How would one rule out such a spasm?
This is the apparent cause of my visit to an emergency room. The pain in my chest was well beyond anything that I had previously experienced. But there was no elevated pulse, as might be expected with a cardiac event.
Is there a way to differentiate the spasm from any other cause?
But
History of acid reflux, heart-burn? Overweight (which sometimes seems to do something to the hiatus) or history of hiatus hernia? Any reason to suspect irritation of the esophagus?
Does it respond to Tums?
What did you eat? For example, minty things or starchy things, like, say, granola, seem sometimes to lead to irritation of the espohagus. Or swallowing a lot of air.
From my point of view I have no history of heart trouble and plenty of history of digestive upset. I just sit up, burp a few times, pop a tums or two, problem goes away. And I can usually tell it's coming nowadays before it gets bad. I had my first one more than 20 years ago and it hurt incredibly, I had to lie down and do breathing exercises, but I just somehow was sure it wasn't a heart attack. I had a few more episodes and finally figured out what it was.
One day I"m going to pop a couple of tums, burp, and die of a heart attack, I guess ....