Mystery pain upper left chest - 12+yrs

I am 30 years old. I have had this sharp pain / tightness / discomfort in the left side of my chest for about 12 years or so now. It seems to come and go, but when I do feel it, it ranges from a sharp discomfort to a mild tightness and it's always in the same place, it never moves. It is in the left pectoral, kind of in the middle, upper right side of left pectoral.

About 12 years ago when I first noticed it, I went to the doctor to get it checked out. They did an EKG, blood work, x-ray, stress test etc.... and everything came back normal.

I do NOT feel the pain when I am exercising. It really only seems to be when I am at rest, sitting at computer, sitting at desk, or even just thinking about it. It doesn't get worse when I'm stressed or surprised, it's just a sharp pain that lasts anywhere from 30 mins to a day, stops for awhile (could be mins, hours, or days) and then restarts.

I've just learned to deal with it over the years but last year it got a little more bothersome again so I went to get it checked out... again. Same deal, ekg, blood work, xray... etc. All came back normal again, minus a slightly slow heart rate. Nothing the doc was concerned about though.

That this will start with no correlation to what I am doing perplexes me beyond belief. I have been sick the last few weeks though, and for the first time there is something that triggers the pain. Whenever I cough, I have been coughing for about a week straight now, it strains the pain a lot and creates a great deal of discomfort in my upper left chest, middle to right of the left peck.

Anyone have any ideas? Anyone had this problem and given a proper diagnosis? It's a really annoying little pain, and now that I am getting older it's starting to scare the S@#$ out of me.

The pain ranges from sharp pain to burning pain to discomfort to tightness to even feeling like there is a freakin small bush stuck in my chest. Such a weird feeling and hard to describe. One thing I can say thought is it is ALWAYS in the same spot.

I found a similar post from 2008 and actually modified that post to fit my circumstance, hope to hear back from that original poster as well considering they were the first person I have ever found to have exactly the same symptoms.

I hope to hear from anyone with a similar experience and symptoms, and hope that you have found answers.

[grendslori]

The one good thing reading your post was that everything you wrote says this is NOT heart related; everything from where the pain was located right down to the description of the pain itself. This sounds like it is muscle/cartiledge/tendon related, or perhaps related to the lung. have you considered seeing a pulmonologist?