The vagus nerve is fascinating. After a fight with a girlfriend once, I ended up tearing / straining my esophagus (we were yelling at each other). As far as the vagus nerve was concerned, it felt like I was having a heart attack.
Over the next year, it continued to plague me. I randomly would feel like I was about to have a heart attack, with all the symptoms including my arm going numb, sharp pain in or across the chest, etc. Doctors were all mixed on what it was (they were all certain it wasn't cardiovascular, but that didn't make me feel any better, because it sure seemed like it was; and my father died in his 50s of a heart attack). During that time I couldn't work out, or even go for a jog without feeling like a heart attack was imminent.
I gradually narrowed it down myself, and fixed it myself. It was of course esophageal spasms. Hot liquids, things with caffeine, and physical activity would agitate or stimulate the esophagus and vagus nerve. After some experimentation, I found that the damage wasn't healing, because routine things continued to agitate it; what would otherwise be normal amounts of acid were contributing to the problem. What ended up fixing it? Maximum strength Pepcid AC; took about four months, of reducing the acid levels way down, giving the esophagus time to heal. Since then, everything has been fine.
Holy shit, this sounds exactly like me. In my case, I fell backwards out of the shower, but all the same feelings/symptoms. Likewise, doctors are convinced it's not cardiovascular, and MRIs have shown nothing in my cervical spine (which is where I figured the problem would be). Taking Prilosec has had a substantial effect, though things aren't perfect yet; this comment really encourages me to keep taking it and hope for the best!
I had food poisoning. The vomiting caused damage, and I had many similar symptoms. Some of them led to panic attacks. Needless to say, I had poor results with Doctors, and ended up on a pretty strict diet for about 2 years which helped reduce acid. Things are much better now, but I notice that the symptoms are also linked to my mood. If I'm feeling down/sad, everything flares up again.
When I read about his condition, it helped point me in the direction that it might be esophageal spasms.
I remember it was like living in constant terror for the time it was an issue. Even if you try to tell yourself it's not heart related, that you aren't going to randomly suffer a heart attack, everything from the vagus nerve is telling you that it's your heart.
I saw immediate relief from taking the Pepcid max strength product, but initially the relief would only last for six hours, then I'd get chest pains again. So I had to take three or four per day at first. How often I had to take it, decreased by the month roughly.
I cut out all caffeine / stimulants of any sort. I avoided all hot liquids, and all sharp foods that could catch on my esophagus tissue (I was assuming it was getting constantly re-injured, or that potential new scar tissue was very sensitive). Caffeine was making it quite a bit worse. Accelerating my heart would trigger it a lot. I was also having intense problems while trying to sleep, I couldn't lay down at night normally, which again led me to think it was my heart (I felt better sleeping upright). The vagus nerve would get triggered in the middle of sleeping, and it'd cause a big jolt of pain across my chest and wake me up.
I'd suggest those things: no caffeine, no hot liquids, be careful about stimulating your heart (as it might act as an esophageal and vagus nerve trigger), something like pepcid or prilosec (take as much as you need to get it to stop while staying within reasonably safe limits of dose), limit sharp edged foods (really just avoid aggravating the esophagus). Maybe those things will help you heal too (if it's a similar root cause). The biggest thing in my opinion, is you have to figuring out a way to buy your body a window of time where there is little to no re-injury or high level agitation, so it can heal itself.
I'm dealing with something similar, and finding info on it is very difficult.
For years now, I've passed out very easily. I've been told it's autonomic failure, largely related to misfiring of the vagus nerve. I take medication for this and must wear compression stockings.
Recently I ended up with esophagitis and gastritis. I experienced those awful panic feelings that sometimes would turn into full blown-panic attacks. The chest pain, floating feeling, flashes of vertigo etc.. All related to vagal stimulation from GE phenomenon. Omeprazole helped significantly, as well as dicyclomine. Keeping a detailed food log and marking symptoms has helped me find problematic foods as well. All in all, it's been 6 months and improving, but it's absolutely miserable! Just knowing that you can be sitting there perfectly calm, then suddenly jolted into a panic attack is a daunting thing to deal with.
I don't have much to offer in the way of information, but it is good to know that there's other people out there suffering from the same/similar things.
Hey, it's good to meet someone else who suffers from this. Funny that it only developed for you in your mid-twenties - I've had it all my life. Not from the sight of my own blood, but from reading medical texts (such as the page you linked) or from having human biology explained to me.
One thing that I think people don't understand is that it's completely uncontrollable. I can prevent myself from fainting about a well as a person with a broken leg can just "walk it off". It's very weird to see this effect from a part of the brain that I apparently have no control over.
Have you looked into treatment options at all? I have looked around a bit, but I haven't found any studies into treatment of any kind. I've been considering regularly donating blood in the hopes that regular exposure to that environment would reduce effect.
That wikipedia page suggests that pschological triggers (eg sight of blood, medical details etc) can be treated via exposure therapy. I’d guess that the treatment is similar to that used (very effectively) for phobias: ie progressively increasing the exposure, but under the control of the patient so they have time to accustom themselves to each new level of stimulus & retrain their current stress response.
Over the next year, it continued to plague me. I randomly would feel like I was about to have a heart attack, with all the symptoms including my arm going numb, sharp pain in or across the chest, etc. Doctors were all mixed on what it was (they were all certain it wasn't cardiovascular, but that didn't make me feel any better, because it sure seemed like it was; and my father died in his 50s of a heart attack). During that time I couldn't work out, or even go for a jog without feeling like a heart attack was imminent.
I gradually narrowed it down myself, and fixed it myself. It was of course esophageal spasms. Hot liquids, things with caffeine, and physical activity would agitate or stimulate the esophagus and vagus nerve. After some experimentation, I found that the damage wasn't healing, because routine things continued to agitate it; what would otherwise be normal amounts of acid were contributing to the problem. What ended up fixing it? Maximum strength Pepcid AC; took about four months, of reducing the acid levels way down, giving the esophagus time to heal. Since then, everything has been fine.