Chest pain (Post-Dr Visit)

[Reality]

So, posting here because online results seem to be pretty vague, or extreme when it comes to determining exactly what causes the type of chest pain you're having

Woke up this morning, felt fine. Sat at my PC for a bit and began having severe pains in my left chest, the pain seems confined to a small area (top of the left rib cage, under my nipple.. )

Didn't risk shit, went to the ER. They did an EKG, tons of blood work, chest x-rays, checked BP. Everything came back perfect. Sent me home w/ some paperwork about some non-cardiac chest pain possibilities and the one that caught my eye was Costochondritis

Has anyone here ever had this? Basically it's caused most often by heavy coughing, or trauma to the rib cage where cartilidge becomes damaged and the rib detaches from the sternum, causing uh.. pain obviously

My pain isn't going away and the severity is the same as it was this morning (starts with a dull ache, 1-10 pain: 2. Amplifies up to about a 7 or 8, then dies down)

Just curious what is wrong with me because since it wasn't cardiac related, they didn't really delve too much into it

[*Shinzon*]

Well if something happens to you I'd say that whatever ER you went to is going to end up being responsible to some degree if they just sent you on your way without explaining what would be wrong. That said, you should probably just go see another doctor taking your results from the ER so he can further check other possibilities.

[Fievel]

I'd go back to the doctor, tell them that the EKG came back fine but the pain is still there and its severe, I'm sure they'll take more x-rays etc

[Reality]

I'd go back to the doctor, tell them that the EKG came back fine but the pain is still there and its severe, I'm sure they'll take x-rays etc

They already took the x-rays (did you read the whole post?)

Well if something happens to you I'd say that whatever ER you went to is going to end up being responsible to some degree if they just sent you on your way without explaining what would be wrong.

Well, to be sure I didn't have a mild heart attack or was about to have one, they do a test where it checks certain enzymes in your blood that appear during or prior to a heart attack, and I didn't have them. They also checked for traces of heart tissue, came back negative on that as well. They were pretty adamant about telling me that I most certainly wasn't having anything cardiac related

[toonces]

Yeah just go back get more tests done. (posted after reply but get more tests!)

PS: From a different doctor, if your insurance lets you. No clue what country you are at.

[Shenrien]

Yeah, I have this shit, got it from riding a ton of roller coasters at six flags, now I can't ride them anymore :/ shit sucks cause they are fun, but it causes extreme pain if I do.

Whenever I experience the pain I take deep breaths and the pain eventually goes away, but for times that doing so doesn't remedy the pain, I take a Tylenol or Ibuprofen and it generally takes away any ache or pain I have.

[Rowe]

Is this pain the one and only symptom or have you experienced any other possible symptoms such as fatigue? Would you say the pain was at the surface or deeper in you?

http://hollyczuba.files.wordpress.co.../b_13_2_7a.jpg

I had severe pain in that region but wraping around my side once turned out I had mono and it caused my spleen to enlarge.

or probably

Precordial Catch Syndrome (PCS) sounds like the most likely cause.

http://www.failedsuccess.com/index.p...me_chest_pain/

Precordial Catch Syndrome (PCS) is the most common cause of recurring chest pain. It is also sometimes known as “a stitch in the side” or “Texidor’s twinge”. It occurs most often in children and teenagers, but does persist into adulthood as well. The pain occurs just under the left nipple, near where you feel the heart beat most strongly on the front of the chest, and comes on very suddenly.

Thinking back now to when I was a little kid I use to get that, it hurt so bad and would last about a minute fade away and come back again a little while latter. My mom rushed me to the hospital one night it was so bad. Doctors said there was basically nothing they could do.

[Gadritan]

Has anyone here ever had this? Basically it's caused most often by heavy coughing, or trauma to the rib cage where cartilidge becomes damaged and the rib detaches from the sternum, causing uh.. pain obviously

Got this from years of coughing my ass off from bong hits and the like. Are you a smoker?

Not really anything you can do but treat the symptoms (pain) and try to avoid further trauma (like quit smoking or avoid roller coasters or whatever may have caused this in the first place).

Problem is, if you take pain medication for it, it's usually subsided by the time the medicine kicks in.

I'd still get a second opinion though. This isn't something you want to take lightly as it could still be something else altogether. I'd highly recommend making an apt with a normal doctor who has the time to get more intimate with your case.

[Reality]

Is this pain the one and only symptom or have you experienced any other possible symptoms such as fatigue? Would you say the pain was at the surface or deeper in you?

1. Only symptom is the pain, I have no fatigue, nausea, blurred vision, arm pain, shortness of breath, sore throat or anything else you can name here. Just the pain
2. Pain definitely feels as if it's mostly near the surface

Got this from years of coughing my ass off from bong hits and the like. Are you a smoker?

Not a smoker at all (weed or cigs), i drink occasionally... maybe once or twice a month, sometimes never in a month

Pain seems to be more severe if I'm leaning forward, versus sitting straight up or laying on my back but that could be random

I've had those PCS symptoms when I was a teenager, used to get it all the time. This is a different pain (PCS made it so where if I inhaled, the pain would be excruciating so I would take short breaths and eventually it would go away). The pain I'm having now doesn't increase or decreased based on any way I breathe, nor does it increase by pushing on my ribs

Reason I thought about Costochondritis is because I have bad allergies. Not allergic to any specific thing like cats or milk or whatever, just that my sinuses are almost always aggravated (stuffy nose, dry nose, drainage) and due to this it almost always feels like I have glue in my throat so I'm constantly trying to clear my throat, and I'm wondering if this is possibly what triggered it

[Rowe]

Do you drink a lot of coffee or take allergy medication with pseudoephedrine?

