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What Causes Upper Left Chest Pain And Increased Heart Rate?
Question: Back in February of 2016 I had an EGD done which found nothing. However that was done on a Thursday morning...the next morning Friday I woke up feeling horrible with left upper pain near my heart and a racing heart. I took myself to the ER where my heart rate was over 200 at times. They gave me fluids and took a chest xray and a kub xray both were said to be normal. They transported me to the hospital where they did an upper GI xray still normal lungs clear. Then they decided to do a chest cat scan with contrast....the dr then came back stating I had aspirative pneumonia? They gave me antibiotics and sent me home only saying if I don't get better to follow up with my pcp. I had a 2 view chest xray done that may which said my lungs were clear? I then last week finally got my report from my chest ct and am now extremely scared at what it says and am angry they did not communicate this to me....it states that in my upper posterior/ dependant left lobe there was multi focal nodularity with some ground glass opacity!!! Possibly aspirative pneumonia......what the heck I'm so scared now! I did take all of the antibiotics and got better however why would I not be told to follow up on this as everything I read about it is horrible.
Brief Answer:
Need follow up to make sure that the lesions have completely resolved
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thank you for using HCM to post your health query.
I read carefully your question and I understand your concern.
With what you are explaining me (and only by the information I have here) these are my thoughts:
Your symptoms were not typical for an aspiration pneumonia which would be often low-grade fever, malaise, change in mental status, cough, sputum typically not foul-smelling early in course may become malodorous (suggesting anaerobic infection) about 1 week into course and weight loss.
So, I think the finding of the CT scan has been something that the doctors didn't expect to find nor explain. Normally an x-ray would be enough to diagnose an aspiration pneumonia too.
So, my thoughts are that the doctors have treated you for aspiration pneumonia(because it was the most possible diagnose for those visible infiltrates in the lungs) but on the other side, they are not 100% sure about the diagnoses and the cause of it and that is why they do not have an answer for you. And this can happen, because medicine is not an exact science.
The best way to approach this is to follow it up. If you are feeling okay, then we would expect the lesions in the lungs to become smaller after the treatment with antibiotics and also smaller with the time.
But if my any chance those lesions in the lungs become larger, then you should be evaluated with other tests. That is why you need to keep a good relationship with your local doctor and follow up with them.
I hope this makes sense and helps to reassure you a bit.
Let me know if you need more clarifications.
Regards,
Dr. Papaqako
Need follow up to make sure that the lesions have completely resolved
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thank you for using HCM to post your health query.
I read carefully your question and I understand your concern.
With what you are explaining me (and only by the information I have here) these are my thoughts:
Your symptoms were not typical for an aspiration pneumonia which would be often low-grade fever, malaise, change in mental status, cough, sputum typically not foul-smelling early in course may become malodorous (suggesting anaerobic infection) about 1 week into course and weight loss.
So, I think the finding of the CT scan has been something that the doctors didn't expect to find nor explain. Normally an x-ray would be enough to diagnose an aspiration pneumonia too.
So, my thoughts are that the doctors have treated you for aspiration pneumonia(because it was the most possible diagnose for those visible infiltrates in the lungs) but on the other side, they are not 100% sure about the diagnoses and the cause of it and that is why they do not have an answer for you. And this can happen, because medicine is not an exact science.
The best way to approach this is to follow it up. If you are feeling okay, then we would expect the lesions in the lungs to become smaller after the treatment with antibiotics and also smaller with the time.
But if my any chance those lesions in the lungs become larger, then you should be evaluated with other tests. That is why you need to keep a good relationship with your local doctor and follow up with them.
I hope this makes sense and helps to reassure you a bit.
Let me know if you need more clarifications.
Regards,
Dr. Papaqako
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Arnab Banerjee
This makes me even more afraid and confused! So what your saying is that they just decided it might be aspirative pneumonia? That's ridiculous . I would only hope and pray that if they thought this was something not good they should have said something? I did have a low grade fever and this came on suddenly after my EGD? ..... I'm not too sure but it seems like you are suggesting this was something else?
Brief Answer:
I don't think your doctors have kept things from you.
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thank you for the follow-up question.
I am not concluding anything and even if I was, that would not be correct because I don't have all the information about your health and certainly i don't have the privilege to examine you clinically which your doctor has.
What I am saying is, in medicine we always decide the most possible diagnoses. There is never an absolute diagnosis, even if with the most common problems. So that is why the follow-up is needed.
In you case, we would expect the lesions not to expand, but to get smaller. If you are feeling better, that is an indication that they are getting better too.
I don't know your doctor, but I think that they may have told you all those details on what they think, as there is no reason (like you said) for them to keep things from you.
Hope this is helpful.
Please let me know if you have other questions or concerns.
Regards,
Dr.Papaqako
I don't think your doctors have kept things from you.
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thank you for the follow-up question.
I am not concluding anything and even if I was, that would not be correct because I don't have all the information about your health and certainly i don't have the privilege to examine you clinically which your doctor has.
What I am saying is, in medicine we always decide the most possible diagnoses. There is never an absolute diagnosis, even if with the most common problems. So that is why the follow-up is needed.
In you case, we would expect the lesions not to expand, but to get smaller. If you are feeling better, that is an indication that they are getting better too.
I don't know your doctor, but I think that they may have told you all those details on what they think, as there is no reason (like you said) for them to keep things from you.
Hope this is helpful.
Please let me know if you have other questions or concerns.
Regards,
Dr.Papaqako
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Arnab Banerjee
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