I am in the US, so financial calculations need to be factored in.
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe, felt like I was going to die, then vomitted.
Now heart beating slightly off, not feeling great but not terrible, had mild chest pain earlier in evening…
Kinda feel off. Have medical insurance with large deductible.
Ignore it? Taxi to ER? Call 911? Genuinely don’t know and don’t like 911 since police are involved.
Also I feel hot, feel burning around my neck.
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Learned recently that reflux can cause throat cancer or some shit. Listen to what your body is saying.
This is what killed my grandfather. Before he passed, they removed half his esophagus and pulled his stomach into his chest to remove the damaged parts, that lasted a few years, then he gave in to cancer.
Definitely get on top of it while you still can.
Chiming in to say you’re right. I ignored acid reflux for years and now have what’s called “Barret’s esophagus”, pre-cancerous cells in my throat. It turned out I had a hiatus hernia. Had that repaired and now have a gastroscopy every couple of years to check I don’t have cancer. So yes, listen to your body.
Yeah, I think I’ll just go back to sleep and risk death. Tired of being fuxked over by hospitals, society, everyone. If I die, so be it. Peace out.
Hope ya didn’t die.
For those in a similar situation the correct answer is Uber to a hospital ER. Do not use stand alone ERs. Chest pain gets ya to the front of the line.
This. They’ll hook you up immediately to an ECG to see the state of your heart in the moment and draw blood for labs to check for signs of a recent heart attack or clot issue (trops, d-dimer, etc.). If ischemic heart attack, you’ll be rushed to cath lab. Urgent Care doesn’t have the resources to do this and will likely re-route to a hospital anyway, charging you separately in addition.
I’ve had something similar other than the heart rate stuff, and like top comment says it was acid reflux. But if an irregular heart rhythm persists more than you have felt before, then absolutely go!
Found the American… 🥴
I am in the US
Nice work, detective.
When you remove all that is impossible, whatever remains, must be the truth
Username checks out
Consider going to a walk in clinic. If it’s nothing serious, you pay 100-200 and you’re on your way. If you go to the ER and it’s nothing serious, your insurance may deduct you hundreds more (my ER copay is $500 and I have great insurance).
If it is serious, the walk in will tell you to go to the ER. In that case, the insurance may waive the ER copay. While it is true they can’t deny you care, this system of expensive ER copay was presumably put in place to stop people using the ER to provide free care. Check your insurance policy (preferably before you get sick). I believe some places also have free clinics, but I would expect them to be pretty crowded.
Good luck OP. This sounds serious and you need to take care of your health. Try to find a way you can at least get some real qualified medical advice, even if you seemingly recovered this time.
Heart issues? Chest pain?! They’re not touching OP with a ten-foot frog, straight to the ER is all they will say.
You’re not wrong, but I would rather OP seek any qualified medical care than none, even if all they do is refer them to the ER.
Op, you alive?
Sounds like heat illness. Did you sleep too hot?
Welcome to America. Where medical advice is asked to a bunch of weebs on the internet over going to the fucking hospital when you feel ill because of money concerns… I hate it here.
Welcome to like more than 50% of the world.
This entire fucking planet is a dystopia.
Welcome to like more than 50% of the world
But it’s the bottom 50%. And, in 100 years, it has fallen to 50%.
Trending is good.
America is probably the reason those other places don’t have health care as well.
I had those issues before the doctor diagnosed GERD/Reflux, and prescribed medication. Now I take a Famotidine every day, twice if I’ve had something particularly spicy. I never have that problem anymore.
I finally did something about it when I aspirated in the middle of the night, like you did. It can actually give you pneumonia, which happened to me.
BTW, a banana can act as a pretty good acid treatment in a pinch., like in the middle of the night.
Also, which side you sleep on makes a difference, too. Your esophagus goes straight down the middle of your chest, until it reaches your stomach, which makes a left turn. So when you sleep on your left side, the opening to the esophagus is above the stomach, making it difficult for food to slip into it.
