viral pericarditis

Dear Ramon,

I am happy to report that my nephew's surgery went well and that he is home and the doctor's were amazed at how quickly he is recovering.   He even is scheduled to start slowly on the treadmill next week.   He lives in Vermont and the surgery was done in Burlington, Vt. by one of the top surgeons in the field.

I'm sure the fact that he is only in his twenties helped.  The doctors said that this surgery will totally correct the problem and he should be able to return to all normal activities after his recuperation period.

It sounds like your surgery was a bit more intense, but I am so happy that it all finally worked out for you.  We are very lucky here in Mass. to have so many good hospitals available to us.

wishing you continued health,

Alicat

Hi Everyone!
I am new to this forum. I was told that i had Pericarditis in June of 2005 and it started out as a upper respitory infection. I was under the care of an ENT since Feb.. All of the sudden I developed a fever and aches and chest pain with a cough I thought i had the flu. I went to my internal medice doctor and and EKG showed an abnormality in heart rate and sent right away to a cardio doctor. Looky for me I had gone to one years back for palpitation and she happened to be in the same medical group.
She order an ECHO and showed fluid build up and said it was pericarditis. Prescribed Indocin 25mg 3x a day and rest. one week later a felt better and went back to work - pain free. two days later developed a fever again and the chest pain, this was Sunday night. Monday morning I passed out in the bathroom. I was taken the ER, this was at 6am and by 1pm after more test I was taken into surgery. The surgeon as he put it, you now have a window in the heart lining and a tube was sticking out for drainage. The lining was a little thick and he removed 400cc of fluid. Went home after five days in hospital and with 75mg of indocin 3x a day which made me sick could not stand up. 2 week later a saw another cardio and he prescribed colchocine which made a big difference. took it for three months and was pain free for about one year until i came back from vacation the chest pain came back so I went on colchocine again for one month. Thas was 2006. I have been fine ever since. the one thing that bothers me that they think it was viral. I am around children all day long right there is so much strep that it worries me.

Any way I am fine....... I wish everyone well!!!!!!!

Rampage27 said...
Hey there Jared..

I contracted it on Feb 23 and at first I thought I was having a heart attack. I have rather high anxiety as is and the pericarditis only amplifies the pain,etc. I also get spasms in the left side of my chest and heart. I don't get too much pain, but more of an uncomfortable like sensation. After I eat, especially anything fatty in nature, my heart chest seems to tense up as well. The doctor put me on 1mg of Ativan for the stress and I was on 325mg of aspirin for about 2 weeks. Been in the hospital 3 times over the past 5 weeks and I see that you've been there 9 times over a 2 month period. Scary as hell, but since it's viral in nature it just has to take its course. If you are still concerned go talk to your doctor. I still worry about it..when I will get better..will I have this forever,etc, but keep positive. There are some meds out there if the condition is that bothersome..ask your doctor or get him/her to refer you to a cardiologist.



Hang in there..I am 33...let me know how things go. It always helps to have support from others with the same experiences.

   Your symtoms sound like a Gall bladder problem. My wife for 3 years had pain like you describe and the doctors kept saying it was acid reflux. They did a ultrasound and the gall bladder looked normal no stones. I did some google reasearch and I found the pain she was having in the chest and running under the ribs is classic gall bladder after eating fatty foods. You should go see a GI doc and have your gall bladder checked out. My wife had hers removed 4 weeks ago and all the pain is gone she feels 100% better.

Hi everyone,
I'm a 21 year old nursing student and I have had a couple intermittent bouts of pericarditis (one time I was diagnosed with pleuritis, I guess the diagnoses are interchangeable). I personally think it's strange that this is a recurring thing and nobody suspects a thing. With my knowledge and resources I have been able to come up with a few pointers for people with pericarditis. I have been in the ER three times, and right now I am experiencing it for the fourth time and the pain can be unbearable. The most important thing to know about chest pain is if it is worsening or radiating into your arm get someone to drive you to the nearest ER or call an ambulance.

