Le Grand Moan

Recently I've been getting chest pain, right in the middle at breast level. I get ashma but I don't think it's that. It hurts when I breathe deeply and if I move in certain directions. Then it wears off.

I have PMR but don't think it's that. I don't think it's angina either. Might mention it when I go to see my doctor about my gammy hip (not due to the PMR) next week.

Honestly, I've always thought of myself as healthy!

It could be, anno. The asthma I get is of the exercise-induced/delayed reaction/infection-related sort. DD3 had a cold last week and she is very generous with her germs, so I have been fighting that infection off too.

I think that if I didn't have arthritis and what is a permanent sore/tender spot to the right of my sternum (possibly a result of arthritis itself), then common cold viruses, driving, swimming, scything, hedging (and almost all other aerobic exercise type activities) would be less of a problem. As it is, I think the fact that there is a constant mild inflammation there (I don't know if I'm using the term correctly; it's always sore there anyway and not on the other side, and I can remember first noticing this when I was revising in the school library for O-levels, leaning on the library table from a rather too low chair) means that anything that causes chest muscle use, including breathing more heavily than usual because of exercise, causes exacerbating symptoms in my lungs. I've read somewhere, more than once, that cartilage deterioration is not picked up on x-rays until it's really quite bad. Neither is asthma.

I always used to wonder, when hill-walking and such, why it was that I was more breathless than people who were not as fit as I was, and who were far less active as a rule. When I was teaching dancing I was very fit and could talk as well as dance but I did get short of breath. When other people clearly had much more breath left (so to speak) than I did, I used to think they just weren't putting as much effort in as I was. That was actually a reasonable explanation because I was a better dancer than most of them – not boasting, just the plain truth (a GP friend who was in my class said I was still a better dancer than other people even at 39 weeks' pregnant with DD3; good dancing is about body awareness, good balance and muscle control). At least, I thought it was a reasonable explanation until I was diagnosed with asthma in my forties. An lot of odd things then made sense: that's what had been holding me back! The only trouble was, because I had always been more active and fitter than most people, nobody but me realised I had been held back. I used to wonder why I couldn't swim faster, for instance – I was strong enough but didn't have the breathing capacity. Even when asthma is not actually bothering me, my lungs are about twenty-five percent less efficient than they should be. It's all very baffling. At least the medics are baffled too.

I do wonder if whatever exposure I had to TB, which made me immune, without my being aware of it, made a difference somewhere in my teens or earlier.

But who knows? Until the fundamental causes of diseases like asthma and arthritis are better understood, it's all speculation.

The weather is too nice to waste. I'm going out with a pair of secateurs and will do some gentle snipping before getting back to That Quilt

I'm glad the weather is good where you are, Bags, because it has started raining again here. And I still have bits of privet to shave off my wretched hedge. Just don't overdo the snipping. Quilting sounds much more suitable for you at the moment. Mind you, I do find pruning therapeutic!

Please don't get too near the shed!

Bags and ((hugs))

Bags, you are a medical mystery. You might offer yourself as a subject for research (into what?) and become a celebrity by way of articles in the Lancet.

A few people have kindly asked, so here's an update. Apart from the constant underlying nag, my chest seems to have recovered from its latest bout of bad temper. In my youth, when I caught a cold, I would have sore throat for a day, then a stuffed up nose/head for a day or two, and sometimes a bit of a cough at the end. Now the sore throat bit seems to go for my chest so aggressively and the rest of the virus's weapons seem to make so relentless an attack on my joints that I hardly notice the other symptoms. It passes but sometimes it pulls me down. Thank you all for your kindness in listening to me rabbiting on. I'm pretty much back to normal now so will go and rabbit on about other things on other threads.

for grans. xx

Glad you're back on par bags

Yes, we've missed your posts, Bags! Glad you're feeling better.

Carry on rabbiting,*Bags*.

Pleased to hear you are on the mend Bags

Bags we miss you when you're out of sorts. It's so good to have you back.

Glad you're better and back! sorry, no saltire!

If an ECG, Chest X-ray etc are normal, wonder if it might be Intercostal Myalgia..this just means pain in the muscle between the ribs...it can be a nasty pain, could be helped by an Anti Inflamatory...

Glad you are on the mend bags