Why is the pressure on in the right side of the heart different from the pressure in the left side of the heart

Why is the pressure on in the right side of the heart different f…?

http://www.chacha.com/question/why-is-the-pressure-on-in-the-right-side-of-the-heart-different-from-the-pressure-in-the-left-side-of-the-heart

The left ventricle has a thicker muscle-it must pump blood to the rest of the body against much higher pressure in thecirculation.

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What Sickness Could This Be?

Q: My wife started having severe pain in her left chest last night. The pain is located on her left side, just inside the lower part of her left breast. Around where the bottom of your heart would be. It’s a sharp stabbing pain, as she describes it. She says the pain is deep inside. Pressing on her stomach, abdomen, lower chest area could not make the pain worse. It is inside. Perhaps past the rib cage.We went to the emergency room last night and spent 4 hours there while the Doctors did tests. She is fairly young, 33 years old. No bad medical history. She doesn’t have any medical conditions, diseases, or problems. Other than being fairly overweight, she has always been in good physical health and isn’t one to ever complain or make stuff up.So the Dr. at the emergency room did a series of different tests. The EKG came out totally normal, and they were monitoring her heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen, etc. for hours. All that seemed totally healthy. Blood tests looked normal. They thought maybe it was just indigestion so they had her drink a mix of Malox and Lidocaine to rule out indigestion. And the pain persisted long after that and still persists now, 18 hours later too. Definitely not indigestion. They took X-rays and the lungs looked healthy. No lung collapse. Heart looked healthy, as per the X-ray. Ribs looked good. Nothing indicative on the X-ray.A nurse suggested maybe it was gallstones. But the Dr. didn’t seem to want to pursue that very much. They did NOT do an ultrasound on the gallbladder. Only thing they did that might have checked for gallstones was a blood test. But from what I read online, the gallbladder is on the right side of your chest or abdomen anyway. So since her pain is precisely in the lower LEFT chest, maybe that’s why the Dr. didn’t seem to think it was a gallbladder thing.So after hours of testing different things and ruling out a heart attack, they finally sent us home with some Vicodin (pain killer) and said if it still hurts on Monday to to see a family doctor.So now it’s Sunday and she is still in bed, writing in pain, unless she takes these Vicodin every 4-5 hours. She keels over in pain and the pain is pretty intense. From diagrams I can find online, it looks like the items in this area where she is having pain are the lower heart, the lower left lung, and the top of the stomach.She can’t get up and walk without the pain getting worse so she’s just been staying in bed on the painkillers.She says she has to take short breaths because big deep breaths make the pain worse.Based on this information, anyone have a clue what this could be? She is bedridden at this point and I have no clue how to help her except just to wait until we can see a Doctor again. And I have no idea how long it will be before we will be able to see a Doctor. It could be days. Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

A: It’s unlikely anything to do with the gallbladder, as it’s on the right side of the body, and a gallstone wouldn’t likely cause such long-lasting pain. The fact that it hurts when she breathes in indicates that the problem is probably in her lung, or very near the lung. The fact that she is overweight may also point to the heart, even if EKG were inconclusive at the time. To me, it sounds most like a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in the lung, which is very serious. However, the fact that it didn’t respond to tests could mean something as benign as a muscle strain. It could also be a stomach or aesophageal ulcer, maybe aggravated by acid reflux. Your best bet for a certain diagnosis is to continue having tests run until something unusual is found. Since none of us on yahoo! answers can see the x-rays and other results ourselves, there’s never going to be a definite ruling online. Best of luck to you both.

Why am I having Nightmares?