The doctors should be asking you these questions and doing these important assessment pieces but sometimes assessments can be abbreviated because a doctor is short on time. It's helpful to know what kind of answers to give the doctor, and what you can do in the mean time to treat the symptoms. I'm just putting this up here so you can be prepared the next time you see a doctor, I am in no way in any position to be making diagnoses.

1) have you recently started a new medication? Some medications can tighten your coronary arteries and actually cause pain in your heart.
2) is there something stressful or a huge change in your life that happened before the pain occurred? I know it's hard to believe, but stress can be an underlying cause of chest pain. If you have an anxiety disorder this tends to intensify the pain.
3)is the pain intermittent or continuous? does anything like breathing intensify the pain?
4)when was your last blood cholesterol test? what were the results? High cholesterol levels can cause scarring in the coronary arteries, plaque builds up in these scars and can reduce blood flow to the heart causing chest pain- also greatly increase risk of heart disease
5)Family medical hx... any history of heart problems on either side?
6)Are you a smoker? Smoking can cause chest pain as it constricts your blood vessels and reduces the amount of oxygen absorption in your blood... a decrease in oxygen supply to the heart can cause pain. Smokers are also at a way bigger risk for lung and heart problems for this reason. Make sure you don't lie to your doctor about this, this is an important assessment piece.
7)how much caffeine do you take? this also constricts blood vessels and can contribute to chest pain (not necessarily cause, but can worsen)


Things that should absolutely be done when visiting the doctor/ER for chest pain symptoms.
-Obviously they should listen to your heart and lungs with a stethoscope to see if they can hear any abnormalities
-EKG- they put some electrodes on your body to measure the electrical activity of the heart (this is mostly to check to see if you had a heart attack, arrhythmia, or some sort of heart block.)
-they should give you a thing called a GI cocktail. It's a disgusting dixie cup full of a local anesthetic that you drink. It numbs the inside layer of your esophagus and stomach. If the pain doesn't go away they can determine that it isn't heart burn, GERD, or a peptic ulcer.
-If this is the second or third time you have been hospitalized for this chest pain they should do a blood test to see if this is autoimmune (a condition where you're immune system is attacking healthy cells in your body). This test is called IgA, or immunoglobulin A.
-If the pain is with breathing it's always a good idea to get a chest X-Ray to see if you have any abnormalities in the thoracic cavity.
-A blood test called a D Dimer. This checks for any blood clotting abnormalities (possibility of of a DVT (clot) moving up into your heart)

DON'T BE AFRAID TO SPEAK UP TO YOUR DOCTOR! THEY ARE HUMAN TOO AND CAN MAKE MISTAKES! IF YOU THINK THERE'S SOMETHING THEY FORGOT OR MISSED BRING IT UP. ASK THEM WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND WHAT IT ALL MEANS. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW AS THE PAYING CUSTOMER. ITS YOUR BODY.

Treatment of symptoms.

If you are diagnosed with pericarditis there are things you can do OTC and by yourself to help manage the symptoms.
-Ibuprofen- pericarditis is an inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart, Ibuprofen is an Anti-Inflammatory. You can take up to 800 mg 3 times a day with food (if you take without food this can cause damage to your stomach lining)
-Tylenol if the Ibuprofen isn't enough. You can take 1000 mg 3 times daily along with the ibuprofen. Tylenol doesn't decrease inflammation but it helps manage the pain symptom. If you are already taking a prescription pain medication that has tylenol in it (vicodin, hydrocodone, etc..) that counts as part of your tylenol dosage! Also make sure to avoid alcohol while taking tylenol, the combination can be very bad for your liver.
-If they suspect this is viral or bacterial they shouldn't be giving you steroids!!! Steroids treat inflammation by suppressing the immune system. If you have an infection, don't you need your immune system? Speak up!
-Deep breathing, stress reduction techniques (stress ball, etc.). Try not to let your mood get too elevated.
-Reduction in caffeine intake. Caffeine increases heart rate (increasing oxygen need) and tightens blood vessels causing pain in the heart.
-Increase fluid intake... there is a layer between the pericardium and the epicardium that is a fluid (which is there to reduce friction between the two layers) dehydration can cause a rub between these two layers causing pain
-Quit smoking or at the very least reduce smoking. Cigarettes are a stimulant and do the same thing caffeine does- on top of all of that you are inhaling carbon monoxide which works against the oxygen in your blood, and limiting your oxygen intake increasing chest pain.
-If the pain is still unbearable talk to your doctor about getting prescription pain medications, you shouldn't have to live with the pain.

