For quite a while now I've been experiencing random episodes of a stabbing pain in my chest at the left side. The pain comes suddenly, and makes it hard to breathe as the pain gets more and more intense the deeper you breathe. For me this pain lasts from everything between half an hour to nine hours (The longest experience I've had). In this condition I'm unable to move or reposition myself without the pain intensifying, I am also unable to breathe more than a set depth. I've had this condition for probably five years now coming and going as it wants, and I have no idea what started it.
From what I've gathered of information, then the name of this condition is most likely "Precordial catch syndrome". [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precordial_catch_syndrome"]Wikipedia[/URL] lists this under symptoms:
[I]Its symptoms begin with a sudden onset of anterior chest pain on the left side of the chest. The pain is localized and does not radiate like heart attack pain typically does. Breathing in, and sometimes breathing out, often intensifies the pain. Moving also intensifies the pain. Typically this causes the patient to freeze in place and breathe shallowly until the episode passes. Episodes typically last a couple of seconds to three minutes.[/I]
Which fits the description perfectly for me, except the part where it lasts often several hours for me. I do however believe it is the same condition that I have, just intensified.
I looked around on the internet, and found out that alot of people are experiencing the same type of pain, but no-one seems to know what causing it, or what you could do to fix it. I'm making this thread because I'm sure more people here on Facepunch have experienced the same thing, and I would like to exchange experiences and know if any of you know something more than me about it.
Go. See. A. Doctor.
You've got socialized health care up there in Norway, you don't have an excuse.
When it comes to stuff like this, especially stuff that lasts in excess of an hour, why risk it?
Hmm yes
My diagnosis is goseeadoktorosis
It's a common condition which is generally unnoticed by the populace here
[QUOTE=woolio1;45892376]Go. See. A. Doctor.
You've got socialized health care up there in Norway, you don't have an excuse.
When it comes to stuff like this, especially stuff that lasts in excess of an hour, why risk it?[/QUOTE]
I did that last year, got an x-ray and everything. Got told they did not find anything and there was nothing wrong with me.
You've had these complaints for [b]FIVE[/b] years and you're still just self-diagnosing?
Go see a doctor, for fuck's sake!
[editline]4th September 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=Anderen2;45892408]I did that last year, got an x-ray and everything. Got told they did not find anything and there was nothing wrong with me.[/QUOTE]
Gotten a second opinion?
Yeah I used to get it very often as a kid, I hardly ever get it now. Don't worry it's fine, I've had a doctor tell me that it's a trapped nerve or some shit, which made a lot of sense since it did the same thing with I moved my arm on the side it hurts.
However don't take my word for it, go see a doctor if you're that worried.
[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;45892409]You've had these complaints for [b]FIVE[/b] years and you're still just self-diagnosing?
Go see a doctor, for fuck's sake!
[editline]4th September 2014[/editline]
Gotten a second opinion?[/QUOTE]
Well, there were two individual doctors handling my case, but I should probably take a new visit now that I may know some more about what causing it. Thanks for the push :)
[editline]4th September 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=AcidGravy;45892417]Yeah I used to get it very often as a kid, I hardly ever get it now. Don't worry it's fine, I've had a doctor tell me that it's a trapped nerve or some shit, which made a lot of sense since it did the same thing with I moved my arm on the side it hurts.
However don't take my word for it, go see a doctor if you're that worried.[/QUOTE]
I've heard the "trapped nerve" explanation before as well, but I cannot feel any pain when moving my left arm.
Hey guys I have a stabbing pain that originates from the region of my body where my heart happens to be, any idea what it could be?
wow this same thing used to happen to me when I was a kid-early teen years, it eventually stopped happening as I got older though.
wow, the same thing happens to me all the time, only it lasts a few minutes instead of a few hours.
I got it. Looked it up on the internet. Wikipedia said nothing to worry about. Whatevs.
I thought 'pulmonary embolism', but you've had occasional symptoms for years now? Surely you would have keeled over if they were actual episodes. Then again it could be a chronic thrombotic pulmonary embolism. That pain could very well be tissue being deprived of oxygen. Go see doctors until they catch on to something. Was it an arteriogram, or just a normal x-ray session they did? I don't know if they can detect dead tissue with that, I'm not too knowledgeable on this but yeah.
Dude, go back and say the pain hasn't subsided.
As someone with a family member with a misdiagnosis that fucked up their life for a bit, don't take a chance.
