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Stiffness in chest?

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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
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Posted 4/11/2006 2:14 PM (GMT 0)

Has anyone with CFS had a stiffness or soreness in their sternum (the bone in the middle of chest)?  In the morning my sternum pops or cracks like the sound when you crack your knuckles.  Im not sure if this comes with CFS.  I also have anxiety. 

Posted 4/11/2006 4:54 PM (GMT 0)
Anxiety seems to be pretty common with CFS and a lot of people with CFS are on meds for anxiety. I don't know about the stiffness in the sternum though. Hopefully someone else will know more about it. I wonder if a chiropractor would be able to help with that.

Take care
Posted 5/1/2006 7:25 PM (GMT 0)
 

Hi i have just joined this forum and yes i do have sturnum stiffness it dose my head in ive not been diagnosed but i posted as to weather i should see doc ive 16 symptoms of m.s this being one of them and i hate it my sturnum is really tight and feels stiff doc gave me an inhaler but it dosnt work, i took 2 baclofen last night and it seems a bit better since. It goes and comes back again as i suppose u know it dose.

But when i go back to docs iam going to mention it again......... 

Diligent.

Posted 6/24/2006 5:42 PM (GMT 0)

I have had stiffness and cracking in my sternum in the past.  I have also had anxiety, in fact I was pretty much agoraphobic for awhile.  I think what brought it on for me was the worry of passing out in public.  I used to be plagued with lightheadedness and a rapid heart rate.  Now that my other symptoms have eased, my anxiety is pretty much gone, too.  My anxiety does seem to kick back in as my other symptoms worsen. 

Lori

Posted 6/24/2006 10:27 PM (GMT 0)
Lori- have you been diagnosed with CFS?

Posted 6/24/2006 11:18 PM (GMT 0)
Yes, I was diagnosed with CFS years ago.  I was on disability for awhile, and I needed many tests to help prove this. 

Posted 6/25/2006 4:17 AM (GMT 0)
Lori, Have you gotten better?  Do you work and lead a normal life?  I am just so scared by the term chronic!!  I have not had children yet, and I worry that this illness will enable me too!!
Posted 6/25/2006 7:31 AM (GMT 0)

Yes, I have gotten much better.  I work part-time as a massage therapist (I am self-employed, so I can set my own hours), and I am going to school full-time (online accelerated program).  I had two kids while I was sick.  My oldest is 17 and my youngest is 14.  My husband did help out a lot, and is very understanding of this disease and my limits.  I do have to pace myself, but I've learned that when I listen to my body, I heal faster and feel better.  I never push myself too much.  If I need a break, I take it, and maybe miss an event that is not totally necessary.  I also work out, and I feel this helped condition my heart so I don't get the rapid heart rate like I used to.  Amazingly enough, I feel it has also conditioned me so that I do have more stamina and energy.  There are some days I'm dead tired, and I will go do a short 20 minute walk or work out with weights, and when I'm through I feel so much better.

I've been totally bedridden with this disease (for about a 3-month period.....14 years ago).  So, I've seen the worst, and have come out well.  I'm not saying life is perfect and I have the energy that I envy in normal people.  I do have to pace myself, but I am able to lead a pretty normal life.  I just watch myself and pay attention to my body, when I need to rest that's what I do.

Lori

Posted 6/25/2006 6:12 PM (GMT 0)
Lori, did you have a virus or infection before you got ill?  Did you ever figure out why you got sick? 
Posted 6/26/2006 4:20 PM (GMT 0)
The pain you are all describing sounds like it might be Chostochondritis. We have some info about it on the fibromyalgia board. Hope it's not... it's no fun!

Chostochondritis #1

Chostochondritis #2

Hope this helps.
Posted 6/26/2006 5:10 PM (GMT 0)
aquarius,

Yes, I had strep throat and mononucleosis when I first got sick.  This was way back in 1983.  This disease wasn't as prevalent back then, and nobody really knew much about it.  I remember taking an article to my doctor about a break out in Truckee, California that was being investigated by the CDC.  At that time they called it the "Yuppie Flu".  It was amazing how many of my symptoms matched up with theirs.  My doctor was still skeptical, though.  To this day, whenever I go in with a new symptom, he still tests to rule everything else out.  He is a very thorough doctor, which is why I am still with him.  I just got my first migraine with a visual aura 4 months ago, then had my second just a little over a week ago.  He had me do an MRI to rule out any abnormalities in my brain, and is also having me see an ophthalmologist this week.

