worried about PE

[Nathan92]

so the past 3-4 days I've been having mild chest pain... slightly to the left of centre chest, yesterday I had what felt like cramp in the centre of my chest..

the camp wasn't crippling... it was just felt like there was an ache..., when I breathed in it hurt not bad, but it was only on a full breath that it hurt, after a while it went away..

I woke up this morning, no chest pain (touch wood) and it feels like I have a tight chest, like the feeling you get when you get a chest infection... like at the bottom of my throat, all chesty, coughing a bit but not too bad...

I'm just scared I've got a pulmonary embolism

[littleblackberry92]

Hey there Nathan,

Man oh man, I truly do empathize with how must be feeling right now. Chest pain in general can send anyone into overdrive! Not too long ago, I had VERY similar chest pain to what yo are describing, it hurt quite a bit to breath in and the pain radiated on one side and then the next day onto the other side. Needless to say, the doctor i work with sent me for D-Dimer test (which traces the blood clotting factor in your blood) and found it to be elevated.. What no one told me is that is is non specific meaning many things can cause it to be elevated (even something as benign as back pain). I couldn't get it out of my head though, and I went to the hospital where they did a pulmonary MRI with dye and i was given the all clear... Turned out to be costochondrisis, which is benign but its a severe tightening of the chest muscles with inflammation in the sternum area I believe.

To top that story off short, its in my opinion that I don't believe you have a PE, however, chest pain of any kind should be looked at by a doctor, just for the sake of it. If its really bothering you, go to the hospital and let them know you are having this type of pain.

Anyways,

That might be horrible advice, I'm not sure but anyways let us know how you are!

- Emily

[Nathan92]

Hi Emily, appreciate the swift and somewhat reassuring reply :) x, I've done a little looking into it and it says without tenderness around the area it's unlikely to be costochindrisis so I'm stumped, I have a phone appointment with my doctor in like 30 mins so I'll see what he says it's just tough that I feel tight when taking a breath

[Nathan92]

doctor said its most likely a pulled muscle in chest.

as the days gone on, started coughing up mucous and aching from head to toe... does it sound like a viral infection or bacterial?

thanks