This arm pain and numbness is scary...

[peachychou123]

Couple days ago I was on my phone in bed for a while. I try to avoid this because I know it gives me tingly uncomfortable arms due to lack of blood flow. It’s usually mild enough that I can ignore it.

Well this time when I put my phone down I had extreme pain and numbness in my arms and hands. It lasted hours and I could not get relief from it. It was quite agonising. Because I was having some preexisting chest pains I got very scared and went to the ER. Because my last trip wasn’t too long ago a senior doctor saw me. He was kind of mad to be honest. Of course he had never heard of POTS and didn’t really care to hear about it. Basically he did an EKG and said you’re good - refused to do any blood draws because I had some not very long ago. I was upset by this and insisted this symptom was new but he wouldn’t budge and told me to go back home and rest.

Well ever since then my arms and hands have been quite painful and tingly on and off. I have no idea what’s causing this. It was the kind of ache and pain when you have a virus but I don’t have any other symptoms of one. 

My mind always panics whenever chest and arm pain are involved. I have regular chest pain but never arm pain like that. Now it seems like anytime I raise my arms above my head for more than 30 seconds they go tingly and numb. Trying to breathe right so as to avoid hyperventilating which makes it worse. I keep worrying my heart isn’t pumping correctly even though my pulse is strong and capillary refill time is okay. Anytime I get a new symptom I freak out. Anyone else experience this arm pain and numbness?

[Pistol]

@peachychou123 - I get numb and tingly arms and hands when I put my arms up. I often do this in my sleep and then wake up with numb arms. I don't believe that is due to a weak heart but rather due to the fact that the blood vessels in the arm get pinched off. Also - there are a lot of big nerves going through the armpit, they can do it too. 

[yogini]

7 hours ago, peachychou123 said:

Couple days ago I was on my phone in bed for a while. I try to avoid this because I know it gives me tingly uncomfortable arms due to lack of blood flow. It’s usually mild enough that I can ignore it.

Well this time when I put my phone down I had extreme pain and numbness in my arms and hands. It lasted hours and I could not get relief from it. It was quite agonising. Because I was having some preexisting chest pains I got very scared and went to the ER. Because my last trip wasn’t too long ago a senior doctor saw me. He was kind of mad to be honest. Of course he had never heard of POTS and didn’t really care to hear about it. Basically he did an EKG and said you’re good - refused to do any blood draws because I had some not very long ago. I was upset by this and insisted this symptom was new but he wouldn’t budge and told me to go back home and rest.

Well ever since then my arms and hands have been quite painful and tingly on and off. I have no idea what’s causing this. It was the kind of ache and pain when you have a virus but I don’t have any other symptoms of one. 

My mind always panics whenever chest and arm pain are involved. I have regular chest pain but never arm pain like that. Now it seems like anytime I raise my arms above my head for more than 30 seconds they go tingly and numb. Trying to breathe right so as to avoid hyperventilating which makes it worse. I keep worrying my heart isn’t pumping correctly even though my pulse is strong and capillary refill time is okay. Anytime I get a new symptom I freak out. Anyone else experience this arm pain and numbness?

If you get a regular heart work up your doctor should be able to tell you whether you are at risk for a heart attack, and the criteria you should use to go to the hospital  Although dysautonomia can feel scary it isn't typically connected to a heart attack.  For most of us, our doctors have advised us that we don't need to go to the ER unless we faint, etc.