Chest Pain Panic!

I was going to talk about energy today but I've noticed on a few sites the topic of conversation has seemed to be chest pains. And considering I received an email question about it as well, I figured I'd put energy off a day in lieu of chest pains. Which is, by far, a more scarier subject.

I'm 34 years old. My family history with heart attacks is obnoxious. My mother, who is 55, is the last remaining member of her family. It's weird. Growing up, most of the kids I knew in school never had a family member pass away...or if they did, they had a grand parent go. Throughout my school years and into adulthood, I was surrounded by death. I thought it was "normal" to have a funeral home on speed dial and they used to give us family discounts.

Uncle Art was first, Aunt Betty, then my Uncle Butch (45 years old), my uncle Wilbert, my grandmother, my grandfather, and lastly my Uncle Bob. All heart attack deaths.

So when I started to feel chest pains. I FREAKED!! lol. We all do it. Whenever we get any pain it seems our first reaction is always the worst. I'm infamous with this. My sternum hurt...I was sure I was going to be told I had lung cancer. My foot hurt, I waited for my foot doctor to tell me he needed to amputate.

It reminds me of the movie My Girl, where the daughter of a mortician always thought she had the condition her father's newest client had died from.

As Fibro Patients we expect the worse because, as I always used to say to Dan, "No one can feel this much pain and not be dying".

Oh yeah...The Old Gin was not a very positive person. Haha!

So what about all this chest pain? What the hell is it? And how can I tell the difference between heart attacks and benign chest pain?

In my case it is reoccurring costochondritis. Yippy! And the best way to tell that its my costo and not a heart attack is by moving for me. If I can feel the sharp pain by moving, make it worsen, then its not a heart attack. A true heart attack can not be aggravated. It is what it is!

I was searching for information about different conditions chest pain could be and found a very simple and detailed article on the Queens University website:

http://meds.queensu.ca/capre/chestpains/reading.html

Check it out, give it a read and then research the conditions. Because Costocondritis is my specialty (yay me!) I'll give you a quick overview of the symptoms:

Heart attack symptoms such as pain in the chest, sensitivity/pain in sternum (A tender point for fibro patients anyway...weee), difficulty breathing.

Difficulty breathing is a tricky one because it is not a good symptom to diagnose Costochondritis. If there is no pain, the difficulty breathing is more likely a "fibro thing" or perhaps a bad allergic reaction or possibly asthma related. Costochondritis is all about the pain, baby! Fun fun.

Now here's where I'm uncertain of things and I'll report back once I know more about it. My costo comes and goes. Sometimes within hours so I don't treat it just like I don't seek treatment for the ache in the arch of my foot. I used to get cortisone shots in my foot but it did...nothing. I still got the ache every day...because of Fibro.

So...here's my thought. Do I really have Costochondritis or does Fibro just mimic this syndrome as well? Is my ribcage really inflamed or does it just feel that way? Hopefully I'll have that answer soon.

When in doubt, my friends... go to the hospital. Chest pains are nothing to fool around with!

All my best,
Gin