Lung pain when around heavy pollution

[Cactusflower1]

I don’t know if I’m worrying about nothing here (!), and mentioned it to my GP once when asking about something else and she didn’t seem concerned.

I had pleurisy 3 years ago. And, ever since, whenever I am around high pollution, I get a pain in my lungs where the pleural pain used to be. This went away completely during lockdown as no one was driving and I pretty much forgot about it. But yesterday I went for a very long walk and the traffic was absolutely insane (London) - proper bank holiday traffic - and the pain came back almost instantly.

It also happens if I smell very intense chemicals for a long period of time (ie: sink and plug hole unblocker in my en-suite and I forget to close the bathroom door overnight while it does its thing).

Is this something to be concerned about?

Makes me a little more worried about getting CV...

Anyone?

One more bump!

Can't help much but I am planning to move away from the town where I live, this lockdown has really shown me how much effect pollution has on my breathing

Yes I am definitely thinking the same. (Concerned about where to go - as my non-London parents’ town is even worse than here as no public transport and everyone drives everywhere!)

It’s funny what you notice when there are no cars about!

You might have a degree of asthma. When my asthma started out, I only ever experienced it as chest pain - made it very difficult to get diagnosed as I never wheeze but when I met a brilliant asthma nurse she said it was v common.

sadly I do wheeze now

If pollution and strong fragrances irritate your lungs, or lockdown has made you think 'Oh I am breathing a lot better than normal' it might be possible.

For me, it turned out I had no idea what 'normal' was despite at the time of diagnosis being 35 years old and a senior doctor

Oh wow that’s so interesting! I live in a pretty polluted area of zone 2 London (in non-lockdown) and it completely went away when the cars did.

Asthma didn’t even occur to me! I thought it was some sort of hang up from my pleurisy.

I don’t get the pain when I go for a run, or do heavy exercise though (or is everything I know about asthma from old tv sitcoms?!).

Well it's only an idea!

But yes, everything I knew about asthma turned out to be from seeing people with severe emergency asthma in A+E, not mild everyday asthma.

It depends what your triggers are - they might be pollution. And strong smells, fragrances and cleaning fluids are basically a form of pollution.

It could also be a hang up from your pleurisy but well, your lungs aren't happy are they?

Definitely food for thought!

How long did it take for your wheeziness to come about, after initially only getting the pain?

(Time for me to move out of this polluted neighbourhood, I think! )