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General health

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Original poster

scared i might have something seriously wrong

88 replies

alypaly · 18/04/2010 02:11

breathlessness/bag of feathers in chest started totally out of the blue about 4 weeks ago.dry cough started....no other symptoms except abit tired. persistent dry cough with a slight increase in clear phlegm. Cough more when i lie down.
got diagnosed at hospital with pericarditis 2 weeks ago as i developed a soreness around my heart.

Then got the worst ever sore throat with green phlegm(sorry TMI) and cough has got a bit worse since.
Beginning to wonder if the docs have missed something...scared because it all came on so suddenly.
It got worse after i flew home from a skiing holiday in france. Have had pneumonia 3 times before and scared of getting that again and worrying it might be cancer. why is my immune system so poor.I know thats probably silly,but lying here alone and awake,is doing my head in.

OP posts:

jabberwocky · 18/04/2010 02:34

Exercise induced asthma?

Original poster

alypaly · 18/04/2010 02:36

hi jabber.....what makes you come to that conclusion........

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Granny23 · 18/04/2010 02:37

I have no medical knowledge (do not even know what pericarditis is!) but I did not want you to be unanswered in the middle of the night. I too have a dry cough the goes on and on and actually took comfort from the other thread where so many other folk said they had the same. When I was younger, I also used to have nights lying awake, quite sure that I was dying. Experience has taught me that whatever the symptoms were they have always eventually gone away and I am still here. I realised I was 'the coward who dies a thousand deaths' and that that was no life at all.

I no longer worry much, I have learnt to stick my head in the sand and assume that it will blow over, which invariably it does.

BTW every time I have flown in the last few years I have landed up with a cough or virus. I don't think they bother to filter the air properly now that they have banned smoking on all flights.

Try to get to sleep. Did you enjoy your holiday? Concentrate on that, try to remember what you did each day, and what you ate. It will be morning soon and you will feel better.

Original poster

alypaly · 18/04/2010 02:45

granny thanks for answering....i too always get a bad chest infection every time i fly. I hate it. it either starts on holiday or when i come home. I love my holidays but dread the aftermath.

And thanks...yes i did enjoy the skiing ,it was brilliant. Its hard to stop thinking about the cough when you feel as if you are breathing through a straw...inhalers havent helped and resting hasnt helped.
Have you still got you cough. Does it sound like mine.

OP posts:

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 18/04/2010 09:40

A friend of mine had pericarditis and it took some weeks for it to settle.

Was it the GP that diagnosed; just by the symptoms, or have you had tests? And are you taking anything, anti-inflammatories for instance?

jabberwocky · 18/04/2010 15:16

Hi aly, sorry to drop off. I have asthma that has really similar symptoms. When I let it get out of control I wind up with bronchitis and occasionally cough up icky stuff. I know that having pneumonia in children can increase your risk of developing asthma, not sure if it is the same in adults.

Original poster

alypaly · 18/04/2010 23:25

re there specific blood tests for pericarditis.

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Original poster

alypaly · 18/04/2010 23:27

jabber .....what does brochitis feel like if you had to describe it?

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BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny · 18/04/2010 23:29

Hi alypaly

Did they do a chest x-ray when you were diagnosed with pericarditis?

muggglewump · 18/04/2010 23:35

pericarditis?

Could someone tell me briefly what that is?

I ask as I currently have pneumonia and am asthmatic and after three weeks of steroids and antibiotics am showing no improvement.
I have had X-Rays, they haven't shown up anything more than what I have IYSWIM.
Admission has been mentioned, as a single parent I've said it'll have to be life or death and am due back at doc tomorrow. (7th appointment)

Original poster

alypaly · 18/04/2010 23:37

Hi belleyes they did but i got the feeling there wasnt much significant....as the consultant didnt say very much about it. He just advised anti inflammatories to help the pain...

