Royalties and Heartbreak

Hey everyone. I’m putting this out there in the hope that someone might have some insight or advice to offer. About a year ago, I had a routine physical for work—I’m a dance instructor specializing in majorette and hula hoop, if that matters—and everything came back perfectly normal. The only odd thing was when they asked if I had any issues with my spine. My answer was a hard no, because I genuinely felt fine. They ended up referring me to a physiatrist who told me my posture is terrible and that I have thoracic kyphosis, whatever that actually implies. When I asked if I needed physical therapy, she just said no. Fast forward to three months ago: I started getting these intense chest pains that landed me right in the ER. My heart rate was hitting 140 bpm. They ran blood work, and everything looked fine. Checked my thyroid levels too, all good. No gastritis. Even now, my resting heart rate stays elevated, sitting around 90-100 bpm. I’ve been prescribed beta-blockers, which I take every morning. The doctors insist my heart is healthy and that there’s no arrhythmia. I also had chest X-rays done because of this constant tightness and occasional feeling like I can't catch my breath, but my lungs are clear, aside from the chronic bronchitis I've dealt with since I was a kid. On top of all that, I have daily neck and upper back pain along with lightheadedness. No numbness or tingling in my limbs. I’ve never had any major health issues before this. I’m 22. Now, they’re telling me all of this is probably just a byproduct of my poor posture and spinal alignment. Has anyone else gone through something similar? And now they're asking me again if I want to start physical therapy.

I really hope this offers you some sort of clarity... I’m 23 myself, and my history is a bit of a mess—I had heart surgery when I was barely five, which left my sternum healed slightly unevenly (my right side sticks out quite noticeably compared to the left). Occasionally, especially when the weather shifts—which always seems to trigger something—I get this tightness in my chest, coupled with constant aches in my neck, right shoulder, and scapula due to cervical kyphosis. Since I’ve dealt with cardiac-related pains and intense arrhythmias multiple times since that childhood surgery, I’ve become something of an amateur expert at distinguishing between actual "heart pain" and just the discomfort caused by my crooked sternum. Based on everything you’ve shared, I have a hunch that those pains are stemming from the kyphosis—and then the anxiety kicks in, which likely triggers that suffocating sensation and the racing heart (even though they say it isn't technically tachycardia unless it tops 100 bpm). Is your heart rate consistently that high? What kind of cardiac workups have you actually gone through? And how many milligrams of beta-blockers are you currently taking?

It is absolutely imperative to address these spinal issues now to mitigate the risk of more debilitating complications in the years ahead.