Hi I am 26 from the UK and was diagnosed with pericarditis first week of november. I had a large heart palpatation on a thursday afternoon then started feeling breathless and got pain in my chest over the weekend. I went to my GP on the monday after work and they did an ECG and sent me straight to hospital. I was initially told I had a blood clot on my lung but a CT scan rulled that out and I saw a really good cardiologist and he said it was probably viral pericarditis or myocarditis.

After a week in hospital my ECG's were still abnormal but my tropid levels in my bloods were all clear so he sent me home to rest, that was on 13th November. I have since had a echo done with him which was all fine but I am still off work and still having symptoms. I get pain on the left side of my chest and in my back this moves into my shoulder and neck. It is not there all the time and is not that bad pain. I also get what I can only describe as spasams in my chest which are a tad un-nerving. These symptoms seem to come on after minimal exertion. I am taking 1200mg of ibprofen every day.

I am feeling a bit better but it is very gradual, I am seeing the cardiologist again on 16th Dec. No matter what I am going to go back to work on Jan 4th as I am starting to think that this is something I will have to learn to live with as from what i have read it isn't going to go away quick.

One point I am going to mention on 16th is this skin irritation that I have had for the past few years as i think the auto immune virus may be what is at the bottom of this for me.

I have never been ill before and I am in good shape and really i just want to be able to go for a run or play a few sets of tennis without feeling like my heart is going to pop out of my chest!!

It's really helpful to hear other people's experinces of this illness.

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this site, but like others here I am pleased, although saddened, that I am not alone in my Pericarditis journey.

My story begins 20 years ago when I was 16 years old and had a pacemaker implanted.  That in itself was an ordeal, as it took the surgeons 3 operations in 24 hours to get it implanted correctly, and in the process they punctured my lung.

Ever since then I have suffered pericarditis on a regular basis (the doctors call it Bacterial Pericarditis).  Normally every 6-8 weeks I will get sick.  The doctors say they don't know what is causing it, but I personally believe it is the leads and screws I have in my heart to hold the pacemaker leads in place.  I know that I get pericarditis whenever I get a cold, flu, any infection or am particularly run down.  I think the infection find the heart, as that is weaker than normal, and causes the pericarditis.  I am regularly in hospital with it, but still manage to lead a somewhat normal life and have a full time job and am quite active.

It is very frustrating when the doctors have no idea what is going on, and therefore cannot find a way to treat it.

On the bright side - it's nice to get so many flowers when I go into hospital!!!!!

Hope you are all feeling well at the moment.

Blessings,
Louanne

after posting my husband's story in early february, he went on the have successful pericardiectomy in a philadelphia hospital by a wonderful team, and is now recovering well!

@JKR2017

I read your post, and it's as if I could have written it!  I'm going through exactly what you described.  I see that you wrote that back in 2008 and I'm wondering what your current status is.  Did your pains go away?  Did your symptoms completely resolve?  I deal with constatd left-sided chest pain every day.  Like yourself,  I'm a reasonably young guy (I'm 30) and I long for the days when I had no pain and could live a normal life.  The pain has been going on for 5 months now and is quite disruptive to my life.  At times it is debilitating.  Sometimes the pain moves and it even hurts on the right side (but never both sides at the same time).  I've had two stress tests, a series of EKG's, a stress echo, a littany of blood tests and a 320-slice Cardiac CT with no clear answer.  My cardiologist began treating me with colchicine two months ago which seemed to be helping things, however, it started giving me lower back pain in my kidney-area, so he advised me to stop.  I have an appointment with him next week to discuss the situation with him.

