consistent with one by the Mayo Clinic: www.mayoclinic.org/… )
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/7/2140510/-You-should-know-these-symptoms-of-heart-problems
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