It only hurts when I breathe.
The stabbing pains in my chest and back every time I inhaled had me convinced that my sinus infection had turned into pneumonia. After three rounds of antibiotics there wasn’t a lot of improvement; in fact, the breathing problem seemed to be getting worse. I felt as though my chest was being crushed, and I was starting to cough—though not that dreadful racking cough I remember from my one experience with pneumonia thirty-odd years ago, the cough that convulses every muscle in your torso.
I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t coughing more when breathing was so painful, and it seemed hard to inhale deeply enough. But I started coughing enough to have trouble sleeping. This despite the two kinds of inhalers: Flonase at 50 mcg and Advair.
Today I finally got a chest X-ray. The good news: no pneumonia. The WTF news: I have pleurisy.
“One of my favorite swear words,” my husband told me after I got home. (Dutch people like to curse each other with diseases. The one I usually hear him mention is typhoid.)
While waiting for my cough medicine prescription to be filled, I looked pleurisy up on the Mayo Clinic site. Apparently there’s a nastier version called pleural effusion which involves fluid filling up the space between the two layers of the pleura, eventually compressing the lungs, but I have the kind where the membranes are just inflamed and scraping on each other. (So far, anyway, but I think I might just possibly be getting better at last.) Depending on where the scraping is happening, that causes pain in the chest, the back, under the arms…
If you’re wondering what a pleura is when it’s at home, here’s an illustration. The pleurea both attach the lungs to the rib cage, and cushions them from it. The parietal pleura and visceral pleura are not supposed to touch. Right now mine are, and the result isn’t pretty, because there’s no shortage of nerve endings there.
The plural of “pleura” is “pleurea,” which means the word is actually neuter rather than feminine. There aren’t that many neuter singular words in Greek that end in “a” (though a lot of them end in “ma”), so it’s kind of an unusual word. The word “pleurisy” dates back to the 14th century. That explains why it’s a popular Dutch curse-word: most of the diseases used to insult people are of long standing, some of them rare to vanishing in modern times.
I could wish my pleurisy would simply vanish, but I’m going to need to keep using the Advair and the Flonase and now the Phenergan cough syrup for a while. And applying heat. And resting. But at least I’m getting to where “resting” includes sitting at the computer and doing a bit of work.
Hi, this sounds exactly like what my girlfriend has. If you don’t mind my asking, how long did it take to go away?
Thanks,
James
It was a couple of weeks after I got the inhaler and other meds, if I remember correctly. It felt like far too long at the time, but it did go away.
Sallie:
You hit the nail on the head! My best analogy was the pain when I broke three ribs off! I feel horrible for being kicked in the dirt so hard, but you make me feel better and less of a wimp. Yes, this is the worst pain I’ve experienced in memory (along with the ribs — a good happy hour story).
Thank you for sharing!
Laura in St. Louis
I have been diagnosed with pleurial effusion and have shocking rib cage pain on left side which I’ve had for a month. It feels exacctly as you describe. Restricted breathing finaly became so bad that I went to ER and I had two liters drained out of left lung and two days later another liter drained from right lung.
I have asthma and am a long time user of Advair plus the occuasional rescue inhaler, albuterol. Asthma is considered well controlled. I don’t smoke (quit in 1979) exercise vigiorously 3 to 5 times a week, eat right and drink in moderation.
Pulmonologists say chest x rays, ct scan, ECG, ultrasound and biopsy show no cancer, no tb, no covid, and “no” to just about every usual cause of pleurial effusion. Analysis of fluid revealed nothing significant. WTF?
This is a long winded (***) route to asking whether we (those who responded to your post) are asthmatics. If so what meds do we take? THanks for giving me the space and opportunity to ask. K. Fenton
That sounds dreadful, Kat. I don’t have asthma, but I do have a chronic condition that means my immune system is a bit weird. I also have pollen allergies, and in California, something is always blooming. I take a lot of meds, including Allegra and Sudafed, but don’t regularly use inhalers.
Hi Sallie,
I have a sore chest for weeks now. It started with a cough that I still have 9 weeks later. My doctor finally referred me to a pulmonologist last week and he prescribed Advair Diskus which I started taking just 4 days ago. My question is, did Advair help your chest pain and cough and if so, how long did it take to show result? Also, did you get tired easily with pleurisy? Did you have shortness of breath and did your cough and your chest pain got worse when you did physical activity such as taking long walks. I don’t know what I have since the doctor does not want me to come in to get check because of covid so I did my own research and the best I can find to explain what I may possibly have is pleurisy. However, I’ve had this dull chest pain for weeks now and I feel it’s gotten worse. It used to hurt when I cough but now it hurts when I move and cough.
Hoping to hear from you.
Ada
I did not have shortness of breath or congestion in my lungs. It seems to me that if you have coughing and shortness of breath, you should get tested for COVID-19 right away. Best to rule that out immediately. It was also important to rule out pneumonia with a chest X-ray. Regarding recovery time, I think it took more than a few days to start to feel better, but it’s been almost 6 years and my memory isn’t that good. I know that by the time a month had passed I was getting close to normal, and by December I could walk up 7 flights of stairs.
I too had gotten somewhat sick in March after a cruise. More of a coughing/mucas /runny nose sick. Weeks later I started having shortness of breath. It wasnt constant but most days bothered me. Went to a Pulmonologist 3 times, also saw the cardiologist. The Pulmonologist found that I may have a slight case of asthma so she prescribed me Advair and Montelukast. It didnt really seem to help. In early June I got very sick for a week with most of the Covid symtoms but tested neg. twice that week. Never had coughing or phlegm. Still today I have shortness of breath, not as bad but still there. Also mind you I have had 4 chest xrays in the last 5 months. Another thing that I noticed is when I had rougher days of shortness of breath I also felt very crummy. Anyways, I wonder if I should stop taking the Advair. My lungs always hurt if I take a deep breath, anytime I do any day.
So sorry to hear that you’ve had this experience, Kevin. No suggestions to offer, I’m afraid. By December of 2014 I was able to walk up and down 8 flights of stairs without pain, which was a good thing because I had to do it several times. (We were visiting my late mother-in-law and the lift was broken.)
Thats awesome, Im glad you are back to or close to normal feeling again.