chest pain, cough and back pain - ooh or gp monday?

[beatlegirl]

sorry for typing- on tablet. I have had a chesty cough for about 3 days which has become more and more painful. My chest kills every time I cough. I now also have pain in my back, high up between my shoulder blades.
is this urgent? What could it be?

[beatlegirl]

bump

[purplewithred]

It could be a nasty cough. Any other symptoms? When does the pain happen?

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

Is it a muscular type pain?

[beatlegirl]

No, it isn't muscular. the chest pain is worst when I cough, but sort of sore all the time. my back sort of hurts when I breathe.
Thanks for replies.

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

Pleurisy possibly. Have you got a temperature at all, is it affecting your breathing?

[beatlegirl]

my breathing feels weird. not painful, just- like, hard work. no temp, I don't think. will dig out thermometer.
It's probably just a cold and I'm being a drama queen!

[hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman]

Not a drama queen at all. If your breathing feels laboured you need to be seen and sooner rather than later. I'm no expert but I am a mum to two severely asthmatic kids, dd is very prone to infections so I have some experience.

[beatlegirl]

Paracetamol hasn't helped much. When I cough I feel like I'm sort of moving mucus around. Sorry for tmi.

[evianna]

I have symptoms just like yours, no temp, cough is now gone, but shooting pain in chest and back and my voice has also been quite croaky since my symptoms first started. The latest is that a few times a day I get a heavy chest and find it somewhat difficult to breathe, this feeling can last up to 10 mins at a time. I've been to the doctor twice now and was diagnosed with viral myalgia. Neurofen/ibuprofen helps the chest/back pain which is now almost gone.

[evianna]

Paracetamol doesn't at all touch this thing i'm afraid. Second doctor said neurofen+paracetamol together, which I did for a day or two, now I only take ibuprofen.

[evianna]

Are you sure the pain in your chest is not muscle/bone/soft tissue related?

[beatlegirl]

Not sure evianna. How would I know the difference? It feels like it's coming from the inside.

I've remembered something else. I felt really rough at the start of the week, just really low. I was planning to see the doctor to get my Iron levels checked.
Then a crisis broke out at work, so I was suddenly doing 16 hour days and inoring what seemed like a cold.

So actually, while it feels sudden, it's actually been building all week.

[evianna]

Not entirely sure, but I sort of notice that even though the pain can be more prominent when I breathe in and out, it is still doesn't feel like coming from deep inside the lungs, but it seems to be in correlation with the movement of the ribcage around it, if you see what I mean. But that's only me, yours could be entirely different. Having said that, I too ended up calling NHS 111 exactly a week ago, because I just wasn't sure of the pain and was worried about my breathing. They called me in straightaway for a check over by a GP in the hospital. But I think that was mainly because they weren't convinced that I wasn't having a heart attack .
Please call OOH if you are concerned!!

[Saddayinspring]

We can't really tell on the Internet what is going on. You need to be examined.

If you are coughing up green phlegm and mainly just have pain on coughing is probably a chest infection / pneumonia

If you have bad central chest pain you have to call ambulance

If you have pain breathing in you should also get checked out tonight to rule out clot esp if you feel breathless.