Chest tightness and middle back pain w/ deep breathing

[roxygirl81]

Since the end of last week my chest has been feeling particularily tight when I take a deep breath. Along with taking a deep breath I have an aching pain, that comes and goes when I am in different positions, in the middle of my back right under my ribs. I thought that maybe I was having an anxiety attack because I had been out of my anxiety meds for four days straight and I was having panic attacks 2 days before I got my period which usually happens a day or two before, without the meds due to my hormones. I was hyperventilating one morning and I freaked out so bad! Now that I have had them refilled and I have been taking my meds, I am still feeling tight in the chest kind of like something is swollen around my lungs or someone is standing on my back. I talked to a pharmacist who suggested trying Muscinex in case there was some mucus in my lungs, which I did but I am not having any wheezing or anything like that and it didn't help. I also take Advair for my asthma and this doesn't feel asthma related. I babysit for a physician and his family so one day I talked to him about it and he came over to listen to my lungs as well as my heart my heart since I am on Ortho-tri cyclen Lo and he wanted to listen for any murmurs or clots. He said that my lungs sounded just fine, no wheezing or anything..nice and clear, and as far as my heart goes...he didn't hear anything irregular. He asked me if I had heart palpatations but I only had them with the anxiety attacks and he said that's normal with panic attacks. I have good blood pressure, last time I went it was 110/70 and my HR is 62 beats per minute, I do cardio/weight training 5 days a week, I don't smoke, I only drink on occassion and lately not at all, I do have bad eating habits because I don't eat enough fruits, vegies, and meats...mostly carbs and sweets but I am working on improving balancing my diet, and I'm 24. Do you think that this could be at all heart related or is this something else? Could this be allergy related because this really started to happen as soon as the weather warmed up? The Dr. told me that the soreness is most likely muscle sorness from the anxiety and heavy breathing it caused. Is there anything else that could be? I would like some idea of what I should have looked at because I am having surgery in 3 weeks and I need to be in great shape before it. I don't have insurance so if I have tests done I need to know what is the most logical place to look first.

Thanks,
C

[Dr. Yasser Mokhtar]

Dear roxygirl,

Females of the child bearing age are naturally protected against coronary disease. You don't have any major risk factors for coronary disease. The pain that you are feeling is not typical as compared to that of coronary disease. The probability that this pain is due to coronary disease is very low.

Other causes of chest pain include a heart condition called mitral valve prolapse. This condition is usually discovered in young otherwise healthy patients. Its main symptoms are atypical chest pain and palpitations among others. It is diagnosed by echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) and just needs to be watched.

There is nothing to worry about in your case.

What kind of surgery are you going to have?

Thank you very much for using our website http://doctorslounge.com and i hope that this information helped.

Yasser Mokhtar, M.D.

[roxygirl81]

I had my heart checked out and everything is fine. It turned out that I was having a lot of anxiety related problems. I was on a pretty low dose of Effexor XR and once my doctor increased the dosage, I found that the problems I was experiencing began to disappear.

As far as my surgery goes, I am having lipoplasty on my hips and thighs.