Pericarditis pain -when will it go away?

[DL261]

I am 54 yr old female and developed viral pericarditis (and anemia).The 1st symptoms were about May 4th, lasted about 3 days and felt like I had a sore throat in my neck and shoulder pain. I took Motrin and it seemed to get better after 3 or 4 days. Then on May 11 I developed severe pain across my upper chest and up my neck. My neck felt like it could explode. The pain was 9 with labor pains being an 8 on my scale. Unfortunately we were in Calif and I didn't want to be hospitalized and miss flight home. By the time we got home (14th) I convinced myself I was better but when I laid down the pain in my neck was awful. On May 15 my pulse was 122 and BP was 105/56 which is low for me, so I told myself if it wasn't better  I would call my MD. It was better so I held off. Over the weekend I was really fatigued and short of breath. Napped 3-5 hr/day. Carrying a laundry basket 15 ft had me sitting on the bed to catch my breath.. I saw the Dr on the 20th and was hospitalized for 4 days. I had chest X-ray which showed cardiomegaly, a D-Dimer over 3000, negative vascular duplex scan of the legs, CT scan which showed pericarditis, moderate to significant pericardial effusion and small pleural effusion, and an echocardiogram which showed small pleural effusion. Stress test and thallium scan were negative..I was discharged on 25 mg Indocin 2 x day for 3 weeks then 1 tab day for 2 weeks or so. When I finished the Indocin I started  Motrin 600mg up to1800mg day. By July 4th pain a 7. I got a refill on the Indocin.  I saw my MD on the 11th. He increased the Indocin tp 50mg 2 x day for 3-4 days then 50 mg /day. The pain seems to move around, several days it was on my left rib area (at about the bottom of my bra line) and left shoulder/elbow. Sometimes it is my neck, sometimes it is my left or even right upper chest and occasionally under the sternum. What can I do? Will the pain ever go away? The SOB improved recently and the fatigue seems to be better. Thanks for any help.

[Cleveland Clinic]

Typically, the pain related to pericarditis resolves within a couple of weeks or so.  sometimes, however, it can linger on for a little longer (we've seen in go on for up to a couple of months).  Given that you other symptoms are improving I would have to say that there is unlikely to be any worsening of the effusion/imflammation which is encouraging.  also, the likelihood that you are developing chronic effusive disease is also low based on those findings.  At this point, I would contineu taking the indocin, with meals and if necessary consider adding on a stronger analgesic (percocet or vicodin) if the pain is really bad.  Otherwise, if it is beginning to improve or it's becoming more tolerable I would just keep things the way they are.    

[DL261]

I am sorry. I made an error on the above question. The echocardiogram showed small pericardial effusion.