goldberry Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 (edited) We're going to try to get into the doctor this week, but I wanted to see if anyone had any experience with this. When DD was younger she had an attack of chest pain that coincided with breathing (breathing hurt and greatly increased the pain). We went to the urgent care, and they diagnosed as either pleurisy or intercostal spasms (muscles between the ribs). They gave her some pain meds and it stopped. This happened to occur not during but after she had been doing a lot of swimming. In the few years since, this happens to her every so often. Mostly she takes some advil and lies down, and the pain goes away after 30 min to an hour. In the last week this has happened twice and gotten really severe. In both cases she was in public in what could have been considered stressful situations, but she says she wasn't especially stressful. At first we thought maybe panic attacks. But, it turns out though that she has been having these little twinges about once a week or so, but mostly she just stays calm and breathes deeply and it goes away. Now she is really paranoid about this happening in public, so when she got the twinge the last two times in public she started getting a little panicky, which of course exacerbated it. The last two times have been bad enough that she couldn't hardly breathe. What is weird is that obviously this can't be pleurisy because pleurisy is typically related to a virus or other something that can cause inflammation in the lining of the lungs.. But with the intercostal spasms, those are supposed to happen in the ribs (obviously) but she is saying the pain is localized right in the center of her lower chest, she describes it very much like what I would consider heart burn - except that it's tied to her breathing. Also, why would this be happening on any regular basis? Any ideas about this? Neither of the two diagnoses seem to fit very well. Also, not sure what to do now that it seems to be increasing in frequency and making her paranoid. Thanks! Edited April 18, 2016 by goldberry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Governess Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Hmmm. I get those muscle spasms in my chest sometimes also. Sometimes they do feel like they are in my chest rather than in my ribs. I have found that the best thing to do is to take *deeper* breaths rather than shallower, and stretch my chest/arch my back/sometimes lift my arm over my head to try to stretch out the area where the twinge is. Kind of how when your foot cramps you have to flex it to stop the cramp, I guess. Anyway, it does hurt worse to take those deep breaths and stretch, but then the pain is gone faster. Also, once I learned that stretching those chest muscles could help get rid of it, it helped me not panic when it happened. It verified that it was muscle related and gave me a little control over it. Any chest pain can be scary, so I hope you are able to definitively figure out what it is. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKim Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 I used to have those really often, especially when I was young. It would be like I could only breathe in so far or it would hurt. So naturally, I kept trying to breathe in deeper. It would finally just go away on its own. I never went to a doctor about it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted April 18, 2016 Author Share Posted April 18, 2016 Hmm, so not a very common problems I guess! Talking to her more and reading more, it seems very likely to be the spasms, made worse by her getting paranoid and embarrassed about it happening in public. We are seeing the doc on Wed just to confirm and see if there is anything more to be done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCB Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 There is a type of sharp chest pain, associated with breathing, that is quite common in young people. I can't remember what it is called. The cure is to take in the deepest breath you possibly can, which of course, hurts like crazy but does make it better.I used to experience this a lot when I was younger but have not had it for some time. I can definitely vouch for it working to take a really deep breath in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegP Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Sounds like costochondritis to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegP Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Does her sternum look like it's caved in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted April 19, 2016 Author Share Posted April 19, 2016 There is a type of sharp chest pain, associated with breathing, that is quite common in young people. I can't remember what it is called. The cure is to take in the deepest breath you possibly can, which of course, hurts like crazy but does make it better.I used to experience this a lot when I was younger but have not had it for some time. I can definitely vouch for it working to take a really deep breath in. And normally, when she does that at the first twinge, it stops it. But the last few times it doesn't and it gets really extreme where she has to lie down. The pain just keeps increasing. Sounds like costochondritis to me. That is one of the possibilities we were given. Does her sternum look like it's caved in? All the time or during an episode? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted April 19, 2016 Author Share Posted April 19, 2016 Reading more about costochronditis, it seems the episodes last much longer than what she is experiencing. Even the really bad ones go away after about an hour and Advil has some time to kick in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegP Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 I mean is her chest caved in all the time. Like this--https://www.google.com/search?q=pectus+excavatum+mild&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjDpcPvuZnMAhVD42MKHWbPArYQ_AUIBygB&biw=1366&bih=634#imgrc=ZW3Ggd9FTTUwnM%3A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted April 19, 2016 Author Share Posted April 19, 2016 I mean is her chest caved in all the time. Like this--https://www.google.com/search?q=pectus+excavatum+mild&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjDpcPvuZnMAhVD42MKHWbPArYQ_AUIBygB&biw=1366&bih=634#imgrc=ZW3Ggd9FTTUwnM%3A No, not at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 One of my dd's had this from time to time growing up (at least through teens). I honestly don't even know if it happens anymore, because we're not worried about it anymore so don't think about it much. She was diagnosed with asthma at some point, and also found out that she is very sensitive to gluten and that causes her heart to race and all sorts of weird symptoms. You might want to consider meeting with a doctor who specializes in asthma. Another daughter who actually had quite severe asthma but without typical symptoms wasn't diagnosed by her regular family practice doctor. I finally took her to an asthma specialist and she was able to diagnose the asthma. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSmomof2 Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 (edited) nm Edited September 30, 2017 by Bethany Grace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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