Is there a potential fix for this (medical)?

Parent Cafe
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@eyemamom At least FL is flat. Whether I opt to do our usual stairs at the hotel or decide to try out the elevator remains to be seen. I feel fine this morning and school is going well, so… Last night I was thinking I might swing by after school if it still felt bad, but it doesn’t.

@lookingforward I agree that the steps so close together aren’t typical for me. The question in my mind is whether that should lead to right side chest pain or not. The breathing issues caused by it are typical for me, but not anyone else I’m around unless they have health issues. We all ignored mine for the past few years as they got worse because we thought they were explained by the asthma the Navy claimed I had. I seriously doubt it’s due to my being out of shape because I do as much or more than many peers and I don’t consider the tasks even slightly difficult - no muscle soreness or whatever, but I suppose one never knows. I should know more after June’s tests and suspect it will do no harm to be cautious until I have those results.

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You may want to consider doing yearly fecal immunochemical test (FIT), with colonoscopy only if FIT indicates blood in the stool. This is much less expensive and less invasive (expected number of colonoscopies over the rest of your life is less than half that of using colonoscopy every ten years as the primary screen), with about 90% of the life-years gained compared to colonoscopy every ten years.

https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/Page/Document/RecommendationStatementFinal/colorectal-cancer-screening2

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That one I have done, though it had more to do with making sure there was nothing wrong digestively after my mom’s diagnosis. If it works for both, I’m satisfied. :wink:

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@Creekland Well going from basement x3 would cause most people to be out of breath. One thing I was thinking of did they test you for COPD. This lung disease could be hard on you. Mostly it is due to smoking which you stated you never smoked. Sometimes people can get that from other causes.

Another thing to think of do you have anxiety? When people have trouble breathing sometimes the anxiety will kick in and HR will increase and chest pain will arise.

Since you are not going to dr until June I would lay off any exercise or any activity that makes you become short of breath until you see dr. This way you get to celebrate all the good things you have planned without a visit to the ER.

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Supposedly lungs are just fine, so while I’m unsure what COPD testing entails, I’d find it doubtful just on the surface.

Anxiety? Only with my own health issues if I need to involve others. Ideally y’all could ask others about my personality and character, but I’ve no plans on getting others to join for that. Technically I’m on CC in case I opt to shift into college counseling at school (some) next year. I guess I can just sum it up with the idea that dealing with crises or potential for it has pretty much always been my strength from high school days, through AF days, and still is at school. It BUGS me to not be able to deal with health issues the same way I can handle so many other things TBH - hence the stress. I more or less waved the white flag of surrender with quitting most dr appts as mentioned before, but at this point I’ll see this one through to see what comes of it and go from there - the other option being continuing the “surrender” and canceling the appts totally - sort of why I posted the question to begin with. If there’s no hope, why bother dealing with the stress?

Today being a totally “feels fine*” day, I did call the doctor’s office after school to see if the regular ole echo is best in my situation or if the stress variety would be better considering these things only happen with exercise. He wasn’t in, so the office person took my question and will relay it tomorrow getting back to me about it. I only have a short period of “free” time at school, so if they don’t call during that window I can’t answer the phone, but I’ll see what he says sooner or later. “Mid June” could get delayed if he changes his thoughts and there’s nothing that early available - plus I need to be up at mom’s in later June.

*“feels fine” days mean the variable stuff is either non-existent or light. The constant things - trigeminal nerve stuff, etc, are constant, but like a pet with a collar I totally forget about those as they’re just “life” at this point.

If I move somewhere flat, I’d seldom notice anything wrong with the breathing stuff. Today was a busy (active) day at school, then here at home I was giving vaccinations (along with grooming, etc). With two of our ponies, one takes their life in their hands with vaccinations as they are needle phobic, but each year it has to be done and I do it ('cause I don’t want anyone else hurt). Mental stress, in itself, causes nothing - neither helps nor hurts. Vacations likewise. There’s no link to anything mentally - just physically.

Basement to second floor three times (with some pauses for laundry things) might put most out of breath I suppose. I tend to forget how active our family is. In any event, I expected to be out of breath because doing it once reaches that stage for me. What I didn’t expect were the chest pains for the rest of the night - lasting somewhere into the wee hours of the morning, but gone when I woke up at 4:30am (normal waking time - no alarm - I’m a morning person and always have been).

FWIW, I find it very ironic that I have a lad in med school… but I also think he will be super useful in the future, so I’m glad we encourage(d) our boys to do what they want to in life. I just needed the foresight to graduate him after 4th grade so he could be done with all the college/med school stuff in time to help out now. (He decided he wanted to be a doctor in 3rd grade.) :smiley:

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“If there’s no hope, why bother dealing with the stress?” I don’t think anyone here has said there’s no hope. Have we?