Loula,

Very sorry to hear you are dealing with this tough issue. I am a 46 yr old male who is entering his 5th month of my most recent viral pericarditis episode. I was initially treated with NSAIDs but after not getting better was placed on steroid (Prednisone), beginning at 60 mg and with a gradual taper. Unfortunately the steroid has not eliminated, or much reduced, the inflammation either, and I am headed back to the cardiologist to see if there is anything more that can be done. I can tell you that in my case fatigue and generalized "ill" feeling are the key aspects of the illness. The chest pain is moderate and tolerable. Like you, I am having difficulty doing simple things and I am increasingly bed ridden. Exercise, or activity of any sort, seems to worsen my symptoms.

Again, very sorry you are having to deal with this. Stay positive. Perhaps we'll both get well at the same time...let me know how you are doing...

TMWQ

So frustrated...

I started feeling the pericarditis in mid-April and just brushed it off as some fluke pain that would go away. It got worse and worse until I eventually ended up at my doctor's office convinced I was having some kind of severe cardiac episode. The EKG came back normal. So did the Chest X-ray, Echo and bloodwork the cardiologist did. She diagnosed me with pericarditis and told me to rest, avoid exercise and take ibuprofen. I've been on 600mg of ibuprofen 3 times a day for about a month now and it's starting to do a number on my stomach.  But what makes me really frustrated is that I'll go a day or two without any spasms and then, just when I start to get a glimmer of hope that I'm on the mend, I'll have a day that brings me to my knees.

My situation is complicated because I do already have confirmed autoimmune diseases: Hypo-Thyroidism, Myasthenia Gravis, and Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (leaning more toward Lupus than anything else). With having so many things already wrong with me, you can imagine my emotional state when I was diagnosed with pericarditis. And to have it drag on for so long now... I'm just about at my wits end. 

That being said, I've been pretty healthy and have always enjoyed getting some good cardio exercise 4-5 times a week, with weights thrown in for good measure. Being on restriction is starting to drive me a bit nutty.

Thanks for everyone posting their stories. While some of them leave me feeling a little down, at least I know I'm not alone in this.

Please, somebody lift me up! This is weighing very heavily on me today. I just want to cry I'm so frustrated. :(

Hello and welcome to HealingWell emmilou,

I am glad you found us. 

Sometimes it takes weeks or months to recover from pericarditis. Full recovery is likely with rest and ongoing care. These measures also can help reduce your risk of having the condition again.

A small number of patients will develop chronic pericarditis, a condition that persists despite treatment, or that comes back (recurrent pericarditis). These patients may need to take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or colchicine for several years, even when they are feeling well. I am glad you have an appointment to see a cardiologist and plese don't give up hope and trust that a new cardiologist will be more aggressive in finding a way to help you. 

Life is full of challenges. Sometimes situations are beyond our control as yours seems to be now.  It isn't always easy to face these challenges alone. Sometimes we just need somebody to understand us.  Sometimes we just need a friend. I am here for you.