I have the same thing with the allergies, I am allergic to dust and some kinds of pollen. Constant post nasal drip. I started taking Claritin-D and suffer from a lot of the side effects, insomnia and nervousness.

if it is Costochondritis can you think of any event that would have caused it, a really hard sneeze or cough, extreme windedness like if you over exerted yourself. if Costochondritis is caused by inflammation take a couple advil see if that helps.

[Reality]

Do you drink coffee or take allergy medication with pseudoephedrine?

last few days i've been drinking some grande caramel fraps w/ espresso from starbucks (once per day, last 3 days), few days ago I took some sinus pills w/ pseudoephedrine but I don't take those hardly ever

[Reality]

Costochondritis is a less common cause of chest pain in adults but one that occurs fairly frequently in people who have had cardiac surgery. The diagnosis can only be reached after excluding more serious causes of chest pain that are related to the heart and lungs. The appropriate studies, such as ECG, chest x-rays, blood test for heart damage (cardiac enzymes and troponin levels), and other studies will be done as indicated. In cases of possible infection, the white blood cell count may be elevated. Any chest pain in adults is taken seriously and not ignored. If you are concerned, consult with your doctor.

Bold & Underlined tests were all performed on me, all negative

[Nekio]

A million things can cause chest pain. At 30 years old, your risk of heart disease is very low, assuming your dad or brother didn't have a heart attack in their 30s. Based on your story alone, the likelihood of your pain being caused by anything serious (ie. serious enough to kill you) is virtually zero.

Really common things that can cause chest pain that hurts bad enough to send you to the ED (especially in someone at low risk of heart disease):
- Costochondritis (think of it as a pulled muscle or tendon in the chest; it's actually the cartilage but it's the same concept)
- Acid reflux
- Anxiety (similarly, excessive stimulant intake)

The ED docs do what they are trained to do: treat your emergency and make sure you're not dying. After every trip to the ED you should follow up with your regular doctor, if for no other reason but to make sure they know about the problem. You don't need any further tests right now. If the pain keeps coming back despite taking ibuprofen (which should help costochondritis) or an antacid (which should help reflux) or an anxiolytic (which should help anxiety), your doctor may start looking for other more rare sources of the pain (such as esophageal spasm).

In 99.9% of otherwise healthy 30-year olds without a family history, chest pain represents either a pulled muscle, costochondritis or anxiety.

Signed,
Dr. Nekio

(Seriously though it's scary the number of retarded responses from people who have no clue what they're talking about.)

[Rowe]

In 99.9% of otherwise healthy 30-year olds without a family history, chest pain represents either a pulled muscle, costochondritis or anxiety.

Signed,
Dr. Nekio

(Seriously though it's scary the number of retarded responses from people who have no clue what they're talking about.)

Oh, so 2 of the 3 most likely causes the standard treatment of a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory such as Advil would help.

[Nekio]

Correct. If Advil helps, it's not your heart (usually).

[antihero]

14 posts and no one said it?

Spoiler: show

cancer

[Tyche]

Went through something similar. Was very very sick for a period of time, heavy coughing. Just thought it was the flu. Late one night my chest began hurting, bad. I ignored it at first, but at about 2 am I made my wife take me to the ER. They did an EKG and bloodwork. EKG found nothing wrong, so they sent me home.

I arrived home about 5am and went to sleep. At 7am, a police officer beat on my door and told me to get my ass to the hospital asap. It's a 10 minute drive to the ER, and it was the longest drive ever. Blood work had come back. When the work came back, I had elevated levels of Troponin I. It's an enzyme commonly released when you have a heart attack...except, I didn't have a heart attack...early 20's, non-smoker, limited drinking, marathon runner.

Hospital was dumbfounded, seen about 50 doctors, sat in the hospital for 3 days. Noone knew what was going on. Diagnosed myocarditis and sent me home. Thankfully, no issues since then.

[Elesirdur]

My dad suffered from costochondriti, and though I've never been specifically diagnosed with it, I feel as though it's happened to me too.

I occasionally get it when I'm at my computer and sitting with poor posture, typically with my shoulders closed and there being some pressure on my ribcage. Then I straighten up or take a breath and it feels like there's a spike being driven into the cartilage in my ribcage.

I guess that until a medical professional tells you "that's what angina feels like", it's hard to really know. However, the danger signs seem to be a pain that radiates through your left side - particularly the arm and jaw, tachycardia, sweating/fever, feeling weak, a "sinking" feeling of "feeling of impending doom", shortness of breath (not caused by the pain but more an inability to get a full breath like the lungs aren't working), and cough producing phlem. (Among some others, but those are the ones I can think of right now.)

[Linliel]

I badly fractured a rib once when I had bronchitis, just from coughing. Nothing worse than having bronchitis *and* a fractured rib

hope you get better! Go see a doctor. One that will give you more than "ER time".

[Kayos]

Late to the thread and I apologize if this has been mentioned, but it could be a mild panic attack. Do you have anxiety on the regular?

I used to have panic attacks growing up like 15 years ago. The sympoms feel very real let me assure you.