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What Causes Dull Stabbing Pain While Coughing?
Question: When I cough, I get a sort of very dull stabbing pain that only hurts when I cough for the duration of the cough. The pain feels like its inside, a little inferior to the collarbone area where the chest connects to the collarbone near the sternum. I would say a little to the left of the superior sternum, enough left that I wouldn't think its the ribs moving. I am a smoker, could this be pan coast tumor?
Brief Answer:
Unlikely to be Pancoast tumor at this point
Detailed Answer:
Hello sir and welcome.
Thank you for writing to us.
I have gone through your query with diligent and would like you to know that I am here to help. I am guessing you did a little bit of googling online to find the cause for your complaints.
Pancoast tumor is a much later consideration and it has some typical signs of presentation like pain around the shoulder typically on the inner surface of the scapula, with pain later radiating to the inner surface of the arm, 4th and 5th fingers and the elbow.
And most importantly it rarely causes symptoms related to the lungs like cough. Taking your history into consideration conditions like bronchitis are more likely and so the solution and best diagnostic tool would be a chest X-ray.
I hope you can get an x-Ray conducted and visit your doctor for further management. I also hope you find my response both helpful and informative. Please feel free to write back to me for any further clarifications, I am always here to help.
Best wishes.
Unlikely to be Pancoast tumor at this point
Detailed Answer:
Hello sir and welcome.
Thank you for writing to us.
I have gone through your query with diligent and would like you to know that I am here to help. I am guessing you did a little bit of googling online to find the cause for your complaints.
Pancoast tumor is a much later consideration and it has some typical signs of presentation like pain around the shoulder typically on the inner surface of the scapula, with pain later radiating to the inner surface of the arm, 4th and 5th fingers and the elbow.
And most importantly it rarely causes symptoms related to the lungs like cough. Taking your history into consideration conditions like bronchitis are more likely and so the solution and best diagnostic tool would be a chest X-ray.
I hope you can get an x-Ray conducted and visit your doctor for further management. I also hope you find my response both helpful and informative. Please feel free to write back to me for any further clarifications, I am always here to help.
Best wishes.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Thank you for the timely response, but I don't have a cough it just hurts in that area when I try to cough after smoking. Also I want to address that I am also having an issue with my vision. From time to time, a little dot with an electric blue/red will zap into my vision and disappear. Always at a random spot and very quickly, without warning and no symptoms leading up to it. Another issue I am having is I get pains on my upper right ear cartilage for no reason, along with my ears usually getting very red for no reason. The real issue though is the dull throbbing pain on my upper ear cartilage, it can sometimes radiate behind my right ear onto the temporal region of my head and hurt all together with my upper right ear. It doesn't really persist but it rather throbs a little, leaves for a bit and comes back. That would be an episode of it lasting 30 minutes or so, and I get this like once a week or twice a week. Lastly, and sorry for all the possibly diagnosis in one bit, but sometimes when I eat and drink I will get a ridiculously terrible and 10/10 pain in my shoulders that hurts more as I breathe, it will persist right after eating and drinking alchohol or sometimes just eating and it will last anywjere from 10 minutes to an hour or more. Sometimes the only way for it to stop hurting is to go to sleep, its like a fibromalgia or something, I'm not sure.
Brief Answer:
I would recommend some distance from googling unnecessarily :)
Detailed Answer:
Hello once again sir.
Even with the given details, I still think this is unlikely to be pancoast tumor. I would suggest you stop worrying and stop going deeper into this by googling things that may not be required, it will just get you all panicked and nothing else. When in reality your problem is just to do with the smoking, which if you quit you will certainly start feeling better.
As for your vision, you will require an opthalmologist consult without which I cannot really suggest or pin point anything. But please also get your blood pressure and blood glucose profile conducted to rule these two causes out.
The throbbing in the ear cartilage as described by you could be related to anxiety which I think could be possible with your manner of description and presentation. If you do suffer from anxiety, panicking easily and get tensed about your health easily then you will require a consultation with a psychiatrist who is the only specialist who can help you with your anxiety.
The pain described by you around your shoulder region especially after eating or drinking alcohol could be related to a gastric issue, and will have to be ruled out using an upper GI endoscopy. But I also feel that you are a hypochondriac, which gets you easily worried about medical and health conditions that do not really exist.
It is not fibromyalgia, and as I said, stop worrying so much and stop reading so much about different conditions on the internet, this will only get you more and more worried for no reason whatsoever.
I hope you find my response helpful. Please do not hesitate to write back to me for any further clarifications, I am always here to help.
Best wishes.
I would recommend some distance from googling unnecessarily :)
Detailed Answer:
Hello once again sir.
Even with the given details, I still think this is unlikely to be pancoast tumor. I would suggest you stop worrying and stop going deeper into this by googling things that may not be required, it will just get you all panicked and nothing else. When in reality your problem is just to do with the smoking, which if you quit you will certainly start feeling better.
As for your vision, you will require an opthalmologist consult without which I cannot really suggest or pin point anything. But please also get your blood pressure and blood glucose profile conducted to rule these two causes out.
The throbbing in the ear cartilage as described by you could be related to anxiety which I think could be possible with your manner of description and presentation. If you do suffer from anxiety, panicking easily and get tensed about your health easily then you will require a consultation with a psychiatrist who is the only specialist who can help you with your anxiety.
The pain described by you around your shoulder region especially after eating or drinking alcohol could be related to a gastric issue, and will have to be ruled out using an upper GI endoscopy. But I also feel that you are a hypochondriac, which gets you easily worried about medical and health conditions that do not really exist.
It is not fibromyalgia, and as I said, stop worrying so much and stop reading so much about different conditions on the internet, this will only get you more and more worried for no reason whatsoever.
I hope you find my response helpful. Please do not hesitate to write back to me for any further clarifications, I am always here to help.
Best wishes.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Yes Doctor, I am certainly a hypochondriac, I know that one for sure. This website is a hypochondriacs best friend to be honest haha. Do I need to upgrade my account to get an ophthalmologists opinion on the matter, or could you forward my issue to one? The vision part has really been bothering me to be honest because thats the one symptom I know I am not being a hypochondriac about because it appears in my vision daily.
Brief Answer:
Better to first get tests done and then consult ophthal
Detailed Answer:
Hello once again.
You have your sense of humor intact which is nice to see. :)
You will have to post a new query and request for an ophthalmologist's opinion, but in my opinion it would be better if you could first get a few tests done like an ophthalmoscopy, fundoscopy, etc.
Becasue even if you do consult an ophthalmologist here first, he/she will ask you to get these tests done without which he/she cannot really answer your question accurately. So get these tests conducted and then write to an ophthalmologist here for more accurate results (diagnosis and treatment options).
I hope you find my response helpful. Please do not hesitate to write to me anytime, I am always here to help.
Best wishes.
Better to first get tests done and then consult ophthal
Detailed Answer:
Hello once again.
You have your sense of humor intact which is nice to see. :)
You will have to post a new query and request for an ophthalmologist's opinion, but in my opinion it would be better if you could first get a few tests done like an ophthalmoscopy, fundoscopy, etc.
Becasue even if you do consult an ophthalmologist here first, he/she will ask you to get these tests done without which he/she cannot really answer your question accurately. So get these tests conducted and then write to an ophthalmologist here for more accurate results (diagnosis and treatment options).
I hope you find my response helpful. Please do not hesitate to write to me anytime, I am always here to help.
Best wishes.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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