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A clear chest x-ray does necessarily mean your lungs are “fine.”

COPD testing includes; spirometry with and without bronchodilators, lung volume capacity measurement, oximetry with and without exertion, chest x-ray, chest CT, arterial blood gas analysis. And potentially, a genetic test for alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAt) deficiency, a genetic defect that causes COPD in some individuals.

Btw, of the top 5 known contributing factors for developing COPD, #3 is being female and #4 is being over age 45

–and the all night chest pain after exertion, you should have gone to the ER once the pain persisted after resting. The DDx for persistent chest pain after exertion are pretty much all bad things…

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@rosered55 Sorry if that meaning came across incorrectly. I didn’t mean “no hope the end is near.” I meant if there’s no hope at fixing the situation (how does one reverse side effects of radiation?), then it’s not worth the stress of dealing with the doctor appts associated with it. I don’t particularly need “labels.” I like understanding what’s going on, and if possible, fixes. Radiation could indeed explain what’s going on. The question was originally about the fixes - are there any assuming his explanation is correct?

This thread itself brought up the idea of cardiac/vascular. There are enough caution flags in my mind to try to differentiate between the two, but I’m not totally sure it’s cardiac. That part has been going on for a while on and off and there aren’t any other cardiac ish signs - pulse wasn’t high even with the pains, etc. Pulse rises with the exertion (as it should), but then backed off as normal with just that amount. (I hear it - esp in bed.) Everything else seems totally fine (as per my normal).

@WayOutWestMom Thanks a ton for that explanation. It’s very helpful. The lung testing they did was for asthma - no exertion, but yes to bronchodilators, etc. This doctor said he wanted to double check other options with the xray and echo (basic version) just to “be sure” it’s not that and then he’s testing blood oxygen on steps to see what that is. Afterward he said we’d go from there.

Unless my phone is totally off (could be - it’s a phone) the BO will go down quickly (high 80s to low 90s), then return to normal (95-100) quickly (minutes) once I stop - just like the breathing does. If that’s all normal with low levels of exercise, then my body is just weird compared to my family and peers and such is life. Moving somewhere flat is an option for everyday sanity. I expect we’d keep hiking and similar though. I can’t imagine giving that up. I’ll just be the pokey one on the trail. I already opted to take the donkey up to the Monastery at Petra knowing there was no way I could do the steps up. (That was interesting - not sure it was safer - esp for the hikers on the trail as my donkey had no problem pushing them out of the way if they didn’t step aside.) I might have to eliminate Machu Picchu from the bucket list. Fortunately climbing Mt Everest isn’t in the bucket.

I am not sure at all what to think about the chest pains when they come. I never have been. They aren’t there at all today, so hopefully all is still well. Most days they aren’t there. I’m not positive they’re connected to extra exercise, but I’m not purposely going to try to test that until after this round of “whatever” is done.

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Will any of your sons be home anytime soon to go to the ER with you if you have symptoms again?

Could you call the doctor who ordered the testing scheduled for June and explain the episode you had with chest pain lasting all night and see what they recommend?

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Could you call the cardiologist and ask to have a recording cardio testing that you can wear for a week or two, so they can have those results hile you are awaiting further testing and results?

Another option is getting a current iWatch. You can participate in a free STANFORD cardiac clinical trial using your iWatch. My friend bought a new iWatch for this purpose and because he loves the latest tech.

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You mean this study?
http://med.stanford.edu/appleheartstudy.html

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Yes, and if they notice an unusual rhythm, they will let you know and send you a device to wear for a week or longer and have you mail it back to them and send you the results to share with your Med team to follow up.

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Both younger boys will be home for the summer - med school lad and my future permaculture farmer. Med school lad has already been invited to go along on the tests. It’s not only more shadowing experience for him, he’s useful for me as a translator (medicalese to English). Younger son inherited my reluctance to want help with issues so he’d probably side with me that there’s no problem worthy of an ER.

Of course I could call the doctor, but I probably don’t want to know what he recommends (if this board is a reliable example) as I’m not doing anything until after graduation and don’t want him feeling frustrated if he were to recommend something and I turned it down. If there’s risk, it’s all mine and I’m ok with that.

I don’t currently have a cardiologist… and I’m not totally convinced there’s an issue with the heart muscle itself. It seems to be working just as it should and no doctor (or med school lad when he had to get practice in) has heard any leaks, etc. If something’s wrong it’s likely in the vascular system as a typical blockage building or aneurysm or something I suppose. The watch is intriguing, but would it catch stuff like that or just heart muscle issues like leaks or signal issues?

