[setApart]

Can anyone list their symptoms of having pleurisy, how long it lasts, what their tx was? I'm having awful pain under my right shoulder blade which is worse with breathing hard and a lesser pain in my front right chest like in the same spot but in the front. I've also had shortness of breath and swelling edema of lower legs. I have SLE, asthma, I'm pretty sure this is pleurisy but kinda confused on the shortness of breath on weather it's related to my asthma or the pleurisy. Last time I saw my rheumie about 2 weeks ago I mentioned it she did a chest xray which was normal and said if it got worse to call but if I could stand it to try to see if it gets better I guess she'd rather not put me on steroids unless they have to. Any advise,

 

[Lily]

Hi set,

A doc can usually tell if it is pleuritic in nature when they listen through their stethascope. A scan is useful if they think there is fluid trapped in there (called a pleural effusion) but that doesnt always happen unless it gets well advanced.

It might be an idea to see your GP to get him to listen to your chest, he should be able to tell the difference if he's any sort of GP. Failing that I would contact your Rheumy and let her know you are in pain from this and it's not going away.

Tha pain I get from Pleuritis feels like someone is stabbing a sharp knife into my lungs when I take a deep breath. If you cough or sneeze it can feel like like too. My pain is often in the lower rib cage on one side in the front, sometimes in the back, but having said that, anywhere in either area underneath my ribs really. Also in either lung and occassionally (not often) in both.

I don't get it that often now and NSAIDS helped as did being on Plaquenil. Prior to a steady regime of that, I have had to be in hospital with it on intravenous steroids. Usually a couple of days of that knocked it on the head. I've also had a short course of oral steroids for it.

I couldnt say I was short of breath but you tend to breathe very shallow because otherwise it hurts. So feeling short of breath is definitely a possibility as is feeling a bit dizzy and weak due to insufficient gas exchanges.

I always found with my asthma problems that breathing out was more of a problem, I would cough and wheeze with that and it didnt really hurt, I was just very short of breath. If it did hurt it was more like a muscle aching underneath both ribs because your diaphram (sp?) muscles have to work very hard in an asthma attack.


Hope this helps and I hope you get some relief with it soon, whatever the cause.

love
Lily

 

[mamascan]

setApart,
Hello, I too am an asthmatic (seasonal, environmental and allergic reactive), I've only had asthma since 1996. In 1999 I had my first and only bout of pleurisy. I woke in the morning feeling fine, then as I was doing household cleaning and chores I started to feel like I was coming down with bronchitis, lots of burning pain in chest and throat, fever etc. As it was the weekend I figured I'd call the doc Monday. I never got that far. By evening I was passed out (lack of air), rushed to ER, after a few tests they ruled out pulmonary embolism and decided on the pleurisy. I couldn't move any air. My lungs were like saddle leather.
In hospital for 6 days, I developed pnumonia while there. The long and short of this story is that it effects all of us differently. Follow Lily's advise. Call your PCP. May you feel better soon.

Michelle

 

[SoCalEric]

Do keep with your Doc. on it. Well before I was dianosed with Lupus I ended up in the hospital for a week. Went into the ER with SEVERE chest pains. Each breath felt like a knife being shoved in my chest. I was diagnosed with pnumonia/pluerisy. Well AFTER I had been relased my left calf swelled up. Back in the hospital, diagnosed with Phlebitis/DVT........and they admitted they had it wrong the first time, it wasn't pluerisy....it was a pulmonary embolism. I have had Pluerisy, it feels very much the same.
I'm pretty good at ignoreing pain, but the pulmonary emboli was NASTY. I went from just a bit of pain while taking a breath to not being able to breath in a few hours. They did admit me VERY quicly at the hospital....when your turning blue they tend to move ya to the front of the line!

Eric

 

[setApart]

Thanks for the replies, the pain in my back and chest is not bad enough to where if feels like it's "sharp" it feels "dull" actually and sometimes I can barely feel it so I'm just playing it by ear for now to see how it goes. I see my pulmonologist tomorrow so I'll mention it to him, I am however still short of breath all the time and my short acting inhaler isn't doing much good. along with the chest tightness.

 

[mumsy613]

I do not have a lot of experience with pleurisy....until last week.

A few weeks ago, Raynaud's started kicking up again with swollen purple fingertips and swelling legs. I have thick blood. April 25 Thursday.....chest pain right side. Friday morning early stabbing pain right chest on inhaling, short of breath. Went to ER, and by 10:30 could not breathe. Diagnosis.....dvt both legs, pleurisy with infiltrates, bilateral pulmonary embolism (clots dislodged from legs moved into the lungs).

I was kept immobile and sedated for two days in ICU until a filter could be installed to shield lungs and heart from further clots. I came home after heparin and lovenox to life on warfarin. I am happy to see the sun come up!

I have no risk factors for clotting. I don't even have the lupus anticoagulants. 3month old CT scan of lungs showed no evidence of clots what so ever. This time....showers of clots.

The point is......chest pain can be really serious especially with swelling of the legs. So make the Doctors find out why you hurt...it's their job.

Don't want to be scary, but the swelling along with chest pain scares me right now. I hope you are better, and know what has been going on with your chest pain by now.

Best Wishes, Fran