Hello. I am a 30 year old female, am underweight, and a smoker. A couple of hours ago I started havinf these sharp stabbing pains in the left side of my chest and feel short of breath. The pain seems to hurt more when I take deep breaths. Is this something I should be very concerned about and take a trip to my local emergency room or can it wait until I can schedule an appointment with my doctor? Thanks!
Hello and Welcome to Ask A Doctor service. I have reviewed your query and here is my advice. I can understand your concern. Yes, you should definitely go to emergency room. Since you are a active smoker, left-sided chest pain should always be evaluated for heart diseases first. So get done blood pressure monitoring, ECG, 2D echo and stress test. If all these are normal then no need to worry about heart diseases. Sometimes musculoskeletal pain can also cause similar symptoms. So apply warm water pad on affected areas of chest. Take simple painkiller like Paracetamol or Ibuprofen. It is better to quit smoking as soon as possible.  Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.