Whats this chest pain

[anx mum]

Getting pain in chest now on my breastbone when i press on it it hurts i think doc said this is nothing serious if it hurts.

[dorabella]

Do you mean that when you press on your ribcage it feels sore and almost bruised? Have you undertaken any bouts of repetitive activity recently useing your arms and upper body?

I wonder whether your doctor has considered the possibly of costochondritis or general fibromyalgia syndrome. I have been experiencing this kind of discomfort periodically for over ten years, originally diagnosed by my doctor when I first had these pains as fibromyalgia.

It is a common syndrome in anxiety sufferers and manifests itself in a variety of weird and wonderful aches, pains all over the body. The erratic pain signals sent to the brain originate from the fascia or soft tissue surrounding muscles, organs and joints throughout the body and the syndrome can be exacerbated by any form of repetitive activity using the extremeties. In the case of upper body movement, it often shows in pain in the ribcage - called costochondritis.

It is not fatal, just uncomfortable and a little painful and it does unortunately mimic cardiac symptoms which can be quite alarming. Ask your doctor to check this out before you worry yourself silly.

[bex1970]

Could also be reflux - that can cause really severe chest pain and can be mistaken for heart problems.... I used to get horrible bouts of it - try gaviscon or zantac - you might find the pain goes.... Also, weirdly deep breathing helps too (a trick my mother taught me - she had hiatus hernia which causes horrible bouts of chest pain).

[angietomjimandcass]

I have been getting bad back, chest arm and jaw pain and the dr said its from me tensing up, im trying to get a dr appoinment today so i will let you know.

[Kraggy]

If it hurts when you press it you should not be worried to much. The vital organs are guarded by the ribcage, and if it hurts when you press the ribcage the likely hood that it is one of your organ is faaaaaaaaaaar lower.

It could be Tietze syndrome, which is an infection of certain area's of the breast bone/ribs.

As taken from good ol' wiki:

The primary presentation of the syndrome is significant, acute pain in the chest, along with tenderness and some swelling of the cartilages affected, which is commonly palpable (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palpable) on examination. Although many times it can be extremely painful, to the point of being debilitating, Tietze's Syndrome is considered to be a benign condition that generally resolves in 12 weeks

In short, Nothing Weird, Nothing Dangerous, Just Anoying. If however a doctor has not yet checked it, I suggest you wait a few days since it might just be pain in the muscles, if it does not dissapear, just ask the good ol' doc to have a look.

Kind Regards,

Kraggy :bighug1: