Chest Pains or Something Worse?

(Taken in Pensacola)

Last week, we had that crazy freak winter storm that brought 8" of snow to the Florida panhandle, and freezing temps to our little home in North Central Florida. It was expected to be worse than it was, so I was able to stay home on Wednesday, January 22nd, and Hubby was home since his employer was cutting hours after the new year (he was off the schedule for a good few weeks, honestly). He was actually supposed to return to work on Thursday, January 23rd, but stayed home because of the weather. 

On Friday, he woke up with some pain across his pectoral area; first he thought that he'd slept wrong, but as the day progressed, he began to worry that something was really wrong... Chest pain is nothing to ignore when you're 50 and out of shape! We used Dr. Google and came up with some scary and not-so-scary options, and opted to take a wait and see approach over the next day or so. We weren't seeing any symptoms of a heart attack, so this approach seemed safe. He skipped work on Friday, and later decided that he should stay home until we figured out what was wrong (nobody wants to have a heart attack at work, right?)

By Saturday night, the pain was still there, varying in severity, and he decided he was ready to see a doctor. On Sunday morning, I reached out to his Primary Care Physician via MyChart to request an appointment for Monday (I didn't know that this was a stupid idea when I did it). I worked from home on Monday, and all day, I was waiting for a reply from his doc (I should have just called, honestly). He was still feeling pain in his chest, around his sternum and pecs, above the nipple line. 

I went to work on Tuesday and got a call from the doctor's office finally. They said that in the future, I should just call the office directly; using My Chart isn't the best for these kinds of things. So I left work early and we headed over to the doc. He told them that he'd experienced this pain three or four times over the past few months, but this was the worst time, lasting for days. There may not be correlation, but he believes that he feels a corresponding pain in his back, along the same plane, above the shoulder blade area. 

They poked and prodded him, listened to his heart and lungs, never making any oh no sounds, not even any hmmmm sounds, which was good. They ruled out any sort of cardiac issues, even going so far as recommending an EKG. I expected that we'd have to go somewhere else to do the EKG, but they just rolled a machine into the room, put little stickers all over him, and shot some voltage through him. Results came out perfectly fine. Between all of this, I think we ended up seeing at least five different people (Nurse, Medical Assistant, Dr. R, Attending Doc, and EKG Guy). Everyone was very nice, which put Hubby at ease (he's still not a huge fan of doctors in general, so it's like trying to earn the trust of a whipped dog). 

While we were alone in the room, waiting for the Attending Doc to come back, I gave him a few snuggles to ease his anxiety, and suggested again that we need to get up and get moving, stretching, walking, all that stuff. I know he knows we need to do that, but he's just not there yet mentally. It's like when someone tells you you need to quit smoking. You know you should but you don't want to, so you don't. It's frustrating for me, but I can't force him to do anything... He's an obstinate man and any change has to come from his end, not mine. All I can do, really, is be a good example for him, and encourage him when I see him trying something new. 

Dr. R concluded that his problem must be something musculoskeletal, and suggested using pain meds (like Tylenol) or topical creams (like Voltaren) to lessen the pain. Dr. R even submitted the Voltaren (diclofenac) as a prescription to see if would be covered by his insurance, which it was! Name brand would cost $20 a tube, generic would cost $13, but prescription covered three tubes for $19. Voltaren is best for relieving arthritis pain, improving mobility, and reducing stiffness. 

I picked up his prescription after work the next day, and it seems to work fine. There's no magic salve for muscle pain, no matter what anyone says. But it worked enough that he stopped moping around the house like an old man. 

Of course, now that his immediate pain is gone, he's reverted back to old habits; he's not taking care of himself, not stretching to make sure this doesn't happen again. So this will probably happen again. And he'll complain about the pain and put on some goo. And the cycle will continue.