Q: Slight background info. I’m seventeen – a computer gaming teen (World of Warcraft), good self esteem. I’m laughing at school constantly, and overall enjoying daily life. I’m a real optimistic person, things like having to walk five or six miles in the pouring rain because I forgot my bus money don’t upset me. I’ll give a description of some of the nightmares I’ve been having. Some may sound funny – but to me they seemed damn realistic and I’ve started to wake up a lot and have been sleeping terribly. In one it was me being pursued through dark woods by rotted corpses (I suppose I could allot this one to video games). In many others, it is me being pursued by something (creature, humanoid) through different landscapes, and they are some of the most realistic dreams I’ve had (seems like real first-person). Yesterday may have been the one that’s made me most anxious as I continuously woke up (5-6 times). Before I went to sleep last night – I was thinking about this girl, we’ve been talking a lot, overall, I was thinking positive things, very excited to meet her in a few weeks (she is my sister’s best friend, they live together, and I play WoW with her. Nerdy or not, I like her). Starts off at an amusement park where I’m picking up these three girls and their mother? Anyway. The theme park resembled that of one I had had in previous dreams (in a previous dream, I’d had a dream about being lost/wandering through one of these parks (but it wasn’t a nightmare)). They have some ticket points left (apparently rides are by ticket points?? Kind of like the cards you get hole punched at a local beverage store, I guess).So we go off to ride this one specific ride, but it’s closed, so me and one of the daughters (a pretty girl, although I believe her image was generated in my mind through a mixture of woman). We went past a play pool, and there were two guys in there. (Outside (away from the arcade) the park is virtually empty). So we go to her room (they hadn’t checked out yet, I suppose?) and we are sitting and talking, when we hear an explosion. We hear all kinds of cops and official cars pull up. This is the first time I remember waking up to do some huge anxiety. When I slipped back into the dream – it was right at the same spot. The officials came into our room (they were checking room to room) and even though we didn’t do anything, I still felt VERY anxious about the officials interrogating us. (mind you, I’ve never done anything illegal in real life). This sounds cheesy, but even recalling this part still puts a sort of ‘pressure’ on my lungs because I was finding it hard to breath. Rather than interrogating us, the officials say, you guys headin’ home tonight? We say yeah. Rather than answer us, an Indian guy who’s apparently a seismologist tells us California is burning almost all the way to this point (we are in Sand Diego would be my guess). Instead of finding our parents, we jump in the car with an FBI official and the seismologist (me and the girl), and start driving. I started to ‘hear’ things in this part, and when I turned around in the seat (back left side SUV), I see lava erupting from the ground, and we actually start driving over small bits of lava, and trees are beginning to burn in many directions. I wake up again here, but slip right back in. When I slip back in, we are going over some hills in the car. I have a slight fear of cars going fast over decently angled hills (I’m afraid we’ll nose dive into the ground). After each hill, which was really taxing my heart because it was beating really fast, the last hill we went flying into the ocean. I am mortally terrified of drowning in a car in a lake or ocean. Rather than waking up and going off – I managed to actually break the rear back window in time, and the girl and myself, along with the FBI official got out. During this time, I my heart was really racing. The seismologist did not get out. I woke up again. Slipping back in, we three were walking on the coastline (dark, moon showing overhead) and we find a coastline settlement (the kind that half is on air barrels on wooden planks, the restaurants maybe over solid land). We three are slightly panicking, as we are afraid the land is going to be very unsafe very soon. I wander off a little, and came upon this open garage. In it was a ?floating bubble? and seemingly humanoid mother and her son, although when she threatened to kill me with the weapon in her hand a hard gaze, I walked back to the settlement. I was actually ‘thinking’ at this point about whether or not it was the aliens, and came to the conclusion that they were just one of the many races present on our planet and some terrible thing was happening. Might sound funny – but when she pointed the weapon at me, I didn’t think it was funny. Might not have been as exhilarating as getting out of the car, but it was damn close. Rather than tell my other two companions, I decided they’d think I’m nuts so I kept my moumouth shut. The FBI official was pulling all of his cash out of his wallet, trying to get money to borrow a boat so we could take to sea. He was short, but people from all over this little village started to walk over and put fives, tens, and twenties down. My alarm went off right about here – and it ended, but this is probably one of the most heart taxing nightmares I’ve had, and I slept like crap.

