Costochondritis Archives

costochondritis ?

Dear Dr. Stoll,
I am a 34 year old active female. (125 lbs, regular walker, runner, weight lifter, etc.) I eat right and take vitamins. I do have mitral valve prolapse but I would not have known this except for my doctor telling me.
On April 28, 2001 I got what I have termed, "idiot sydrome" when I moved an 80 lb plant down two stories and
carried it 40 feet. After accomplishing this, I went to
play golf with my husband (about 1 hour later)I bent over to pick up my clubs and immediately dropped the bag, slumped back on the car as I had unbelievable pain in my chest (tightening)behind the sternum I could not breathe deep as the pain got worse. This past after about 10 or 15 minutes. I thought I had a heart attack. I did not go to the doctor as I was at least 25 minutes from the hospital.
I waited another thirty minutes and then played and walked 18 holes of golf.
In the following two weeks, I endured great pain and went to the doctor. He did an EKG and it looked great. He said he believed I had costochondritis and advised to get on the web and that is when I found your site. He prescribed Vioxx for me, which was okay but during the first week, I gained 8 lbs, so I went off the medication.
A couple of weeks later, the pain still intense, sharp pains all over my chest, I went back to see him and he again put me back on Vioxx.
I stayed on this therapy for six or seven weeks. I still had pain at the end and then one night at 5:00 a.m. I screamed out in pain and told my husband that it was my heart. I went to the doctor two hours later and they ran another EKG and it showed premature ventricular contractions. I can say that the whole time on Vioxx, my heart would feel like it was coming up in my throat when I would walk and it would skip beats a lot. It has never done that prior to this medication.
My husband and went a weekend vacation to Chapel Hill, NC and stayed at an old hotel right downtown. I could not even walk two blocks without having to sit down. I was completely exhausted. This happened several times and it was all that I could do to go one block.
A couple days later I became very ill, severely sick and extreme upper abnominal pain, very pale and my pulse was racing. I went to my doctor and he made fun of me and told me that it was not my heart and he sent me to a Gastro. and they did an endoscopy and took samples. He says that it looks like Vioxx irritated the stomach lining and caused an acidity problem in my stomach. He also believes that what I experienced was esophageal spasms and says that I may have these the rest of my life occasionally. I have had a terrible time since then with chest pain and wonder do I possibly have two things going on:
Costochondritis and acidity problem in the stomach
he put me on protonix to heal the stomach and then he said that he would take me off of that after a few more weeks.

I have tried to run (two weeks ago) and I felt great to start and then the ribs just killed me, so i had to stop.
I have been doing ice pack and moist heat and that helps some, but I am worried, from reading the archives, that I will never be able to run again or play golf.
I have decided that I will not do anything strenuous for a couple months but it has been since May 2001 and it is now September 2001 and I do realize that I have self inflicted some of my recovery by trying to do things, like paint and run.
I have varying degrees of pain. Some I can tell are costo sharp pains, but there are some that truly feel like they are my heart (left of the sternum) and take my breath.
My doctor told me that the second EKG looked good and no damage except for PVC. He said that I could think about a stress test. What do you think? Should I see a cardiologist?
What other treatment would you recommend for what I think is costo? I have got the book Meditation as Medicine and am trying to relax and relieve stress, I am sure that daily stress is not helping this situation.
I thank you for your time.

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