Strained chest muscle - Can the doctor do anything?

tanith

Just a tip about the pain when coughing/sneezing that I was told by the physio when I had an RTA and damaged ribs. Grab a small pillow/cushion and hug it hard whenever you need to cough or sneeze it really does help lessen the pain.. hope you get it looked at soon.

euronorris

Thanks Tanith. I will try that.

Thankfully, no sneezes so far today. Had about 6 or 7 in a row on Sat evening though

loracan1

peachyprice wrote: »

Are you sure it's a chest muscle and not pleurisy? The first time I had it I went to A&E believing I'd broken a rib

You need to get checked out for this.

euronorris

loracan1 wrote: »

You need to get checked out for this.

I am going to. I will get an appt tomorrow, and get it checked out then.

Surgery closes in half hour, so I can no longer get there before it closes.

euronorris

Just an update:

Doc listened to my chest and said it was clear, but that she could also hear my heart beating on the right side of my chest, instead of the left. This made her suspicious of a collapsed lung (!) and/or broken rib.

I've been for an X-ray and am awaiting results.

Hoping just for the rib problem!

peachyprice

Thanks for the update, hope they get to the bottom of it soon, in the meantime take it easy.

LolitaLove

euronorris wrote: »

Just an update:

Doc listened to my chest and said it was clear, but that she could also hear my heart beating on the right side of my chest, instead of the left. This made her suspicious of a collapsed lung (!) and/or broken rib.

I've been for an X-ray and am awaiting results.

Hoping just for the rib problem!

I know it's a bit late for this now...also don't know if they will do this in the netherlands...but if you have a kind of emergency but non A&E worthy situation again, try ringing your out of hours GP service or the hospital direct. I did this once with the obs of the person I was calling for (including the obs out of normal parameters like temp) and the reason I was concerned (person I was calling for was immunosuppressed, had a pyrexia even after paracetamol and was tachycardic). We were really only after a stat dose of ABX so I explained this and we were given an appointment , went down to the hospital at midnight and didn't wait long at all. I didn't know before calling that the hospital would be willing to make appointments so maybe give it a go if something like that happens again Hope you feel better soon!

HannahIOW

I had something very similar to this, caught a very bad cough in december 2010 and was left with a terrible searing pain on my right side whenever I breathed in. The doctor was useless, said i'd probably just pulled a muscle and it would be fine. Eventually (10 months later) I was driving along a particularly bumpy road and the force jarred my ribs (which hurt) but it's been gone ever since. Can only assume a rib was out of place or something.

euronorris

Thank you.

Still in a lot of pain, but am able to control it better now. The freezing temps aren't helping though, so am glad to be in the warmth of the office now.

Despite what the hospital said yesterday, the X-ray results have not yet reached the docs, so I have to call back tomorrow.

Lolita - they do have an emergency/evening doctors line you can call, but my doctors surgery is pretty good, and will always fit you in on the same day if you call before 11am. For the sake of a few hours, I thought it would just be better to wait and see my usual doc. But I am glad the service is there if we ever need it.

Hannah, that's interesting. I was coughing on Sunday, felt something 'pop' and then the pain was very intense again. Settled down a bit now, but I do wonder if something is out of place.

Whatever it is, I hope the X-ray sheds some light, or it just gets better by itself quickly (keeps her fingers crossed in the vain hope it will!).

euronorris

Well, nothing showed on the X-ray, so the doc is putting it down to muscle strain/tear and I'm to go back if it hasn't improved after my course of painkillers runs out.