But it turned out to be a FMS attack of the most painful kind.
Back in February, I was put in the hospital where tests were ran. They even did the one where they look inside your heart for blockages. Heart was fine but the pain continued. I would go thru numerious blood tests and in the end, I find out that I will deal with this pain for the rest of my life.
Oh well, thank God it's not going to take my life before reaching 50. I have found it extremely interesting to find so many of us dealing with the chest pains and breathing problems. In addition, the shoulders, hips, hands, arms ....... and the list does go on and on, doesn't it!!
Thank you to whoever was the first person to say I have FMS and started this support space. I can now explore the areas common amoung us who have this and learn how to stop scaring the heck out of myself. Thank you all for being there :angel:

Hi LM,

Yes fibro tis awful...welcome to the board. There are great people here and lots of info. My doctor is happy with all the ideas I come in with because it gives her more to work with in her practice. She has quite a few fibro patients.

I love the support and comraderie. I made me stop feeling likeI must be crazy all the time.

Are you on pain meds? I hope so. It sounds like you have a high pain level.

Remember the more you stress the more it hurts.

- Andy

Andy-
They did try numerious meds on me (at first) but many of them were having reverse effects. Increased RLS, cramps, insom and mood swings. Bottom line, I'm now on ultracet until the costochondria clears up that I currently am dealing with.

For the last 3 nights I have woke up with such pain that I thought just like Fred Sanford used to say..."this is it, I am coming to be with you" LOL well..but the light of day when I analyze where the pain is..it is seeming just fibro. All the front of my chest ( clavicle area) and some in my upper back. This darn illness just drives you crazy sometimes...but, it is a stressful week here..my husband is considering a new job, across the country ..and that brings stress...and voila-I am waking up with pain so bad I wonder if I am dying! But, it is just another fun day, not knowing how you will feel or what it will bring!
Hang in there..hopefully you will feel ok soon!

Thanks DecLady,
I hear you LOL Sometimes I think it is a good thing my hubby is a trucker so he doesn't have to live with my pain as much. The poor man's face reflects how much he hurts for me. But as you say regarding your husband possible new job, my hubby's job does induce added stress at times.
Could you be having some Costochondria yourself and do you have pain meds?

I just wanted to say that I admire the He** out of you ladies that face this by yourself. If I didn't have my hubby to massage me when the pain is so bad I think I'd go out of my mind. LOL I've had many of those I'm coming to get you nights and again I thank God on a daily basis that I have such a great and understanding hubby.

Chris

Icefire :wave: Thank you for such kind words but we all (in my opinon :o ) need to be admired for dealing with our pain and looking so darn healthy when we all know how punnee we feel inside. Your words help encourage me. Thanks again :)

That "c" word syndrome..but what I am feeling this time is more at the top of my body-front and back of shoulders more than any other area. But I have also had breastbone pain. I am always grateful that none of it lasts forever, but going from one pain to another isn't much fun either! I know what you mean with your dh...I try to protect mine from a certain amount of what I go thru. Although we have talked about that as well, and he knows I dont 'tell him everything...but he is also aware that I NEVER have a day where something isn't hurting or acheing...or I feel fluish...or sometimes all in the same day! I sometimes think it is easier to be me than him...He is at a loss...for the most part I know what I have to do to make it thru the day.

The pain is awful, when I first started I guess you would call it "having" fibro myalgia, I had palpitations, mostly from the Irritable bowel and I ended up in the ER about 3 times thinking I was having a heart attack. They thought I was nuts cause I was only 25 at the time. All the docs would just say you are fine, I even went so as far to to wear a holter monitor for two days...guess what everything was fine! It is so terrible that so many of us get scared to death on a daily basis because we symptoms that are sooooo frightening and are most often symptoms of something life threatening. I find this one of the most annoying things!!! I am here with ya! :angel:

Hi, I get this this pain also, Mine is more upper shoulder and clavicle, breasts and under the breast in the ribs. It hurts to take a deep breathe, I went to my Dr. about a year ago, I could not stand the pain, she did an ekg, although she did not think it was heart related, xrays, all was fine. She than started palpitating my upper chests going in between the ribs. I was screaming it hurt so bad, she said I am sure you have costro also, gee just what I need to go along wth the tintinitus, Ibs, myofascal pain, Fm an the Tmj. now my life is complete.
She told me any chest pain that hurts more when you press on it, is muscular not heart. So I press and flair it up more, cannot win at this game.

Linda

:wave: exactly, that is what i do, i just keep pressing and feel the pain radiate and I know it is the fibro, and eventually it goes away is about 5 or 10 minutes, now I know that if it stayed and did not go away I would definitely go get help!!!

