Severe neck/shoulder,chest pain. Ended up in ER, but they knew nothing

Hi!
I am new here. I was just diagnosed with mild-moderate pan colitis 3 weeks ago. I had been sick for 2 months, but had traveled so they thought it was travelers diarrhea. I am 39 and previously had no GI issues, so needless to say this has been a total shock! I started taking Lialda, 2 pills, then 4 days ago upped it to 4 pills and added UCerius. As I wasn't improving all that much. 3 days ago I woke up with pretty bad neck/upper back pain that was radiating to arms, shoulders, chest. I thought I had maybe worked out too aggressively or slept on it wrong. Well it had been getting so much worse and last night I was in severe pain. It was starting to radiate to my chest and jaw when the Advil wore off and I had trouble breathing so of course I was worried about heart issues. Went to the ER and they did rule out heart issue, but otherwise weren't helpful. Thought it was anxiety as I am writhing in pain and crying and begging for Advil. They gave me a narco and it didn't help much. So, of course I can't talk to my GI doc until Monday to find out what this could possibly be, but the only way I can not writhe in severe pain is to take 600 mg. of Advil and alternate it with 1 Narco, round the clock. The last 2 hours I have to wait until I can take more meds is awful. I know Advil is not good for UC, but without it the pain is so crushing I can't breath. I don't know what else to do and I really don't want to make my UC worse. Even with the pain meds I can't get off the couch so I'm in bad shape. Am I causing myself a lot of harm with the Advil? The ER docs said it was fine, but they had no idea what they were talking about. Also, anyone else experience this? Could it be a reaction to Lialda or arthritis that is sometimes associated with UC? The UC wasn't great, but I was still able to function with not much difficulty or pain. I was still working out and feeling pretty good overall, then BAM! This is way worse than the UC. Any help,would be much appreciated!

PathogenKiller said...
That does not sound GI related. Your GI will likely bounce you to your GP. Id go see a good chiropractor. I tend to prefer ones that graduated from Life West.

I second the chiropractor suggestion. :)

Wishing you the best.

Uceris gave me pretty bad (but now not as bad as you) body aches in my neck, shoulders, and upper back. Do you think that could be the cause?

What's weird is I stopped the Uceris because of the pain. That worked but I went back on Uceris after 5 days because my UC was so bad. The second round of Uceris didn't bother me at all. So that could mean it wasn't the Uceris causing the pain but I think that my body needed time to adjust to the Uceris.

You could try stopping the Uceris for 2-3 days to determine if that's what it is. My pain went away within 48 hours of stopping so you shouldn't have to be off for long to find out.

I experienced those exact side effects when starting Lialda.
Tightness in my neck and shoulders, along with pain in my lower jaw and a deep pain in my chest.
Took extra strength Tylenol for the pain which helped, but I had to take it a few times a day. The pain lasted for about 4-6 weeks before totally dying off.

Visited my chiropractor while this was going on and he commented on how tight my neck was. His adjustments did nothing to help alleviate the pain. Only the Tylenol helped.

Upon flaring my GI took me off Lialda, at which time I experienced some of the same side effects.

Switched to a new GI and she put be back on Lialda. Once again, had another 4-6 weeks of shoulder and neck pain and the rest until eventually dying off.

We all react to medications differently, perhaps you and I react the same way to Lialda.