CandaceKay wrote:I am a 25 year old female, and in the past 4 days I have been having a lot of trouble taking a deep breath. It literally feels as if there is someone sitting on my chest. The only other health issue I have is that I most likely have endometriosis, but I don't think that is the cause. I am 5'5", and weigh 140lbs so this isn't a weight problem. I exercise regularly, so I have no idea what the problem could be. It is starting to be very painful, and I think it's staring to make me pull some muscles. Please give me any insight possible.
Dear CK:
First of all, can a change of body position or pressing on the painful area change the quality or intensity of the pain? Unrelenting pressure on the chest suggests heart attack, but your age and the fact that it continues for days makes that unlikely. Another emergency that can produce symptoms for days is a blood clot in the lung. Please have these ruled out ASAP!
If you are running a fever (even a low grade one), pneumonia/pneumonitis should be ruled out -- usually done by a combination of listening to your lungs, +/- a chest x-ray.
Is it hard to breathe due to pain or because you simply don't feel you're getting enough air? Inflammation of the ends of the ribs where they join the sternum (breast bone) could be an issue (vitamin D deficiency, acute onset arthritis, costochondritis after a bad cold, etc.); the latter makes me suspect asthma or COPD (smoker or occupational hazard perhaps?) Is there any possibility that you have any type of anemia?
I suspect that by the time you read this reply, you've already taken some action and perhaps gotten a diagnosis. If all these possibilities have been checked and are coming up negative, there is another, more mechanical possibility: you may have misaligned a rib head and/or thoracic vertebra in your spine. This is not usually picked up by a medical doctor, as their main concern is the more serious conditions described above. Chiropractors are in the business of detecting and treating these more subtle (but often symptomatically dramatic) conditions; this may be the appropriate treatment venue for you as well.
If you are still in doubt as to what's going on and have more information to provide (test results, etc.), I'd be happy to sort through it with you.