Question: I woke early this morning with a very unpleasant pain on my left hand side under my left breast. It was an ache accompanied with a squeezing/pressure type feeling. I tried laying on my back in case I had just been sleeping in an awkward position but this did not help. So I got up and made myself a drink. My stomach also felt unsettled, almost as if I were about to get nausea or diarrhea and I had a general uneasy feeling. Since then I have experienced a pain in my jaw both sides going up to just under ear level, a cross between an ache and a stinging pain. That pain will not go but the chest discomfort has gone.

I am concerned as there is a family history of heart problems, and my father was rushed to hospital last week with a heart attack and had to have a stent put in. His symptoms were similar in that he just felt discomfort, but was not in agonising pain.

I have been through a prolonged period of stress (death in the family, marriage breakdown and now my father's illness). I am wondering if this could have hastened the onset of a heart problem.

I am 34 years old, female, non smoker, drinker. I had an aunt who suffered her first heart attack in her mid 30's and she had a fatal one in her 50's.