Oh Snap!
Okay. Yet another weird symptom has come up to bite me in the butt. Let me know if anyone has ever experienced this, then I'll know at least I'm not going to drop dead. Just kidding...but not really.
About a week ago I got this pain right out of the blue and it was so scary. The pain was in my chest (luckily the right side of my sternum) and it felt like a tightning of my muscles. It was getting progressivly tighter so much that I thought I may not be able to breathe if it kept on. Very painful! The pain and tightning lasted for about 20 minutes then gradually subsided. If it had been on the left side of my chest I would've been certain I was having a heart attack. Then it happened a few days later but only lasted a few minutes. The kicker is that I wasn't doing anything at the time these events happened. Like I said, it was weird.
My doctor referred me to a cardiologist just to be on the safe side so I went to see him yesterday. He's almost certain it doesn't have anything to do with my heart but out of caution he's going to put me on the treadmill in a couple weeks for a stress-echo.
The cardiologist says he thinks it's chest wall spasms. And could it be MS related? We all know that no doctors can really answer that question. He and I got a chuckle out of that and he agrees that has to be so incredibly frustrating for us MS patients to never really get a straight answer. I'm very relieved that I'm not having a heart attack and the stress-echo will probably be a waste of time but better safe than sorry, right?
About a week ago I got this pain right out of the blue and it was so scary. The pain was in my chest (luckily the right side of my sternum) and it felt like a tightning of my muscles. It was getting progressivly tighter so much that I thought I may not be able to breathe if it kept on. Very painful! The pain and tightning lasted for about 20 minutes then gradually subsided. If it had been on the left side of my chest I would've been certain I was having a heart attack. Then it happened a few days later but only lasted a few minutes. The kicker is that I wasn't doing anything at the time these events happened. Like I said, it was weird.
My doctor referred me to a cardiologist just to be on the safe side so I went to see him yesterday. He's almost certain it doesn't have anything to do with my heart but out of caution he's going to put me on the treadmill in a couple weeks for a stress-echo.
The cardiologist says he thinks it's chest wall spasms. And could it be MS related? We all know that no doctors can really answer that question. He and I got a chuckle out of that and he agrees that has to be so incredibly frustrating for us MS patients to never really get a straight answer. I'm very relieved that I'm not having a heart attack and the stress-echo will probably be a waste of time but better safe than sorry, right?
posted by Miss Chris | 8:43 AM
12 Comments:
Didn't Sherry over at wordsalad get this one? Sounds a bit like a muscle spasm of some interstitial muscle group. The Doc should have sent you into the ER for an EKG though ...
My doctor did an EKG and said it looked "pretty good". I was hoping for better than that but it must have been a fluke 'cause the cardiologist said it was A-OK.
I did have this. Mdmhvonpa answered it. I had an EKG too and all was well. It was the most painful thing I ever experienced. I thought I was dying. Talk about a sucker punch!
It's only happened to me once. That...was enough.
I hope you don't get it again...you don't have a Neuro you like, do you?
Myelin: That MDMHVONPA is just too smart! What a memory! And I hope that pain never comes back too...
Actually yes. Both my mother and I have had pain very much like you describe. In our case it appears to be costochondritis - inflammation of the connective cartilege in the ribcage, causing enough irritation to produce chest wall muscle spasms.
In my case it was caused by my large toddler repeatedly climbing on my chest or back while I was lying down - but the pain never occurred at those times. Instead some later time, when I was doing nothing much, it would show up out of nowhere. My mother thought she was having a heart attack. Since I had seen her go through it, and heard her description, it saved me a lot of anxiety in my instance.
i had never heard of this symptom. MS never runs out of new and unusual tortures for us huh? i am sorry you had to experience that...it sounds frightening.
Sorry to hear about your chest pain. Lets hope it isn't serious, or recurring.
I'm been lucky in that respect.
They used to drag the new/young nurses into the Neuro-ICU when I was diagnosed during my second attack and tell them "See? That what its supposed to look like..."
Its too bad I couldn't flirt with them at the time.
Well, crap! It's always something, isn't it?!? The good news? When they do your echo, you'll see your heart on the screen and NO ONE can ever say again that you don't have one...at least that's been my experience. LOL
Linda D. in Seattle
Sucks that your experiencing that pain, hopefully its nothing too serious and will go away soon.:)
I have never heard of that. I have heard the latest called the MS hug. I have had that feeling before but then again it is because I put the wrong bra on.lol
just popping on over to see how you have been doing. has this symptom gone away hopefully?
I'm having a stress-echo on Wednesday of this week so hopefully they can rule out anything "cardiac" at that point. I haven't had any more of those "attacks" thank goodness!
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