Hi,

I used to have those pains too, right near the heart. It would feel like it was near the breastbone or near the spine, but felt more like in the chest rather than the back. Almost 20 years ago, I experimented with calcium pills and that helped. The calcium/magnesium pills helped my muscle leg pains, so I thought I would try and see if that would help for this. Well, to my surprise it did. I then decided to stay the rest of the day at work. I felt much better.

The pain, for me, was so intense. It felt like you were going to die, or lose your breath. They usually lasted for about 45 minutes or so. You didn't know when it was going to stop or how much worse it was going to be. For me, it would start there near the heart and migrate upwards towards the chin. If this attack happened at work, I was afraid to tell anyone, otherwise they might call an ambulance. I had these pains for years and knew that they would just go away eventually. But they sure scared me a lot.

Much later in life, I linked all of these fibromyalgia pains, to my mercury-silver dental amalgams. A lot of you, most likely remember me writing about it, from time to time. Those pains are history now and I no longer have them.

After my experiments with the calcium/magnesium pills, I also tried another technique. I would take a huge volume of air in my lungs, and stretch the chest wall. I would take in so much air, and then push this lung capacity beyond anything I've ever done before. With this extreme stretching, it would help the pains subside. This suggested to me that this might be tied to somehow to muscles or other connective tissues. It was like it was a super muscle cramp in a concentrated area in the chest.

I had so many other pains too, that I've described before. I'm still running nearly 20 miles a week after being told to not run more than a hundred yards in 1978 by a doctor. I still get some mild muscle pains if I try to push it too hard, and then have to slow down. I've found that adding fresh vegetable such as spinach and broccolli has helped too, along with my herbs. Getting rid of the source of mercury is only part of equation. You must continually remove this stored-up source of toxins. My latest experiments with cilantro, have shown me some interesting symptoms too.

But, I'll never forget those chest pains. They were so awful.

I had this two nights ago. The pain started in my back and raditated around to my sternum. It lasted about 30 min. and then started again in the middle of the night. Now I am fatigued and have achy pains all over. Is this what a flare up is? I have had what seems like fibro symptoms for several years. Since the start of meno. But that one caught me off guard. Anyone else?

Thanks Orchidbeauty78, I know what you mean when you say "symptoms that are sooooo frightening and are most often symptoms of something life threatening". I can really scare the heck out of myself with my bad habit of trying label my pain with illnesses I believe others have more compassion for. Oh, not that I do this with awareness at the time but I have come to realize it of late.

LOL - Amen to that sister ;-) We do tend to get a collection of varity of pains. By all means stay away from pressing!! Lord knows, we have enough flair without adding fuel to that flame! (Do I hear an AMEN!) LOL

I no longer have my own teeth (store bought kind only :-) LOL ) But I do wonder what kind of fillings I lived with for 30 something yrs? Will give the calcium/magnesium pills a try. Curious though... it sounds as your attacks didn't last for long (minutes / hours?) Mine go on for days, waning at times but building to almost unbearable at other times. Did that ever happen with you?

Amen to that!

My chest pain attacks happened only periodically, like sometimes every 6 months or so. I kind of think it was like the muscle or tissue stretching or cramping on itself...as if it was a natural occurrence to help itself. But that's only a guess on my part. But, wow! Talk about pain! It was unbearable.

Even after I had my mercury fillings removed, I still had these chest pains and other discomforts. The mercury is still within a person's tissues throughout the body, and it takes years for the poisons to be removed. My fibromyalgia symptoms gradually went away. I still have very mild pains occasionally, especially when I overdo it or am under a ton of stress. I hope I continue to get better, where I have zero complaints. But that's unlikely, because as we get older, I'm sure there will be other things....

Hi!

Can someone tell me what costochondria is? I tried Googling and different spellings, but no luck. I have FM, too, and the very first thing about it that made me see a Dr. was the pain in the breastbone area - I thought I was having a heart attack because the pain was RIGHT THERE, near where pain would be from a heart attack. Who knew?? This was over 20 years ago, and he didn't call it FM - back then, it was fibrositis. I have also developed pain in the ribs, and I can't even take in a very deep breath because it feels like my ribcage is tight and won't expand...and it hurts! So, this costochondria, is that what it's called? And where do I find out more info about it?? Thanks!!

Char :wave:

COSTOCHONDRITIS is inflamation of the rib cage,it affects all the ribs front and back,I get my pain under my breasts into my breast, up the side of my breasts up to my shoulder. also get upper back pain. I have sore spots all over my upper chest and collar bone. if you press on the pain site the pain intensifies and hurts more when you move or take a deep breath. different people are affected at different areas in the ribs area, it is really painful.I had did a search also and found little info, other than inflamation of the r*b cage

Linda

do not know what happened but no I's would come up and the word the, just asterisks, hope it works this time

Hey Linda,

The moderator put up a post saying they had fixed this problem and apologizing..FYI. How annoying! But it should work if you fix it again.

