Is this a heart or a back problem?

Question

Every few days, I get this... "spiralling" numb pain on the left side of my back, just around my shoulder blade. It feels like someone is taking their hand and digging their fingernails into my back in a circular pattern, and it also feels like pins and needles.

Today, at work, it started doing that, and it started hurting a lot. Then, I started sweating and I felt really hot, and the pain got so bad that my vision started going a bit blurry and I couldn't focus on what I was doing. It started feeling like there was something wrapped around my body, pushing on my chest from all directions, and restricting my ability to breathe. I tried to ignore it and concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing, and it went away after about twenty minutes, although the pain/numbness in my back keeps coming back.

Is there something wrong with my heart or my back?

Answer 1

This is definitely NOT A BACK PROBLEM. I haver never seen/heard these symptoms with any back problem !



From your description YOU HAVE ANGINA PECTORIS until proven otherwise.



To be safe rather than sorry you should see your doctor and get yourself examined ASAP.



Good Luck.

Answer 2

I had those exact same problems when I was getting shingles. It felt like someone was running a thin razor blade along my skin. I also had numbness for a few months before that, and the doc said it could be a latent nerve irritation from the old chicken pox virus (shingles follows along a nerve and crops up if you've had chicken pox in the past). It can also cause a strange pins and needles feeling because the nerve is irritated. Look at your back, along the line where you're feeling the numbness and pain, to see if there are any red spots popping out. Check it out every morning or so because if you do get shingles, you need to see a doc right away to get anti-viral medication.



I'm wondering if the pain didn't cause you to panic and start breathing irregularly, which would have caused you to have blurry vision and feel like you couldn't catch your breath.



If you feel that again, try changing positions. Are you doing work that requires some sort of repetitive motion with your left arm, or a twisting motion of your body? If you can get the discomfort to stop by changing positions or rubbing the area, it is probably not your heart. Just to be sure, you should make a doc appointment and explain your symptoms so they can check a few things out for you. That's really the only way to know for sure what might be going on.

Good luck!

Answer 3

That doesn't sound like it has anything to do with your back. If you don't get to a hospital asap the consequences could be very bad to say the least. I am a nurse and all of the things you have described are signs of a heart attack. The only way to determine if someone has had a heart attack is by blood work so please don't ignore the signs. When someone has a heart attack there are enzymes that are released in your blood. If I were you I would take an aspirin right now and get to the hospital immediately. Please don't ignore this! Better safe than sorry.

Answer 4

Chest pain (the excerpts below are from source below)



The heart, lungs, esophagus, and great vessels provide afferent visceral input through the same thoracic autonomic ganglia. A painful stimulus in these organs is typically perceived as originating in the chest, but because afferent nerve fibers overlap in the dorsal ganglia, thoracic pain may be felt anywhere between the epigastrium and the jaw, including the arms or shoulders (as referred pain). Painful stimuli from thoracic organs can produce discomfort described as pressure, gas, burning, aching, and sometimes sharp pain. Because the sensation is visceral in origin, many patients deny they are having pain and insist it is merely discomfort.

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Testing: For anyone with chest pain, minimal testing includes pulse oximetry, ECG, and chest x-ray. For adults, blood tests for cardiac markers are often done. Results of these tests should be integrated with findings from the history and physical examination, and specific diagnoses should be pursued. Blood tests are not valuable as a primary screen. In particular, a single normal set of cardiac markers should not be used to rule out a cardiac cause. If myocardial ischemia is likely, tests should include serial measurement of cardiac markers and ECGs and possibly stress ECG or a stress imaging test (see Coronary Artery Disease: Testing).



A diagnostic trial of sublingual nitroglycerinSome Trade Names

NITRO-BID

NITRO-DUR

NITROL

NITROQUICK

Drug Information

or an oral liquid antacid does not adequately differentiate myocardial ischemia from GERD or gastritis. Either drug may relieve symptoms of either disorder.



Treatment: Specific identified disorders are treated. If etiology is not clearly benign, patients are usually admitted to the hospital or an observation unit for cardiac monitoring and more extensive evaluation. Symptoms are treated with acetaminophen or opioids as needed, pending a diagnosis.



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PERSONAL NOTE:



It is important that you contact your personal physician and tell him or her about your symptoms. I believe that you should have testing to determine if a stroke or heart attack is emminent. It could merely be blockage of an artery...that can be a big problem, though. Better to be safe than an emergency case.

Answer 5

Oh boy, normally a heart problem would run in front and down the arm (if bad)...Sounds like a back issue..Next time u should def call your local ER incase it was a heart issue rather than Yahoo:)-GOOD LUCK! :)

Answer 6

Gosh, it could have been a heart attack. You should have gone to the ER. Make an appointment with your doctor and get tests to determine if something is wrong with your heart (asap). God Bless.

Answer 7

It could be because there is not enough blood circulation due to perhaps disuse atrophy or perhaps due to the fact that part of your body was at rest for two or three hours. You can find good home remedies for this. I did find some at http://ailments.in/peripheralneuropathy.html

Answer 8

Gall stones?, my systems were, pain radiate from my back through my front, like some one pushing a cold heavy rod through my back and out my chest.

Answer 9

You have a few systomes that can be heart you need a cardiac work up now.

Answer 10

hi

you female?=if so it sounds to me like you have had an angina attack and that is connected to the heart see your Dr as soon as possible ok