At my one-year follow-up with my surgeon, the surgeon's assistant encouraged me to discuss with my primary care doctor the pain that starts in my right chest and radiates into my shoulder blade. Women don't always feel heart attack pain in the stereotypical way, she reminded me.
We talked more about it when my surgeon came in. I described it as "sharp pain, quite intense" and my surgeon said, "Not intense enough to go to the ER, though?"
"Almost intense enough," I replied. "But not quite. Could it just be gas?" I asked.
"I hate to write off pain as 'just gas,'" he replied, and suggested that the next time I have the pain, I take a Gas-X. If the pain decreases, that gives us information.
Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night with the now-familiar pain building in the right side of my chest and spreading back into my shoulder blade. My husband was up, letting out the dogs, so I asked him to bring me a Gas-X. I was half asleep, but it seemed that almost immediately, the pain lessened. Hurray! Apparently my scary, painful attacks are simply gas.
Embarrassing but definitely preferable to needing my gallbladder removed.
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