myopericarditis

My husband is 26 and started with back pain on a Sunday afternoon three weeks ago. Towards the evening this moved into chest pain with a "funny feeling" in his hands. We went to emergency thinking we were overreacting but wanted to be safe.

He presented with a fever, high blood pressure and chest pain with his heart rate increasing/pounding when he made the slightest move. He was given an ECG immediately but told because of his age and general health he was not classed as urgent.

7 hours later :) we see a nurse who takes his bloods and three hours after that we are told he has cardiac markers in his blood that point to a heart attack. He is given morphine for the pain as well as blood thinners and aspirin.

Doctor explains that there are other things that can cause these symptoms and markers and because of his age/health they didn't feel it was a heart attack. His sleeping heart rate was averaging at 133 for 3 days with fevers every 4/6 hours (once ibuprofen wore off). They had trouble taking his blood and say it is "thick" and slow to flow.

Chest x-ray / ct showed no blood clot in his lungs and he was sent for an echogram. This showed pericarditis and the doctor said this was the best possible diagnosis. We were relieved. Cardiologist wanted to have an angiogram to be safe and after this we were told it was Myopericarditis which is classed as heart disease (he said on a scale of 1 to 10 it was less than 1), that his heart was strong, no idea what caused it (blood cultures didn't show anything) so they assume viral. He was sent home 5 days after admittance with high dosage aspirin (1.3g 4xdaily), ibuprofen for the fever and gravol/zantac and told to reduce his dosage when he is feeling better, no life-styel changes, see you in 12 weeks for a follow up.

It should be noted a few days into his hospital stay a lymph node in his neck swelled. Cardiologist said on discharge if it isn't gone in a week see GP.

At home he sleeps 20 hours a day, continues with an intermittent fever, vomiting, lack of appetite and night sweats. We saw his GP after a week who checked him over and said he couldn't hear any problems with his heart and the node could take weeks to go down; eat well, rest and reduce your aspirin to 650mg 4xdaily. When we reduced the aspirin he started with low level pain in his chest and increased heart rate and we were told to lift it back up.

We thought he would rest at home, watch TV etc. We had NO idea it would be this bad.

Yesterday we had bloods taken at GP's office which was a nightmare. As soon as she put the needle in he went white, she said the blood wouldn't flow and he puked everywhere. We were sent home to eat soup and drink warm water and come back in 4 hours. Did this, went back, and they had him lie down this time and though it was slow to flow, it did come.

His GP has told him to try and limit his sleep (for fear of clots) but he is exhausted alllllll the time. Even walking to the bathroom. I am having to force food into him to help his stomach manage the high dosage aspirin. I feel depression setting in.

This is a previously fit, 26 year old who has never had a day of work since graduation and suddenly he is reduced to sleeping 20 hours a day.

Today he has strep throat symptoms (we'll be going to have it tested today), and this reminded me that about three weeks before he went into hospital he had strep throat. I did mention this to cardiologist but he said it was unlikely to be the cause.

I know we are waiting for blood results, but is there anything you think I should be asking the GP. Should I try and bring his cardio follow-up forward? His cardiologist mentioned Lupus could present at some point in the future, are there tests for lupus, should I request them, will his GP test for this automatically? Could the strep have caused the pericarditis?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Hi, just keeping a record here of what's happening and hopefully people will continue to post suggestions.

Hubby readmitted to hospital on Sunday with severe swollen tonsils, fever of 40.2 and resting HR of 123bpm.

He's given intravenous antibiotics and steroids, bloods are taken (he passes out again, and I MUST stress he's not afraid of having blood taken as is a regular donor). Hospital confirm Mono and he is sent home as there is no treatment with an urgent referral to the cardiologist.

Tuesday we are called into see his family doctor. We're told they couldn't do a haemoglobin test because his blood had clotted in the tube :( and his doctor tells us that his bloods are all over the place and something is going on with his liver.

His iron levels are 1300 with ALT at 915 and AST at 232. He's ordered a full workup and an ultra sound on his liver.

However, since the antibiotics at the hospital he is feeling somewhat better (and I mean better than he was). He's been staying awake for longer and I would say is sleeping between 14 and 16 hours a day which is an improvement).

His resting HR is still between 100 and 110 at home. I think we're both starting to think something else may be going on here :(