Costochondritis, heart murmur, anxiety/panic attacks..what's wrong with my body?

Question

I've had a heart murmur my whole life, no big deal. But, the last few years my chest where my heart is, is tender and it causes me great discomfort if pressed or touched firmly in any way. When I'm also really stressed out, or when I have a panic/anxiety attack, I get the same feeling, just greatly multiplyed. My doctor said I had cosochondritis, and that it would go away in a few weeks at my last check up 4 months ago, but this has been going on for a long time, whats wrong with me?

PLEASE DON'T REPLY AND JUST SAY "SEE A DOCTOR" AND THAT'S IT, IF YOU HAVE REAL ADVICE FROM EXPERIENCE OR KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT MY PROBLEM, THEN ANSWER, BUT IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING PLEASE DON'T REPLY, THANKS.

Answer 1

try to be relaxed. An echocardiography -that is a doppler of heart is advisible to see for size and valve functions of the heart. Costrochondritis is a strong possibility as u have local tenderness. Check again withyr doc

Answer 2

I just adopted a 1 year 9lb chocolate chihuahua and found out he has a heart murmur. He is the happiest and most loving dog. It doesn't seem to affect him to much. I feed him good food and let him exersice at his own pace. I have two other dogs that he loves to play with. Whenever he gets really excited or runs around he coughs sometimes . I feel like animals are much more in tune with there body than humans. If he coughs he will go rest for a minute before playing again. You can feel the heart murmur when you touch his chest. I also went in knowing the fact that this dog might not live as long as most chihuahua's but was going to take goood care of him. I'm sure the life you give her will be better than she would have.

Answer 3

bless, you. the pain i know feels horrible. there are some viral diseases that can actually cause your issues. including the costochondritis. i would get a test for hepatitis c. it will cause the three issues you talk about. of course there are other viral illnesses whether they've come and gone that will continue to cause your chest pain.

panic attacks happen when something in the body is not being filtered out right away, or have an alleric reaction- if you have liver damage, this would cause an issue and actually cause a storage of letsay..caffiene as well as the virons from hcv. so the correct thing would be to cut out all caffiene to see if your panic attacks lessen.

if you've had a liver panel and the ALT and AST levels appear normal or not, you should still consider getting tested for liver disease as with a virus such as hcv, sometimes the alt and ast levels are not always affected.

i assume you have a risk factor or two for hcv as most people do...it could be as simple as getting your ears peirced to ever having seen a dentist-to more common ways, ie, ever did drugs or had a blood transfusion.

good luck!

Answer 4

There's nothing out of the norm with your condition. Its logical that costochondritis would be aggravated by a panic attack since people generally switch to chest breathing when experiencing a panic attack. Chest breathing is where you stop using your diaphragm, and instead expand and contract your chest. This movement involves your sternocostal joints which are the site where costochondritis occurs - that's got to hurt!

Chostochondritis can take a long time to heal, and sometimes steroids are needed to stop the inflammation. Its probably time to make another visit to your doctor. You might also consider seeing a chiropractor. Its possible the costochondritis is not healing because of spasms or tight muscles in your chest.