- Andy

I do not know if I have fibro or am starting menopause, symptoms are so similar, however I can relate to all the chest pain symptoms. Mine too last for days and reaching down (like trying to stretch) makes my chest hurt worse, not lifting up! Seems like I only have one good week a month, which makes me think possibly meno! Does anyone know if magnesium really does help with chest pain?

I have cosochondritis and have to say that it is by far my biggest complaint with having fibro. I visited my doctor so many time thinking it was my heart or that I must have pneumonia only to find out that wasn't the case. I do have some thyroid issues and I feel that when my levels are flucuating it makes my fibro symtoms more noticable. Also, I have found that during times of stress the pain gets more severe. At the present time I am under LOTS of stress and have noticed that even driving has become can bring on the pain. Feels like I can't breathe, which is waaaay fightening. However, once I am out of the car, I'm fine again. Anyone else have this problem?

As for pain relief, I use an ice pack and take an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory. I've also found massage to be of great benefit. My doctor just recently suggested taking magnesium. I haven't started that yet since everytime I take vitiamins/minerals I get such heartburn. Seems like you can't win for losing sometimes. Anyway, I am going to try it.

But it turned out to be a FMS attack of the most painful kind.
Back in February, I was put in the hospital where tests were ran. They even did the one where they look inside your heart for blockages. Heart was fine but the pain continued. I would go thru numerious blood tests and in the end, I find out that I will deal with this pain for the rest of my life.
Oh well, thank God it's not going to take my life before reaching 50. I have found it extremely interesting to find so many of us dealing with the chest pains and breathing problems. In addition, the shoulders, hips, hands, arms ....... and the list does go on and on, doesn't it!!
Thank you to whoever was the first person to say I have FMS and started this support space. I can now explore the areas common amoung us who have this and learn how to stop scaring the heck out of myself. Thank you all for being there :angel:

I also wnt to hosptital for terribble chest pain. Ended up, chest pain was chostrocondritis. Inflammation of the cartilage between breat bone and ribs. I also have Fibro.

Hi I m looking in this thread for the first time.. It appears i might have been looking elsewhere while I shud ve been in here. I started having chest pain, where my muscles would be very sore. I admit I ve been pressing on it too many times. At first it was suspected as asthma. then Gerd. I also have hard time breahing so i thought maybe it was due to heart attack, lung cancer. Tomorrow I m going to see the Lung specailist. Maybe I ll bring up the FM. But let me explain what I feel. If I were to rub around my chest it would be very sore. It feels like flu, if u were to rub on ur arm its kinda sore. then I also had that moment where the rib would be very sore if i were to take deep breath or even breathe. like a knife jabbing in there. or on my left side if i were to take a deep breath or even breathe it would have a spasm which i thought was heart attack happening. The dr says it shud not hurt when breathign so that s not heart attack.. Of course I went to see DRs soooo many times this year. Its frustrating. I even went to allergy dr to have my breathing test done whenever i hve hard time breathing, but my test always comes back normal. and since my Ins doesnt cover allergy visit so I end up paying alot for those breathing test.

so can you tell me exactly what kind of chest pain do u feel? I ve also had " tingling" feeling on my shoulder blade area. what kind of pain and if skin are sore? and I do experience many things everyday its either this or that or this or that. I also noticed in here about twitches.

I had twitches on my right side head where it feels like the vein is twitching. But I never knew any of what I ve experienced could be related to FM.

Hope you dont mind answering me
thanks

Hi,
What you are describing is exactly one of the FM symptoms I seem to suffer from. My chest muscles feel tight and I can't always seem to take in a deep breath. My chest is sore to the touch. I get knots, burning and tingling in my shoulder blades, as well as all over my body. You should speak to your family dr. You would need to see a rheumatologist for a FM diagnosis. Most of us have gone through test after test, only for them all to come back normal. There are many more symptoms, which I don't know if you have, but take a look around this board and see if anything sounds familiar. It can take some time and many mis-diagnosis' for you to get a proper diagnosis. The first time someone mentioned FM to me and I went online to read about it, my mouth literally hung open. I had finally found something that described me perfectly.

Good Luck to you!

The chest pain would start somewhere on the front of your chest especially if you press on it and the pain can go all the way around to your shoulder blade because that is where the ribs go. They go all the way around from the front to back. As far as breathing in and making it hurt, that may be something else and probably needs to be checked by a lung doctor.

With fibro. a person can have different aches and pains all around the body. They may occur at the same time or individually.