Heartburn Symptoms: Unusual Experiences & Potential Causes - Dr. Borucki

Question
Dr. Borucki,
I would like to know what the weirdest symptoms of heartburn you have seen are.  I'm 26, female, and about 3 weeks ago started having dull pain, primarily on the left side of my chest. Once in a while it's on the right, or further to the left, or further to center, etc, but for the most part, it has felt like my heart was experience a dull burning sensation.  At times I have had pain down the outside of my left arm, above my elbow, and sometimes I can feel it behind my left shoulder blade as well. I do have very mild scoliosis and an old whiplash injury so I thought at first it was musculoskeletal but decided to go to my MD to be sure, since you never want to mess with left chest and arm pain! He looked at my file and saw that I had received a chest x-ray, EKG, and chest CT last semester for something unrelated and that all were negative. He listened to my heart and lungs and said everything sounded regular and clear. He thinks I'm having a bad case of acid reflux/heartburn and presribed Reglan to take at bedtime for 10 days and a 6-week course of Prilosec OTC. Of course he said if it didn't get better to come back and that there were stomach/GI tests he could do. He tried to comfort me by saying that the same nerves that go to your stomach can make your brain think you're having heart symptoms, and that at my age and given all of the clear chest tests I had done last semester, heart problems are the last thing he'd suspect I'm having. I just wanted a sort of second opinion... have you heard of heartburn/GERD causing my symptoms? I never had a problem with heartburn before and, if that's what's going on, it suddenly became my constant companion about 3 weeks ago! It started at night while laying in bed those first few days and has gotten to where it happens all throughout the day at random times. I am slightly overweight, about 160 lbs at 5'3". I guess I'll find out soon enough of the acid reflux meds help, but was curious as to whether or not these are common symptoms. Thanks!

Answer
It could easily be heartburn, but there are other bits of info that I would want.  Why did you have a cat scan of the chest.  (Not your ordinary test for a 26 year old) and do you take over the counter meds for your scoliosis and this is contributing to reflux/stomach symptoms.  Other medicines, other medical problems?  If some one takes a lot of advil, sometimes prilosec won't help those symptoms......