Has this ever happened to anyone else? I
awoke in the middle of the night, 3:30 am,
from a deep sleep, with horrible pain in
my chest like a vise grip. It felt like
I was having a heartattack! It was
preceded by two plus weeks of severe pain
from my neck down my right arm to my
forearm, extending down my back to my
shoulder blades. This had also been
causing 8 days straight of migrains that
all of my migraine medication did not get
rid of, nor the opiate medication, actiq,
I have for dire emergency to keep me from
going to the emergency room. I gave
myself a double dose allergy shot just
incase it was an allergic reaction to a
new medication I was taking and this did
relieve some of the pain.
I called the er and talked to a nurse,
who said to have someone drive me
immediately to the er. They did an ekg,
back, shoulder and chest x-rays and
everything came back normal. By the
time I was there 4 hours my pain level
went from 10 to a managable 6-7. I took
all my pain meds with me and did not ask
for anything while I was there so they
knew I wasn't drug seeking. I had an
appointment with my pain management dr at
11 am and did not want to be too sleepy to
drive, so I didn't take anything until
later in the day. But the er docs said
they didn't know what it was except muscle
spasms. Pain doc said same. I have
never experienced that level of pain
before in my life, but this is the second
time in 6 months this has happened! Then
the next day, all the muscles in my chest
were sore like I had been working out
really hard or had gotten beat up and I
had a visible bruise exactly where the
excruciating pain had been. I called the
er and pain doc and neither one had ever
heard of this happening from the
inside!!!!!!!
Has anyone ever experienced something
similar to this, I have heard of people
with lupus having to go to the er for pain
before but i'd like the feed back.
Mia
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LadyBrannon
Active User, Really EHEALTHy
Joined: 17 Jul 2003 Posts: 506 Location: TX
Posted: 11-08-04 18:23pm
I've certainly gone to the er to help
control the pain. I usually have my
joints lock. Although, I do have
unexplained bruising some of the
time...Did you ever learn anything else
about the episode?
Hope you are feeling better...
*hugs*
ladybrannon
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mia
Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy
Joined: 25 Jan 2004 Posts: 146 Location: dallas
Er Pain Posted: 11-08-04 19:11pm
It's a sad state of things when I can get
more information on the nationall library
of medicine's website than I can from an
er or a doctor. I spoke to my new rhuemy
and he really didn't have any ideas
either.
The condition is called "costochondritis".
In this condition - also know as
"tietze syndrome"- the cartiliage of your
rib cage, particulararly the cartiliage
that joins your ribs to your breats bone,
becomes inflames. The pain from
costochondritis may occur suddenly and
intense, leading you to assume you're
having a heart attack. Yet the location
of the pain is different.
Costochondritis causes your chest to hurt
when you push on you sternum or on the
ribs near your sternum. Heart attack
pain is usually more widespread, and the
chest wall isn't usually tender.
It is always reassuring to find out what
happened to you, rather than
feeling like a total fool or a
hypochondriac.
