Chest Pain

[Toast]

So yesterday I woke up with a weird pain in my chest. No, I wasn't having a heart atack. I thought it might have been heartburn, but it's a distinct sharp pain offset on the right side of my chest when I swallowed weird, burped or sneezed. Today when it would kick in, it really hurt. WTF??

[Cobra_Commander]

clearly you fractured a rib while sleeping

[layton]

could be an anterior rib subluxation or a trigger point in your intercostal muscles.

 

any shortness of breath, sweating, heart palpatations, nausea, fatigue, lightheadednes, fever, general malaise, palor, etc?

 

also does it hurt with breathing?

 

if not, i'd suspect what i just mentioned. poke it, does it hurt?

[Toast]

No worries of heart atack. If so, I'm on day 3 and haven't keeled over yet. It does feel like a broken rib. It huts when I breath deep, cough, burp, or have gas inside moving things around. The weird thing is, it's right under my chest plate about 3" off center. Only soft tissue organs (i.e. lung) that I can think of. I'd go see a doctor, but it's not life threatening, and don't have insurance at the moment. Any other ideas on what this might be?

[billcoe]

Toast, GET THEE TO A DOCTOR POST HASTE.

 

Don't diagnose yourself and ask a bunch of internet junkies.

[layton]

maybe a sprain of the costovertebral junction

[layton]

or a pleural friction rub.

 

or terminal cancer. you'll probably die, live it up now.

[chesterboo]

Toast, do you still have that pain? do you have a hsx of acid reflux or ulcers? sometimes people can develop a hiatal hernia that can create pain similar to what you describe. look that up on emedicine.com and review. If pain continues you should have it checked out at your doctor. take some mylanta or tumms and see if it improves.

[Toast]

Thanks Bill. I think Chesterboo's right though. I'll see a doctor regardless. It did kind of freaked me out initially. Says something about folks without health insurance though.

[layton]

a dollar says he/she barely touches your chest

[Toast]

A dollar says I find an excuse to touch hers

[marylou]

If it's right next to your sternum, it might be a separated rib. I did this once, and it hurt about as much as a cracked rib.

 

Good medical advice upthread though, don't listen to us. If it's a separated or cracked rib, you'd know it, bone pain is its own kind of pain, regular old pain pills will get you through it. Last time I broke a rib, I didn't even see the doc, he just phoned in an Rx for pain meds.

 

If it's not obviously that, get thee to a medical professional.

[layton]

It doesn't have to be 100% separated. It could be subluxated. Even though it technically is non-moveable joint, they have found synovium in the 1st several ribs articulations. So it could be subluxated.

 

But who knows w/o actually looking at it? go to a doctor if you are worried, get some pain medication, and sell it to your friends or neighborhood kids.

[layton]

GERD is the most common non-cardiac source of chest pain, followed by musculoskeletal referred pain. I thought he said it wasn't provoked or associated with food, but i guess he didn't. (gastro-esophageal-reflux-disease=GERD).

 

Some Sx of a heart attack:

Impending sense of Doom

Crushing/gripping chest sensation (not necces pain)

Pain radiating down arm

Difficulty Breathing

excess sweating

Angina attacks are more of the same but relieved by rest, asperin, nitro, brought on by exertion, and last only a few minutes +/- 10.

 

Musculoskeletal pain could be from a rib, sternum, clavical, scalenes, SCM, intercostal mm, pec maj/min, diaphragm, abdominal mm, etc etc etc.

 

When in doubt go to the ER!

[archenemy]

When you actually break a rib, isn't there usually visible bruising associated with it?

[mountainhesh]

I've had the same type of thing, a sharp pain that would cause shortness of breath and I'd swear I was having a heart attack. I narrowed it down to a back muscle that would sometimes pull when I'd climb...or at least I think...maybe I have had 30 or so heart attacks. It made me finally succumb to health insurance, which isn't as terribly expensive as you'd think. Now that I'm wasting money on insurance..I STILL haven't gotten it checked out though...