J
Joe2374
Guest
Hi, I hope someone will indulge me even after I admit i have not seen a doctor about this issue.
For starters I suffer from anxiety and i HAVE been seeing a doctor about that. I do know that anxiety can cause atypical stomach pains of every variety so I'm actually writing it off to that...but I'd like other opinons.
The situation this this:
To start I'd like to note that this pain comes and goes. It can happen 3 days in a row and then be gone for 3 months. it is normally just about the time that I'm ready to see a doctor that it abates. The symptoms generally follow this pattern...
First I'll feel a slight twinge of pain in what feels like it is maybe one inch below my sternum. From there it continues to get worse--in waves. It used to be that the waves were so bad that when it peaked I'd be just a fraction of an inch away from calling an arabulance. It is probably worth noting that the pain will often shoot up into my jaw and down my arms. (Also worthy of note is that I do see a cardiologist yearly, no issues there). AntaciRAB do virtually nothing but sipping water will sometimes help quench the pain just a little.
Up to here i don't think this would sound all that unusual. However, quite some time ago I figured out that ibuprofen would stop the pain. Granted it takes about 45 minutes but it works quite like clockwork to kill the pain--completely. I eventually switched to acetaminophen because it is gentler on the liver/stomach and it works equally well. From everything I have read this is an atypical response and these two drugs would normally make this kind of pain worse.
In general the pain starts when I'm horizontal. In PARTICULAR it can start if I'm horizontal and kinda twisted around to watch TV. None of that is 100% and there are times when it happens at work too when I'm upright but that is MUCH more rare. I can't link it back to a particular food or drink EXCEPT if I drink a tall glass of OJ before bed that is pretty reliable to bring on an attack. But when i say reliably I mean maybe 5% of the time. It is hard for me to stress how unpredictable the pain is and I have many years of observations to try to come up with useful patterns.
So I guess the question is what is the differential here? In particular why is ibuprofin and/or tylenol so helpful. In fact the only constant is that those drugs always work to stop the pain. It may be worth emphasizing that this is many years that I've had this and it hasn't gotten worse. I can go months at a time without an attack and then I can get 2-3 a week for a month.
I know this is long but it is a long story. Thanks,
Mike
For starters I suffer from anxiety and i HAVE been seeing a doctor about that. I do know that anxiety can cause atypical stomach pains of every variety so I'm actually writing it off to that...but I'd like other opinons.
The situation this this:
To start I'd like to note that this pain comes and goes. It can happen 3 days in a row and then be gone for 3 months. it is normally just about the time that I'm ready to see a doctor that it abates. The symptoms generally follow this pattern...
First I'll feel a slight twinge of pain in what feels like it is maybe one inch below my sternum. From there it continues to get worse--in waves. It used to be that the waves were so bad that when it peaked I'd be just a fraction of an inch away from calling an arabulance. It is probably worth noting that the pain will often shoot up into my jaw and down my arms. (Also worthy of note is that I do see a cardiologist yearly, no issues there). AntaciRAB do virtually nothing but sipping water will sometimes help quench the pain just a little.
Up to here i don't think this would sound all that unusual. However, quite some time ago I figured out that ibuprofen would stop the pain. Granted it takes about 45 minutes but it works quite like clockwork to kill the pain--completely. I eventually switched to acetaminophen because it is gentler on the liver/stomach and it works equally well. From everything I have read this is an atypical response and these two drugs would normally make this kind of pain worse.
In general the pain starts when I'm horizontal. In PARTICULAR it can start if I'm horizontal and kinda twisted around to watch TV. None of that is 100% and there are times when it happens at work too when I'm upright but that is MUCH more rare. I can't link it back to a particular food or drink EXCEPT if I drink a tall glass of OJ before bed that is pretty reliable to bring on an attack. But when i say reliably I mean maybe 5% of the time. It is hard for me to stress how unpredictable the pain is and I have many years of observations to try to come up with useful patterns.
So I guess the question is what is the differential here? In particular why is ibuprofin and/or tylenol so helpful. In fact the only constant is that those drugs always work to stop the pain. It may be worth emphasizing that this is many years that I've had this and it hasn't gotten worse. I can go months at a time without an attack and then I can get 2-3 a week for a month.
I know this is long but it is a long story. Thanks,
Mike