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Experienced Pain In The Sternum Of Chest, Breathing Shallowly Helped. No Problem In Any Test. Now Pain Less. Suggestions?
for no apparent reason, I experienced pain in the sternum area of my chest - only when inhaling, so I had to breathe very shallowly to minimize pain. If I increased my breathing level, the pain escalated to the point of being unbearable.
I went to the emergency room and they admitted me and ran all kinds of heart tests, scans and lung x-ray and CT lung Scan with contrast.. With each of 2 small doses of morphine, the pain lessened, but did not disapear and I was weak and still could not breathe deeply. . After all of the tests, The doctors still could not determine what caused my pain. I was discharged from the hospital after approximately 43 hours. Over the next 3 days, the pain lessened and went away.
I still find it difficult (but not painful) to breathe deeply. I don't have much stamina and I feel frail and am afraid to speed up my gate.
I have always been young for my age and ran circles around younger people, but that is not the case since this event .
I sure would like to know what caused the painful breathing, and would like to be sure it does not reoccur. I am feeling better everyday, but am wondering if this might reoccur.
The only thing I could think of that I thought might have caused the problem (which nobody concurred with) was the fact that I do a lot of physically strenuous work around my house and in the yard. A couple of hours before this problem started to surface, I had yanked the lawnmower starter cord and 2/3 way through the pull, it internally caught and jerked me. At that point, I quit for the day. However, I had NO soreness or pain in any of my muscles or bones, not even when touched..
What do you think???
Thank you.
Janice. (68 years young - 5'5" 105 lbs.)
I went to the emergency room and they admitted me and ran all kinds of heart tests, scans and lung x-ray and CT lung Scan with contrast.. With each of 2 small doses of morphine, the pain lessened, but did not disapear and I was weak and still could not breathe deeply. . After all of the tests, The doctors still could not determine what caused my pain. I was discharged from the hospital after approximately 43 hours. Over the next 3 days, the pain lessened and went away.
I still find it difficult (but not painful) to breathe deeply. I don't have much stamina and I feel frail and am afraid to speed up my gate.
I have always been young for my age and ran circles around younger people, but that is not the case since this event .
I sure would like to know what caused the painful breathing, and would like to be sure it does not reoccur. I am feeling better everyday, but am wondering if this might reoccur.
The only thing I could think of that I thought might have caused the problem (which nobody concurred with) was the fact that I do a lot of physically strenuous work around my house and in the yard. A couple of hours before this problem started to surface, I had yanked the lawnmower starter cord and 2/3 way through the pull, it internally caught and jerked me. At that point, I quit for the day. However, I had NO soreness or pain in any of my muscles or bones, not even when touched..
What do you think???
Thank you.
Janice. (68 years young - 5'5" 105 lbs.)
Mon, 10 Jun 2013
Hi there ~
I understand your concerns. What you had initially was probably pleuritic chest pain or inflammation of the region between the ribs where they attach to the breast bone, which could be due to many reasons, top among them being infection or inflammation due to allergy. It usually gets better over time as you mention. I also do not think that it will reoccur as long as you can think of what happened before you started to have the chest pain, i.e. find out what may have led to the pleuritis or costochondritis. Again, if you can avoid the jerk that happened please avoid it in the future. Also visit with a doctor if anything unusual happens in the near future or call 911 if this happens to reoccur although I do not believe this would be likely.
I hope this helps relieve your anxiety. Take care and have a lovely day!
I understand your concerns. What you had initially was probably pleuritic chest pain or inflammation of the region between the ribs where they attach to the breast bone, which could be due to many reasons, top among them being infection or inflammation due to allergy. It usually gets better over time as you mention. I also do not think that it will reoccur as long as you can think of what happened before you started to have the chest pain, i.e. find out what may have led to the pleuritis or costochondritis. Again, if you can avoid the jerk that happened please avoid it in the future. Also visit with a doctor if anything unusual happens in the near future or call 911 if this happens to reoccur although I do not believe this would be likely.
I hope this helps relieve your anxiety. Take care and have a lovely day!
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