Chest pains Pleurisy? Anxiety? Worse?

[ilovemakeup86]

Hi I'm new ��


Basically had a rotten day worrying today.

I've suffered with HA for about 2 years now (always chest pains I worry about) I took anti depressants till February this year & thought I'd conquered it & stopped googling etc Until recently I started getting chest pains again now I used to get this with my HA & put it down to that after a week of feeling like this is not all in my head & a week of worry I went to A&E who said I had pleurisy (inflammation of lungs lining) so obviously I was happy it wasn't anything serious & I wasn't imagining it.

But it's been 3 weeks since I went to the hospital (they did chest x Ray, bloods, ECG) & I still have the chest pain & read on the boots website if pains persist after 5 days to seek medical advice. Now this has panicked me & now I can't stop googling & worrying myself. I'm not sure if these pains are still the pleurisy or anxiety is causing them (or something more sinister. )

any advice please. Thank you.

[Wanderlust]

You are doing the right thing following it up, and taking meds, and the fact you had the ecg and bloods with no negative results is a positive. I started getting chest discomfort back in 2000, my first panic attack was my chest going nuts, i knew no better and put it down to a attack, it was just muscular spasms. So many things can mimic pain in that area, indigestion, lung problems, muscular tension, and of course anxiety. Talk to your doc about your worries, if he/she is good they will explain and help put your mind at ease, as heart related chest pain presents in a very specific way which, although any chest symptoms can be scary, allowes you to better rationalise that it isnt life threatening.
I hope you can overcome the worry and find some comfort soon :)

[MyNameIsTerry]

I think you should follow this up with your GP. It could be that you need further medication to reduce the pleurisy. Checking for pleurisy can usually be done in a GP's surgery from the symptoms so I'm sure they will be able to put your mind at rest.

[ilovemakeup86]

Thank you for your replies, I've just been to the doctor who said pleurisy can take a while to go, she prescribed me sertraline again for my anxiety and ibuprofen gel. She didn't seem to think my chest pains were from the pluerisy as its more of a dull ache, she also thinks it could be down either anxiety but to be on the safe side she wants me to have a full blood check & get another heart scan :weep: I do wonder if it is the anxiety I get up in the morning and feel fine then I'll think about my chest and all of a sudden I start getting the pains..:wacko:

[MyNameIsTerry]

If you can get up without it and bring it on through worrying and focusing on it, anxiety is an obvious culprit. GP's are likely to run tests to safe in ruling things out even when they know things are ok. For them it backs up their diagnosis.

I have asthma and I've had loads of worries about whether I was having muscular tension and anxiety related breathing issues or whether it was really my asthma. Asthma doesn't go, if an attack is coming it worsens enough to need to use medication and it's unlikely to go on all day without progressing. It is also something thay affects you in a certain way in terms of how your chest feels. I had to learn the difference over time and how my medication was an issue e.g. inhalers running low or when it was asthma so I felt the instant benefit of my Reliever.

Tension can seem to mimic aches & pains and inflammatory disorders such as my asthma. In 9 years I've needed my Reliever once and the difference was instant hence it wasn't a panic or anxiety attack. There have been times I have needed to replace my Preventer inhaler and I could feel the difference for it. The rest of the time it has been tension so you learn to spot the difference.

Anxiety also heightens any real aches & pains too.

I had an important weapon in my arsenal though...I don't have HA. This made it easier for me too rationalise the difference between real physical disorder and anxiety mimicking what I thought was a physical disorder. So, try to accept what your GP has said and also look towards techniques that can help which given your worries mean it would be ideal to try breathing techniques such as Calming Technique and Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR).