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Chest Pain, No Breathlessness Or Increased Heart Rate. Have MS And Fibromyalgia

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Posted on Sun, 29 Jul 2012
Question: get pain at center of chest when sit or more than 10 minutes or lay on my back. Gets to the point I cannot move. Usually takes time to move and work thru the pain and lean forward until it goes away or my daughter helps me to get up. No shortness of breath, fast heart rate, dizziness, just major pain. Happens at no certain times just whenever I sit or lay down. I do have MS and fibromyalgia. Did work with special needs children for 10 years, took alot of head butts to that area from non verbal autistic children.
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Answered by Dr. J. Clive Spiegel (3 hours later)
Glad you consulted us on this. My area of expertise is neurology and psychiatry, but it sounds like you need a thorough work up for this chest pain from top to bottom to rule out anything worrisome. I think a cardiology visit is a good place to start to make sure it isn't a chest pain that's cardiac in nature. Given that you have multiple medical problems, I would strongly consider an imaging study of the chest like at CT scan or MRI, even if the cardiac workup is negative. You definitely want to be certain that there nothing there that is a possible cause of this. The pain could be post-traumatic in nature from the blows to the chest that you have received throughout your career. A simple X-ray of the ribs and chest might reveal arthritis that could be responsible for this. If all tests are negative, or at least inconclusive, it could be related to fibromyalgia, or the copaxone, or the chronic steroid use. These are a few of the things that come to my mind when I read your history. So I think that's a good start to how to proceed in your quest to get some answers about this bizarre symptom. I hope this helped orient you a bit. Don't hesitate to return here and ask me any follow up question that I caould be of help with for you. Take care, and I wish you the best of health!
Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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Dr. J. Clive Spiegel

Psychiatrist

Practicing since :1996

Answered : 67 Questions

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Chest Pain, No Breathlessness Or Increased Heart Rate. Have MS And Fibromyalgia

Glad you consulted us on this. My area of expertise is neurology and psychiatry, but it sounds like you need a thorough work up for this chest pain from top to bottom to rule out anything worrisome. I think a cardiology visit is a good place to start to make sure it isn't a chest pain that's cardiac in nature. Given that you have multiple medical problems, I would strongly consider an imaging study of the chest like at CT scan or MRI, even if the cardiac workup is negative. You definitely want to be certain that there nothing there that is a possible cause of this. The pain could be post-traumatic in nature from the blows to the chest that you have received throughout your career. A simple X-ray of the ribs and chest might reveal arthritis that could be responsible for this. If all tests are negative, or at least inconclusive, it could be related to fibromyalgia, or the copaxone, or the chronic steroid use. These are a few of the things that come to my mind when I read your history. So I think that's a good start to how to proceed in your quest to get some answers about this bizarre symptom. I hope this helped orient you a bit. Don't hesitate to return here and ask me any follow up question that I caould be of help with for you. Take care, and I wish you the best of health!