A: You could go see a doctor. And/or learn to control your dreams. You can find out how to do this by google searching lucid-dreaming. By searching this you can learn how to control your dreams. It may sound crazy but maybe if you learn to control your dreams and dream what you want then the nightmares should go away.There’s guides all over the Internet to help you. Also before you sleep try to think of something other than video games. A different hobby like sports or even if you don’t want to school, think about anything other than video games before you go to bed. This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy and talk about video games just think of something different around 20 min. Before goin to bed. Try watching a half hour sitcom on tv before bed.Good luck 🙂

Faking a Stroke or TIA..?

Q: Right, this is going to sound a little weird, but basically my father works away form home for the last 20 odd years. He comes home every 6months & stays for 5 weeks-ish. & Me & my family are convinced he fakes illnesses while home!!!Everytime he is here, he seems to get ill (even though he’s never ill while working away) Last time he “slipped a disk in his back” which suddenly got better, when no1 gave him nay attention! Everytime a different thing!Well now I think he’s gone too far! 2 mornings ago I got the news that my Mum had taken him to hospital, as he was acting as though he had a stroke! To cut a very long story short.. he was doing things like looking at his coffee & then saying “I don’t know where I left my coffee” also saying his left side was numb.I went to the hospital later that day to see him, as they had put him on a ward. He seemed perfectly normal to me.. apart form putting on a stupid voice, the kind people or should I say children do when they are faking being ill. He had a CT scan, which showed nothing & all his vitals like blood pressure, pulse & oxygen levels were perfectly normal.My brother likes the attention of his Dad being in hospital, just as much as my Dad likes the attention when he usually fakes being ill. My brother told me at the hospital that they thought Dad had a “mini stroke”.. I know i’m not a Dr but even I questioned why all the tests he had had were normal.I came home & googled mini strokes & found out about TIA’s etc. Even if he had had one of these, he would have been perfectly back to normal by the time I seen him, yet he was still playing at being ill!!!Well today, somehow the CT scan from yesterday now shows 2 dark spots???? When yesterday it showed nothing. Apparently a consultant came & spoke 2him about it, when only my brother & Dad were there. So was told he’d need a MRI. (form what I read a MRI of someone who had a TIA would look the same as someone who had actually had a full blown stroke?) & Had a heart machine hooked up to him today, which he has to leave on for 24hours.Basically what I want to know, is could he have actually had a TIA without it showing on any tests? I know I could ask his Dr, but I haven’t been back to the hospital & don’t plan to.. as I just don’t believe there is anything wrong with him & I’m so annoyed he has lied about something so serious & wasted all my families time!Would the hospital have to keep him in as a precaution? As he’s still playing something is wrong with him? Even though the tests are coming up clear? I suppose we’ll know more once he gets the MRI, but what if that shows nothing too?Sorry to have bore you all with this HUGE post! Ha ha

A: This sounds that it could be a case of Münchausen syndrome. It’s at type of psychiatric disorder where the person fakes being ill just to get sympathy and attention from others. Sometimes it can go as far as people getting their kids to the hospital with fake diseases so that they can get the attention from hospital staff.A TIA would fully resolve itself after some time, but if the person experiences TIA on constant basis, it could be a sign that a stroke is on the way.When a stroke happens part of the neural tissue in the brain dies, and the person loses the function of that part of the brain for good. When TIA happens, the neural tissue does not die, and the person only loses the function of that part of the brain whiel the attack lasts. I guess it could be possible to see post TIA on MRI if the normal function of that neural tissue was not fully restored yet (if blood is not flowing fully through, and there is only enough oxygen available to sustain the life othe tissue).But do look into the Münchausen syndrome more.It’s a tough syndrome, b/c it’s like that boy who cried wolf, is something serious does happen and people think that person is faking, it could be fatal.