Severe chest pain after cough/chest infection

[youremybeeee]

Hi guys, I'm hoping someone can help me out with this.


The past week or so I've been quite ill with a chest infection and have been on antibiotics prescribed by my doctor. I've nearly finished then and generally do feel better except I'm still coughing a lot. The cough itself is a hacking, deep cough that is painful and worse at night.

Today I've developed this strange almost stabbing pain in my chest, on the left side, seemingly just below the heart (under ribs). Touching it is tender and it feels bruised. It hurts to breathe in, and coughing is excruciating.

This feels like more than just muscle pain and I am worried its something serious like my lung collapsing. I don't know whether to go back to my doctor or not, as I was just there today and he listened to my chest and lungs and said everything sounded normal.

[LVMomra]

It really does sound like muscle strain from the excessive coughing. Think about the type of muscle pain you get when you've had a particularly strenuous workout, especially after not having worked out for a while. I should imagine that's what your chest feels like right now. If you had a long collapsing, you'd also feel shortness of breath. If you are able to take something like Advil, with some anti inflammatory in it, it may help the pain. Best wishes to you.

[youremybeeee]

Thank you, I really appreciate your time..

The thing is, I do have shortness of breath, wheezing etc - but this has been constant since the chest infection especially because I also have asthma. I've never had sharp pain like this before which is why I'm worried, and then I googled, which was bad and bought up scary things!

I literally saw my doctor 12 hours ago and he said everything sounded good, if it was something serious, I guess my question is he would have been concerned??

[mollyfin]

Did your doctor offer to prescribe an inhaler for your breathing difficulties?  Mine does, and it's helpful.

[youremybeeee]

Hi mollyfin,

I do use inhalers, yes. My asthma has been a lot worse since this chest infection.

Something happened tonight, I have been sleeping really badly and weirdly on my back almost sitting up for over a week now. I fell asleep for maybe half an hour and when I woke up I couldn't move my leg, as in paralysis!! I eventually got feeling back in a couple of minutes but it was terrifying. What could this be?

[mollyfin]

It means you slept in a weird position and your leg fell asleep.