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blinks · 18/04/2010 23:39

it is a condition that usually takes weeks to recover from and usually it's cause is viral.

if your symptoms have worsened though, you need to be re-assessed... if symptoms are the same but not improving i'd keep taking painkillers, steroids if you have them and try to rest.

the green phlegm indicates a poss infection so GP might be good idea tomorrow.

Original poster

alypaly · 18/04/2010 23:43

hi muggle..sorry you arent well.I have had pneumonia 3 times and one of the times it took me about 3 months before i saw any improvement.
pericaridits is the inflammation of the membrane round the heart. It is like a cling film wrap around the whole of your heart. When it becomes inflammed it can scatch the heart and cause fluid around it. The consultant said that lying on my tummy was a classic sign.

Did your xrays show anything up muggle?
if its viral pneumonia it takes its own time to go. Did i come on suddenly or did it start with a mild cough for a while.did you have a very high temperature

OP posts:

Original poster

alypaly · 18/04/2010 23:45

blink was that to me or muggle?

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BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny · 18/04/2010 23:48

Anything sinister normally shows up on a chest x-ray aly. Bronchitis can make your chest feel really tight, it's normally worse in the evening. You should pop back with green sputum though. Have you been given a salbutamol inhaler?

I hope it goes well tomorrow muggle.

muggglewump · 18/04/2010 23:51

No, I don't think I have that. I thought it might be another lung thing.

It came on over a week, I worked the first week though was diagnosed, but went downhill and have got no better since, even with all the steroids and antibiotics. They did reduce my steroid dose last week but I got worse.

The doctor said the X-Rays showed what I have rather than showing up anything else. (As someone who smoked for 17 years, I was worried about cancer, and I gave up smoking a week before this happened, oh the irony)

Ah well, back in tomorrow and see what happens then.

Original poster

alypaly · 18/04/2010 23:53

yeah nelle my cough gets worse from about 7pm onwards. Ive been given a salbutamol and a beclomethasone but they dont seem to help. Actually the salbutamol has shot my blood pressure up( unless its the pericarditis thats done that) my bp os noramally 125/70 and its been 170/85 which is a bit worrying.

muggle get seen to,even if you have to be admitted. Im a single parent too and i dont think it did me any favours being so ill at home. My next door neighbour,who caught it a week before me,( who was the same age )was hospitalised and she recovered really quickly.

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blinks · 19/04/2010 00:12

to you aly

BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny · 19/04/2010 00:14

Do you think you have both had the swine flu??

blinks · 19/04/2010 00:14

does doc know about BP rise?

muggglewump · 19/04/2010 00:17

Thanks Alypaly, and sorry to hijack too.

No, I really can't be admitted unless it is life or death. No one to have DD easily and I wouldn't leave her either. She has had a hard tome coping with me being ill and would go to pieces if I was hospitalised.

I will be seeing the Doctor on my own tomorrow though as she's back at school so I will have a serious talk about what is needed.
I've had to skirt around a bit, as has the Doctor as DD has been there.

winnybella · 19/04/2010 00:30

I had bronchitis a couple of times and those were the symptoms I had: dry, hacking cough for a week or two, then wet cough with phlegm. I was given ABs and it cleared up really fast.
OTOH my mother caught it off me once few years ago and hasn't stopped coughing since. She had x-ray etc and it didn't show anything. She was given asthma meds, even though they didn't find asthma. It seems like the infection caused some weird reaction.
BTW bronchitis is usually bacterial, I think, but in my case it followed a normal nose/throat infection (that's what my mum caught, it seems) that I didn't take care of (smoking, not resting etc).

blinks · 19/04/2010 00:33

has your mum been checked for COPD/chronic bronchitis etc, winny

winnybella · 19/04/2010 00:38

You know what, blinks, I did ask her that, well,about chronic bronchitis. She said she had x-ray and the lung, ah, what do you call it, how much air can the lungs hold test? And they were fine.
Is COPD a chronic pulmonary disease?
Are there any other tests?

Original poster

alypaly · 19/04/2010 00:43

my bp was a bit high in hospital but they didnt comment....[worried emotion)

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