But if you sleep on your right side, your stomach is above the opening, and any undigested contents are up against that opening… if it’s weak, or opens, gravity draws that food into your esophagus, causing reflux.
So sleeping on your left side is preferred.
This was me when I had Norovirus, though the puking was preceded by firehose-level shits until I took an Imodium, after which it switched ends before deciding on some rather unpleasant alternating events
So, are you still alive?
I know its late for this but you can also start with Urgent Care. With insurance it could be a fairly cheap copay. They will advise on what to do next. You could have something like the flu (i had the flu and it fucked me all sorts of up) and theyd just prescribe you some medicine and rest
Ironically, if your situation is “Urgent”, you do not go to an “Urgent Care”. Its a misnomer.
I had chest pains and the Urgent Care I went to just told me to go to an ER. I’m like… 🧐 they didn’t have blood tests lmfao. “Urgent” Care is for flu and like ear infections, not for a fucking heart attack or gasterointestinal problems.
Edit: It turned out to be fucking anxiety. Lmfao I hate myself. I was on my parent’s insurance so they covered most of it.
Glad you went. I worked with a healthy young guy, he was like 26 at the time, and he had a heart attack on shift. It can happen to anyone.
Oh and the lovely hospital made him wait hours to be seen because they thought he was too young for a heart attack.
I mean in case you missed it, I said it was anxiety. They found nothing from blood tests, chest x-ray showed nothing. The “chest pain” was just my anxiety. So in hindsight, I could’ve just skipped all the trouble if I had known… 🤷♂️
Yeah I caught that. I’m just saying I’m glad you went even though it was “nothing”. I do not go to the doctor when I should.
Regardless im glad you are ok :) i have anxiety too and it can be scary
Urgent Care (or possibly insurance, I can’t recall) will charge you more if they deem the situation “not urgent.”
Yea likely insurance, but it would likely still be cheaper than an ER visit
Medical debt in the US is an unsecured debt. You won’t be thrown in jail or any impact on credit if it takes you forever to pay it off. Go to the emergency room and ask for a payment plan when the bills due. Then, do what you wish with the first sentence I wrote.
or any impact on credit
Unfortunately I think the regulation that would have made that the case was stopped by the Trump administration
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/26/nx-s1-5406799/cfpbs-medical-debt-credit-report-lawsuit (arc)
Doesn’t look likes it’s passed yet, but that isn’t good news.
Yes. I personally wouldn’t call a wee-woo wagon, but it’s def not normal.
Here’s some general life advice: if your body (especially your heart) starts doing things it shouldn’t be doing you should probably talk to a doctor. You have insurance, this is what it’s for. Hit up your nearest urgent care.
Healthcare, in the US, is still pretty expensive even if you have insurance. Chosing between maybe dying or being disabled, and being homeless is pretty common place here in the best country in the world.
I am a disabled American in my 50s, I have dealt with serious medical issues my entire life, including the ones that have made me unable to work for the last ~15 years. I understand the healthcare ‘system’, such as it is, far too well. But you know what sucks worse than being broke? Being dead.
We’re not talking about being dead vs being broke. We’re talking about being MAYBE dead vs being homeless, hungry, and unable to clothe your children.
Health insurance exists for medical emergencies; vomiting and chest pains are signs of a heart attack which, I dunno where you’re from, but where I’m from that sounds like a medical emergency to me.
I get that the US healthcare system is bad and exploitative and absolutely leaves people in crippling, life-altering debt. But one fucking trip to urgent care is not going to render you homeless unless something is very seriously wrong with you in which case see also: being dead also sucks pretty hard.
You have insurance
No. If you had decided to pull your head out of your ass, you would know that insurance in The US is not a thing.
I am a disabled American in my 50s, I have dealt with serious medical issues my entire life, including the ones that have made me unable to work for the last ~15 years. Please tell me some more of these wild-assed assumptions you’ve made about how little I understand about healthcare in the US.