Gentle Hugs,

Kitt

I'm a 30 year old female who was just recently diagnosed with idiopathic myopericarditis in March of 2012. I had pain in my chest that radiated through to my back between my shoulder blades. I'd had a hysterectomy the year before this and got pluresy then and so when I felt this pain, I thought it had somehow come back. So I did my best to ignore the pain. But when it became unbearable, waking me up at 3 am in so much pain and having difficulty breathing, I wanted to go to the dr but people told me I was just having an anxiety attack. So I just went to the urgent care. They didn't like what I was describing so they called an ambulance and sent me off to the ER. The ER dr said originally that he thought I had esophogial spasms but ran some blood tests to be sure. Lucky that he did because he came back and gave me the news that my hormone levels indicated heart distress were elevated. After an EKG and a cardiac MRI I was diagnosed with myopericarditis. Not only was my pericardium swollen but my heart was too. I found out that the right side of my heart was functioning at about 50% and the left side was ok only because the lining on that side it much thicker and the irritation hadn't gotten completely through to that side yet. I was put on NSAIDS and given pain meds and put on bedrest after several days at the hospital. The NSAIDS didn't work so my cardiologist put me on prednisone. All this did was make me gain weight. So finally my dr put me on colchecine and I'm feeling relief. However, the pain hasn't fully gone away yet. I feel it come back every couple days, not bad, but still THERE. Plus I get tired really easy and just can't seem to get back to my normal feeling self. I run a home daycare and they think I caught something viral which attacked my heart. It makes me nervous to know that it could happen again. I currently am on the third week of a cold/cough that I can't seem to kick, maybe because my body is already tired. I just had another cardiac MRI done and am getting the results this afternoon. I am so scared! My cardiologist said that if we don't see improvement from the medication that we may have to do a heart biopsy and go from there. I don't want heart surgery at 30!!!! I am usually pretty active with all my kiddos but anymore I can't run, can't walk for long periods and get worse chest pains if I'm too active. As it is, I have about 2-3 good days and then a day or two of pain or just being exhausted. Everyone around me just acts like I'm healthy now because it's been 3 months and they can't SEE anything wrong with me, but I feel it all the time. It's frustrating because I just want my life back, but when I try to resume normal life, I'm reminded that I am no longer normal by the pain. Also, I've felt the pain in weird places, back, chest, arm....also in my neck a few times like my blood was just going to burst out and then I've also had an episode where I had laid on my stomach and my heart started this fast and hard fluttering for like a minute and then just went back to to normal. What is that about? Anyone else have to deal with the drama of having an "invisible" sickness and how others treat you? Also my cardiologist keeps telling me that I'm not resting enough but I have a full time job, go to school and have three children. When am I supposed to rest? I can't quit any of these things. I'm feeling frustrated and helpless. If this dr appt today doesn't come with good news, I don't know that I'm ready for what the next steps involve. How do you tell your children that you may have to go in for heart surgery? My husband won't even talk to me about it because he says he won't even think about such things unless we have to. So that leaves me alone in dealing with this. Oh, did I mention that my cousin died of this just two years prior? She was also a young mother and that scares the crap out of me!

Thank you Emmilou! I've been really trying to "accept" if that's the right word or just not stress about the what if's so far. I was really angry about it when I got diagnosed because I had lived with endometriosis (also very painful and chronic) for 17 years and 12 of those years were undiagnosed by various doctors. I finally met the right doctor and we tried everything and I ended up making the decision to get a complete hysterectomy in the hopes of living a pain free life finally. All those dreams came true and for as much as I had to give up, it was miraculous to feel normal again. That was last june. This march is when I got sick with the myopericarditis. I felt cheated. Less than a year of living with no pain and now the pain is back, it's worse and it's moved to my chest, back arm and neck. Obviously two very different issues, but nonetheless it left me feeling very bitter, the WHY ME moment. But that has since passed and I've just tried to take this scary time and make sure I'm giving out extra hugs and kisses and spending time with those I love most. Some days I just feel mentally exhausted trying to juggle so many things. Either I'm feeling healthy and trying to catch up on everything I've missed or I'm pretending to feel healthy and just trying to get by or I'm feeling terrible and I'm missing everything just laying in bed. It feels like a vicious cycle. Hopefully I'm stressing over nothing today and the cardiologist is going to tell me all the new tests look good. I know I'm not completely healed, but to know that it's gotten better would be wonderful news! When I first got diagnosed, I thought I'd just take a round of meds and be all better. I didn't think I'd still be fighting this three months later. It is quite scary seeing all the posts of people who've been dealing for much, much longer and gone through these surgeries.

Oh I've also noticed the drinking thing btw, I usually have a "bad" day after having a couple drinks. I haven't completely cut out alcohol, but I rarely drink much at all for now. Plus the meds don't mix well and can cause serious problems so I don't drink on them.

And yes, my hubby is very scared. He teared up when I tried to talk to him about what to tell the kids if we needed to approach that subject. It's nice being able to talk freely here knowing that others can understand. He tries to help, but most of the time he doesn't know what to say or just tries to change the subject to something happier. I know he thinks about it, but he told me he just can't think about surgery because it's too scary. I feel bad for him too, guilty that here I just put him through years of taking care of me with the endometriosis and now he has to do it again for this. Poor guy has been picking up the slack for me and I just want to reassure him that this isn't going to last forever and I'll be healthy soon!