My totally uneducated guess is there’s some sort of swelling that pushes on a nerve. I have no clue about cause, but I know when it’s bad the area is painful to the touch too (pressure touch like if the cat - or someone - wanted to snuggle). I’m not sure that happens with typical cardiac stuff (haven’t even tried to look it up). Other things match a swelling - like it takes a while to go away, it doesn’t affect pulse rate, or have any other cardiac symptoms. It’s only a guess based upon numerous times of wondering WTH it could be and could get discarded as an option if it ends up being linked to exercise unless exercise itself brings it on - something I’m not willing to test at the moment. I know I can kayak a couple times per year with no problem.

Exercise isn’t the only thing that can bring it on… I have no clue what does. There can be days or even a few weeks with nothing - making me hopeful it’s gone - then it’ll return for a time or a few times over a few days - different times of the day even. I’ve yet to figure out a common denominator. I’ve tried foods (quantity or lack thereof and specific foods) along with antacids and acid blockers with no effect - plus I actually get heartburn once in a while - it’s not the same feeling. At the moment I just deal with it when it’s here and appreciate the times it’s not. It’s as much a part of life as all the trigeminal stuff is. It’s just more variable as it completely goes away at times and the trigeminal stuff does not.

I will freely admit that if they figure out the cause in June - and can fix it - I’ll be rather grateful, but I’m not going to hold my breath expecting it.

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And you best report back here pronto! I certainly hope we’re all wrong, we’re just guessing based on our experience, not knowing you at all, and as far as I can tell none of us are medically trained beyond our degree from web md.

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Now that sounds familiar.

Costochondritis

It would explain the chest pain.

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You could have this. I had it several years back and it took my breath away and I did have chest pain with it.

The signs and symptoms of pleurisy might include:

Chest pain that worsens when you breathe, cough or sneeze
Shortness of breath — because you are trying to minimize breathing in and out
A cough — only in some cases
A fever — only in some cases

@eyemamom I laughed at your comment, but I am medically trained. Critical Care Nurse for many years but trust me I use WebMD quiet often too :slight_smile:

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@MACmiracle and @Nurse001 - Costochondritis I recall looking up some time ago and haven’t outright dismissed, but this is right side, not left, plus it doesn’t seem to interact with a rib, but that’s a guess. For both that and pleurisy a major symptom that doesn’t match is the fact that this is never affected by breathing in/out. Not better and not worse.

But… both are probably as good as my voodoo doll and ex student theory as I can’t think of an ex student who would have a vendetta - a major problem with that theory as pins don’t insert themselves.

@eyemamom I’ll definitely update if they happen to figure things out. I prefer closed endings myself and one never knows who’s reading and might benefit. ps Did we meet when our kids were dropped off at UR? I know I met a couple of moms then, but my radiated/older brain isn’t quite remembering exactly who.

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We did not meet, which was a shame! I did meet another mom from here though, and our sons ended up being good friends.

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You need to stop diagnosing yourself with internet tools and go to the doctor. Seriously.

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@Nrdsb4 I’ve been to the doctor. Every single thing I’ve mentioned is on my chart. They quit trying to find a cause and consider everything to be due to stress and/or radiation - my guess is they don’t believe some of the things are real and there isn’t a darn thing I can do to change their impression. (They were the ones who decided it wasn’t worth checking vascular options back then - no fatigue - sole reason given.)

So…it’s either help myself or, well, I’m not sure what the “or” is. Quitting trying to get them to believe me (a couple years ago) was a major step forward in reducing stress. It’d have been nice if the issues had also gone away, but one can’t have everything. Figuring out how to deal with the issues myself has been helpful. One can learn to live with things or what helps/hurts, etc.

With this particular (breathing) issue, I thought I knew the reason for it (from previous doctors) so I wasn’t concerned at all until it progressed to the point of affecting daily life. I’m losing ability to do things I do and have done all the time. This happens with age, but at age 50? If it’s aging, it’s different than what my peers are experiencing. What I thought would be a simple test/appt returning to deal with the previous asthma diagnosis hasn’t turned out to be that way.

At this point I need to decide to file it into the “who knows” category and just deal with it myself saving my sanity (and life - 'cause stress is incredibly depressing) or whether this one is different (has an answer with potential improvements) and worth continuing to pursue. That’s all. I don’t think it’s wrong discussing options, possibilities, and pros/cons with others, esp since my medical knowledge is limited. There’s no sense wasting a doctor’s time (or mine) if it’s just going to “end” the same way the other issues have.

@eyemamom My lad ended up joining the juggling club due to the son of another member. Juggling has become a big part of his life now. He now juggles knives and fire in addition to more regular items - neat to watch. Who’d have predicted it all back when we were contemplating where our guys would go! I still stay in touch with that mom occasionally but we haven’t seen each other since graduation. Time flies.