Pulled muscle around my heart??

[AngelTurner]

I woke up Monday morning with a terrible pain in my heart. This is a sharp pain that has been constant since I woke up and worsens during deeper breaths, coughing and laughing. I am not worried that it is a heart attack or anything, but I am concerned of it being a pulled muscle or something else that I should be fearfull of. Any opinion or advice as to what this could be or a possible remedy to ease the pain would be greatly appreciated.

[Cleveland Clinic]

It is difficult for me to evaluate your chest pain through the computer. I don't know your age, if you have diabetes or hypertension or a smoker and so I don't know what the likelihood of you having heart disease is.  However there are several characteristics of the pain that make it less likely to be related to heart pain such as the pain being constant not related to exertion and that it worsens during inspiration.  The symptoms are most often seen with pulmonary processes such as pneumonia or blood clots to the lungs. A pulled muscle usually causes pain at the muscle sites that is also worse with pressure on the muscle.  Once again without being able to obtain a thorough family history medical history EKG and physical exam I cannot fully evaluate your pain.  But if the pain is worrisome enough that it causes you to write in concern to it then you probably should seek emergent medical assistance to rule out life-threatening heart or lung problems.

[dencat]

[Kiwado]

I am a 37 year old female and I have been having gripping chest pain for 5 days now. I went to urgent care and was given an ekg, told it was fine but to have an exercise stress test, which i did today. I was having major squeezing pain in my chest and told the nurse, this was before the test started but while i was hooked up to the ekg . My heart rate and blood pressure shot up when i was having this pain, but since i finished the treadmill test and the ekg looked good, I was basically told it was probably indigestion. IT IS NOT INDIGESTION and I am in terrible pain as I write, but what is the point of going back to the hospital if they arent going to listen to me? What should my next step be? How accurate are these stress tests anyhow? Thanks a bunch for listening

[yaguilar]

I have been experiencing very similar symptoms as you have expressed.  I went to ER a total of four times as was told I was fine.  My pain was real even though the "experts" looked at me as if I were making it all up for attention.

I finally saw a cardiologist and was told it it was muscular skeletal inflammation. I was placed on Ibuprofen 600 mg three times a day for a week and the pain dissapeared.  

[tris7]

A related discussion, Pulled Chest Muscle, Worried!! was started.