[QUOTE=Anderen2;45892408]I did that last year, got an x-ray and everything. Got told they did not find anything and there was nothing wrong with me.[/QUOTE]
Xray isn't the end all be all for finding problems, you'd likely need at least a combination of MRI, Xray and blood Tests to get a complete idea of whats going on
This isn't dangerous, if your still a teenager, its totally normal. What you're experiencing is nerve being stuck between ribs, and no, its not your heart and is totally unrelated to it. Its totally random and can happen on both sides, but left side is more common. Best way to get rid of this is to be more active and grow up :)
[QUOTE=Sourceshift;45894934]This isn't dangerous, if your still a teenager, its totally normal. What you're experiencing is nerve being stuck between ribs, and no, its not your heart and is totally unrelated to it. Its totally random and can happen on both sides, but left side is more common. Best way to get rid of this is to be more active and grow up :)[/QUOTE]
Can attest to this, stopped happening after a few years. I've only ever felt it after sitting around for a long time too, I imagine moving around and being active as he said keeps it from happening or makes it less intense.
I've never heard of it happening for several hours though, you should be safe and ask another doctor.
This. I have the exact same problem. Jesus I thought there was something seriously wrong with me, but now that I know that it's pretty common, I'm pretty relieved.
Stabbing pain caused by sitting in this position for a while. Pain when I breathe in and out. Have to keep doing short breaths and keeping it somewhere in the middle.
smoek weed
[highlight](User was permabanned for this post ("gimmick" - Orkel))[/highlight]
[QUOTE=Sourceshift;45894934]This isn't dangerous, if your still a teenager, its totally normal. What you're experiencing is nerve being stuck between ribs, and no, its not your heart and is totally unrelated to it. Its totally random and can happen on both sides, but left side is more common. Best way to get rid of this is to be more active and grow up :)[/QUOTE]
Well, I have had this since I was a teen, at least as long as I can remember. But I am now 20 years old, and I have it even more often now than in my teens. You may be right that it has something with activity to do, as I've never got it when I'm training. And the last year I've been less active due to no longer having the time to train as regularly. My job consists of running servers though, so I have no choice but to sit for longer periods of time.
[editline]5th September 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=AtomiCal;45895137]This. I have the exact same problem. Jesus I thought there was something seriously wrong with me, but now that I know that it's pretty common, I'm pretty relieved.
Stabbing pain caused by sitting in this position for a while. Pain when I breathe in and out. Have to keep doing short breaths and keeping it somewhere in the middle.[/QUOTE]
Does it last longer than a couple of minutes for you too?
Seems like something you'd grow out of. I used to have heart problems as a younger kid, but once I grew older that went away.
since I've given up caffeine, I've had no pain of any sort. Not even headaches.
[QUOTE=Anderen2;45896070]Well, I have had this since I was a teen, at least as long as I can remember. But I am now 20 years old, and I have it even more often now than in my teens. You may be right that it has something with activity to do, as I've never got it when I'm training. And the last year I've been less active due to no longer having the time to train as regularly. My job consists of running servers though, so I have no choice but to sit for longer periods of time.
[editline]5th September 2014[/editline]
Does it last longer than a couple of minutes for you too?[/QUOTE]
Lasted for a good 20 minutes for me once. Had to lie down. Happened when I sat in this position leaning a bit forward and left, creating pressure in the area around my heart.
This was also combined with coffee and a good lack of sleep. It has more chance of happening then for me.
Sounds like anxiety. If you saw a doctor and they shrugged you off, it's anxiety.
But I'm not a doctor
I also experience this about once a month, when I was a teenager I would sometimes experience it multiple times a week, which caused me to seek medical attention. The doctor explained to me that it's a fairly normal thing, and is caused by a nerve getting clamped. He also recommended me to ignore the pain, and take a very deep breath anyway, seeing as that would usually un-clamp the nerve, relieving the pain immediately. And yes, it works for me, at least.
I have the same thing too.
No fucking way.. I've had this for years, was always told it was just air getting trapped.
I have it for up to 10 minutes.
[QUOTE=DrDevil;45893057]Hey guys I have a stabbing pain that originates from the region of my body where my heart happens to be, any idea what it could be?[/QUOTE]
A heart attack isn't localized. A heart attack is your entire chest in crushing pain, as well as your arm, chin, groin, and sometimes your leg, along with sweats and nausea. It's basically your entire body saying OH FUCK YOU'RE DYING WHAT DO WE DO!?
I feel jealous of you guys who can just go see a doctor :(
I've had this exact same thing happen to me about 2 years ago. I went to the doctor and he said he gets a lot of patients with the same thing from time to time. He said it could be caused to a mild injury to the interior of my chest wall. He asked me if I remember getting hit in the chest by something or if I lifted anything heavy recently. Sure enough, a few days before I started having those stabbing pains I did move a mattress and boxspring, although those things aren't typically too heavy and I didn't feel any pain in my chest at all while moving them.
This probably led to some mild swelling and I started feeling the stabbing pains for over a week, on my left side. Though eventually, they faded away, just as the doctor said they would. I was getting paranoid about having a heart attack or something before I went to the doctor, but it fixed itself.
I hope the same is true for you!
I've been having pains like this for a while too, except I know it's not my heart because the pains started like two years ago or so, and around that time I had to get an MRI done on my heart for unrelated reasons and everything was fine with my heart. It will usually happen after physical activity though.
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