Lori

Posted 6/26/2006 5:17 PM (GMT 0)
Lori, you have been sick for 14 years with CFS?
Posted 6/26/2006 5:18 PM (GMT 0)

Jeannie,

I was diagnosed with chostrochondritis several years ago when I had intense upper left chest pain.  I went to the ER where they told me it was my supraventricular tachycardia that had probably kicked in (even though at the time I didn't have a rapid heart rate).  When I went to the doctor the next day, the pain was still there, and he pressed on the muscles in my chest where the pain was.  Sure enough, it was painful to the touch.  That is when he diagnosed me with chostrochondritis.

Now when it cracks, it's not really painful.  I have many areas in my body that crack and pop.  Over the years I've just come to learn that my body is different from others.  When things like that happen, I just kind of take it in stride.

My sister has fibromyalgia, and I have chronic fatigue syndrome (I have more of the neurological symptoms when I get flare ups).  I do have aches and pains, but not as the primary symptom.

Lori

Posted 6/26/2006 5:26 PM (GMT 0)

aquarius,

I have been sick for 23 years with CFS!

Lori

Posted 6/27/2006 2:58 PM (GMT 0)
aquarias you mention that this is most noticable in the morning and not to ruffle your feathers or too dismay any of the the other replies but the stiffness is normal after sleep! if you sleep on your front then you have your entire body weight on your chest - this will produce a stiffness that goes after your chest has eased up! i do yoga every morning for half an hour and it seems to help! the cracking couold be down to air escaping the joints surronding the sternum ie. your ribs - its the same process that happens when you crack your fingers! it's only air!! i know that it can be scary having something go wrong with your body that yiu cant explain - i've done it many times and i'll blame it on CFS, but it could be just because you slept awkward!!? sorry if its not what you wanted to hear but some times the simplist explanation can cure the impossible!! Hope your still fighting - Aloha
Posted 7/19/2006 8:33 AM (GMT 0)
You mentioned you also have anxiety. Anxiety can produce tightness in the chest right around the middle of the sternum, so that's very possibly related to the popping that you get. Anxiety is also often a neurochemical side effect of CFS, so they may all be related.
Posted 7/20/2006 2:43 PM (GMT 0)
I have CFS and have had chest pain. I have heart disease also, so I pay much attention to my chest. It has saved my life more than once. The pain was angina, caused by a reduction of blood flow to the muscles of the heart, due to coronary artery arteries.

Strangely enough, I had chest pain about 3 montha ago. I had my eighth cardiac catheterization then. They found no new blockages.

Z1 is truly right in that anxiety can surely cause tightness in the chest. The more you dwell on it, the more it tightens. I think the pain I am experiencing now is somehow connected with CFS. It doesn't scare me though, it just hurts.

Hope you are better soon :)

Rj
Posted 9/25/2006 12:51 AM (GMT 0)

I was just reading back over this post and I was wondering how many of you have had terrible terrible sickness with this illness. I am not just talking about fatigue(that isnt my main symptom) I am talking about feeling severly ill, weak, dizzy-feeling of neurological problems-, sore throats, muscle aches, panic attacks, anxiety, cracking sound in bones, feeling of pressure on my head, circles under my eyes.  I have had so many horrible symptoms- I think the dizziness is the worst.  The doctors hesitate to diagnose me with CFS because I keep telling them I feel like i have something running through my body that feels so ill and disgusting.  I have improved a lot over the year I've been sick.  I am still battling a few symptoms, but fatigue was never the main symptom.  I wish I could have slept through this horrible year, that would have been easy!!!! I have been tested for everything under the sun and nothing shows up, no viruses- nothing.  I do have saline breast implants, I've had them for 7 years so the doctors say that can't be the reason, but I still wonder.  If someone else can tell me that they have felt violently ill with CFS then maybe I can believe that is what I have!!

Posted 10/10/2006 2:14 AM (GMT 0)
I currently suffer from depression, arthritis and PCOS. So, I was feeling pretty tired as it was. Then there were chest pains which the doctor believes to be chostochondritis. This can make you really tired and chronically fatigued.

I am only 35 yo
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