What can you tell me about pleurisy?

[jazzyfizzle]

What can you tell me about pleurisy? Any experience is appreciated, especially on 'one side only' versions. :001_smile:

[Remudamom]

It hurts??? Sorry, I just ignore mine. It does hurt though.

[kjdkek]

I can tell you that my husband had it before and it was extremely painful for him, we even called 911 at one point because he was in so much pain. We found out it was pleurisy at the hospital. I can tell you that I have one-sided pain that my doctor says is just like pleurisy. (I had multiple blood clots last year in my left lung). I experience pain often. It feels like your shoulder blade, chest, ribs are all hurting. Maybe at the same time or at different times. The pain is hard to pin point. It hurts to take a deep breath. I believe it is when your chest wall or lining is inflamed. I just know that it is painful. Hopefully someone on here will have more information.

 

Erin

[jazzyfizzle]

:tongue_smilie:

Unfortunately this one is non-ignorable if that is what I am dealing with, it is one option in the running.

[jazzyfizzle]

Hi Erin, thank you. This indeed is extreme pain, constant pain meds necessary for functioning since its inception. (I'm no stranger to tough pain, this is debilitating.)

[KidsHappen]

It hurts like a son of a b@tch. I had an acute case once that only caused pain on the left side. It came on quite suddenly and my blood pressure was through the roof. My hubby thought I was having a heart attack and dragged me to the ER kicking and screaming. Of course, that was their immediate concern as well. Once they figured out I wasn't and that I probably wasn't going to die, they loaded me up with pain meds and sent me home. I felt better in about a week and haven't had any more problems with that since. Hope your hubby feel better soon too.

[kjdkek]

Is it hard to breathe?

[Momling]

I had it following pneumonia. It was a sharp pain... hurt a lot... made it hard to inhale completely... I don't know what else to say. For me, it went away within a month.

[Truscifi]

My aunt had it. It looked like it caused a great deal of pain and I remember her saying she had trouble breathing - mostly with taking deep breaths (she had it following some sort of respiratory infection so the breathing issue might have been from that). It lasted a couple of weeks. She did take medicine to deal with it.

[Lilymax]

Ugh, pleurisy. That's some wicked stuff. I've had it a couple of times; once following pneumonia, the other times just out of the blue as part of the autoimmune problem I deal with.

 

When I had it, every breath hurt terribly, and I had a hard time breathing while lying down. It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest.

 

My rheumatologist said it hurts so bad because the inflammation causes the fluid between the lungs and the chest cavity lining to dry out. So every time you inhale, your lungs stick to the cavity; when you exhale, they peel off of it. Definitely gave me a powerful visual for where the pain was coming from!

 

I don't remember what meds they gave me, but I know that ibuprofen was part of the pain relief.

 

Hope you feel better soon! I dread the day I have it again. Ugh.

[jazzyfizzle]

Thank you for the input, I appreciate it. It is not hard to breathe, but it can be painful to breathe in on the one side. Hiccups are like a knife stab-literally bring on tears. Also coughing, sneezing, twisting to the side, bending over to put on shoes, opening the washer door, or trying to sit up or roll out of bed. :crying: (or even move w/o pain meds). There was no cold or flu or anything previous to this, no sinus stuff, nothing.

I originally thought it was another low bout of pancreatitis - it started in the same area- but that has continued and it has spread upward.

A chest x-ray looked alright- wouldn't it show up on that? I have a feeling an MRI is next. My doc has been gone all week on vacation and I have put off doing the ER.

[jazzyfizzle]

Ugh, pleurisy. That's some wicked stuff. I've had it a couple of times; once following pneumonia, the other times just out of the blue as part of the autoimmune problem I deal with.

 

 

Thank you, that may very well be what I am dealing with- already LADA and Hashimoto's, MS.

[Lilymax]

If I remember correctly, I don't think it shows up on a chest xray. When mine was diagnosed, each time, it was because the doctor could hear the lung "sticking" sounds when I breathed. Has anyone listened to your chest over the side that's hurting?

[missmoe]

I had it twice with pnemonia each time. I often have the same pain(not as severe) when ever I get a chest cold. My DR said that pain is caused by scar tissue from the pleurisy.

 

Take it easy (as if you could do anything else, I know!) and let your body heal.

[MariannNOVA]

I had it once when I had pneunonia many years ago -- the pain was unceasing, unrelenting, and there was not a single position I could be in that alleviated it. The doctor diagnosed it by tapping around on my back - it was on the left side. It took about a week to go away (I was on antibiotics for the pneumonia).

 

I am not exagerrating when I say it was the most painful thing.

[ChristusG]

MIL had it a year or two ago. She was in a lot of pain in her chest area and my SIL even took her to the ER before they knew what it was.

[MotherGoose]

DH had it following a pulmonary embolism and pneumonia. I remember lots of pain and shortness of breath--but hard to know exactly what caused what. Need lots of meds :)

[NanceXToo]

Sorry to drag this up again but it's not THAT old, right? I was just wondering, did yours resolve okay...?

 

I actually think I have it now.

 

Almost two weeks ago (the Saturday before last) I developed this unexplained horrible pain in my right side, like just below my ribs. And it hurt much more when I took a deep breath, yawned, etc.

 

It stayed for the next week and a half but most days it was tolerable- not as bad as that first day- if I DIDN'T breathe in too deep but continued to hurt more when I breathed in deeply. And was pretty uncomfortable lying down at night.

 

Then like 3 days ago it got worse and was pretty unbearable. Kept me up all that night. Finally, Monday morning, I called the doctor and was seen that afternoon.

 

First, they gave me a blood test which they said will rule out a blood clot if it comes back normal (if it's abnormal, it doesn't necessarily mean "blood clot," it just means it could be a number of things and more testing will be necessary). I'm hoping to have those results today.

 

They also sent me for a chest x-ray. They said it would show if I had pneumonia (which I highly doubt as I have NO cough, congestion, fever, or illness of any kind) and that it would also show my ribs in case there was any injury or something I guess (which I highly doubt as I've had no injuries, unusual activities, etc). Again, I'm hoping to have those results today.

 

Lastly, they told me there's a good chance it is pluerisy, which they said is an inflammation of the membrane that lines the chest cavity and surrounds the lungs.

 

They said anti-inflammatories would help with that and that I should continue taking ibuprofin. I said I was taking it, but that it wasn't helping. So they also gave me a prescription for 7 days of prednisone.

 

Well, I took the first pill Monday, and by Tuesday there was a noticeable difference in pain level. I took the second pill Tuesday and by last night and this morning, the pain level is WAY down- no more of that 'constant' hurt, now it's ONLY when I breathe deeply (and I can breathe much more deeply than I could before), and even then, the 'pain' is more discomfort/annoying than real pain like it was.

 

So I have my fingers crossed that this will be totally cleared up and gone within the next couple of days.

 

If my blood test and xray were both normal I was just supposed to keep taking the prednisone and if it cleared up, great! If it didn't clear up or get much, much better after the week was up, or if it got worse, I was supposed to call the doctor back for more testing (I guess an MRI or CAT scan or something would have been next).

 

But the Prednisone seems to be doing the trick!

[mcconnellboys]

It's an infection that develops in the lining (pleura) of the lungs (outside, not inside, I think). It can be caused by the irritation of coughing during any type of illness that causes a lot of that. It can come following pneumonia, etc. It does need to be treated in order to resolve in a timely way.

 

Sorry, you're having a problem with this. I know that it hurts a lot. I used to have problems with chronic bronchitis for a number of years and I've had it several times....