Heart Hurts When Sleeping On My Left Side

[boogerjones]

And besides, if I do get it checked, what will they do? CT scan? Do I have to not eat/drink or do I have to drink like some weird metal so the scanners can read?

What they would do is some pretty basic stuff: a basic history to better characterize the problem and any associated symptoms, a physical exam, including a detailed cardiovascular exam, a history of family problems, and questions to categorize your risk for certain problems.

Most doctors will think of things like costochondritis and maybe acid reflux or anxiety for the problem you're describing. But they'll also consider the rare possibility of life-threatening chest pain pathologies (these seem very unlikely in your case, but they get at least brief consideration in ANYONE who comes in with chest pain).

Another serious, but unlikely, possibility is early heart failure, which often causes problems at night when you're lying down. Sometimes it's a genetic disease you can get even if your parents didn't have it.

I HIGHLY doubt they would want a CT scan for this; only if they suspected something really nasty like an aortic dissection or pulmonary embolism. What you have doesn't sound like either of those and it's probably not worth the exposure to ionizing radiation at your age. They might get a chest x-ray, though.

If it hurts on the ribs when the doctor pushes on your chest, you'll be diagnosed with musculoskeletal pain and be told to stop sleeping on it and take a short course of Ibuprofen.

About your BMI: it's low, but the BMI estimation is less accurate for short guys, so it's probably not an issue.

Bottom line: just go get checked out and don't worry about it. This post/thread could go on for weeks about the possibilities. But the reason doctors will always have a job is because there is simply no replacement for getting face-to-face with one of us and letting us poke and probe. And that will never change.

Edited December 16, 2009 by boogerjones