# pain in chest and left shoulder?



## onedayatatime (Nov 28, 2008)

i have hiatal hernia gerd ibs,i get pain in my chest left side and in my shoulder it kinda feels like air trapped anyone else with this problem?any ideas to stop it?


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## Cherrie (Sep 1, 2006)

Hi Welcome to the site! chest pain is pretty typical of GERD (esp. when it is not well controlled). I used to have left shoulder/back pain feeling like trapped gas, too... I'm wondering what meds are you on? If you already have chest pain, you need to be on medication and also make some lifestyle changes. If you haven't tried Prilosec, that's an OTC med that many people start with. Or in your case, I'd go to the dr. and ask for a prescription med -- Prevacid or Protonix. These are PPI's that should be taken first thing in the morning. If you need to coat your stomach before going to bed, then maybe Mylanta (OTC). One more thing that did tons of good for me is to buy a wedge pillow and elevate my head and upper torso about 6-8 inches. It's by far the most effective way for me to prevent the acid from coming up at night. You might also want to stay away from acidic food and acid causing food, such as all citrus, tomatos, sweet potatos, pineapples, and store sold juice (they use acid to preserve the juice). There's more on the pinned thread on this forum, so if you're interested, do take a look Hope you find a way to manage very soon.


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## SJ1985 (Apr 1, 2006)

I think the most important part of coping with the chest pain you can get from GERD, just like the abdominal pains which are caused by IBS, is to not worry. Stomach acid, just like IBS pain, is increased by anxiety and worry (often about worse conditions which you don't have). The number of times I've ludicrously linked my IBS pain to appendicitis, and my acid reflux pain to heart problems, the truth is that I have perfect blood pressure, I'm only 23 and I've had mild cramps for 3 years. All is well with us, really, we have functional conditions which inconvenience us a little. I think so long as we relax, it gives our bodies a chance to catch up...


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