Thursday, November 24, 2011

Shooting pains on left side of chest for 2 years made worse when you breathe, 19 yrs old heart is fine What?

My 19 yr old daughter has been getting shooting pains on the left side of her chest for 2 yrs. She has seen cardiologist, orthopedic, physical therapist, gastrointologist, all reporting negative. Pain sometimes is dull a few times a week. What could it be? Also, not costocondritis. Pediatrician feels it is nerve damage from costocondritis. I don't agree. Pressure on spot does not hurt at all.|||Well, costochondritis was my first guess. I have also seen two other causes from what you are describing.





1. Intercostal Neuralgia ; usually due to zoster, or chicken pox re-flair, or zoster nerve damage. Gabapentin works well, but you have to take it for 6 months to a year in high doses before it works.. little to no side effects.





2. A pleural friction rub or tear, or Pleurisy.





http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/sym/pleura鈥?/a>





http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Ato鈥?/a>





It is frightening to know how much is missed. Stay after this, and keep getting second, third, fourth, etc. opinions. Just because you have seen all of the specialists, they can miss.





Hope one of these helps. Hard to suggest more without seeing her, or labs, films, etc.|||Usually, the person best qualified to pinpoint the cause of pain is the person that is experiencing it. Given all he apparent attempts to identify the problem, it looks like the docs have been unable to even put the pain in the correct ball park.





Your daughter should be able to tell if the pain seems to occur in muscles, bones, internal organs, nerves, or some combination. It's also essential to know exactly where and when the pain occurs, and if there is any difference in the pain between inhaling and exhaling. If all of this is known, it should possible to identify what is happening (even though they still might not know why).





If i was in your daughter's situation, i would probably try visiting a chiropractor. It's quite possible that something very simple like a misaligned vertebra or a muscle injury could cause this. My wife develops a very similar problem due to a problem in her hips, which causes her to favor one side of her body. When the hip problem flares up, after a while she will also get shooting pains in muscles and nerves on the side of her ribs. The chiropractor says that a nerve in her spine gets pinched when she favors one side. When the chiro puts the hip and spine back into their proper position, the hip and rib problems go away.|||Intercostal muscle spasm. Will come and go. and also gets worse when she breathes.

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