Visit to the ER

I woke up from a nap on Friday afternoon with chest pains and difficulty breathing. My brother brought me into the ER and they brought me right in to do some blood work, EKG, and a CT scan. I ended up waiting 16 hours in the ER until I was admitted into the hospital.

The good news in that the test results came back fine and nothing out of the ordinary. Although, they did detect a heart mumur which I didn't have before. The doctor didn't elaborate much on that though.

I couldn't breathe and the chest pains lasted several hours, and they put me on oxygen which helped a lot. I was admitted into the hospital on Saturday morning because they wanted to do an echocardiogram to rule out anything else.

But by then I was feeling okay and pretty much back to my normal self. But they didn't want to discharge me until the results came back. Not sure what took so long but I didn't hear back from the doctor until this morning.

I didn't really get any answers as to what caused it. They said since all the labs came back as normal, it was most likely muscle spasms. Although, I'm not sure I accept that answer. I just hope whatever it is, it doesn't come back. Because it was pretty intense pain and it's just plain scary not being able to breathe.

I have follow up appointments with my family doctor as well as my rheumy. Since they're more familiar with my medical history, I might be able to get more insight there.

They did mention that it could have been a panic or anxiety attack, however since it happened right after I woke up from a nap they ruled it out.

Anyone want to throw out some ideas? Or if they have experienced anything similiar?

Heidi, I wonder if what you describe could have been pleurisy. Many patients with rheumatic diseases, including lupus, get pleurisy. The NIH website is:

www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001371.htm

They describe the symptoms of pleurisy as:

"The main symptom of pleurisy is pain in the chest. Sometimes the pain may be felt in the shoulder.

Deep breathing, coughing, and chest movement makes the pain worse.

Pleurisy causes fluid to collect inside the lung area. This makes breathing difficult and may cause the following symptoms:

Coughing
Shortness of breath
Rapid breathing (tachypnea)
Cyanosis"

I believe it's a good idea to discuss this with your rheumy. I hope you get to the bottom of it because you don't want to have to experience that awful hospital experience again. Hang in there and good luck.

Please let us know what happens.

Pat