My Chest pain was Pericarditis

[Bobby1952]

   I went to the Cardiologist today and it was confirmed that my chest pain was recurring Pericarditis. He said not to worry about it as it was slight. The Cat scan showed Fluid but when I took an Echocardiogram a week later it showed nothing. He said this was good. Sometimes this can happen. It was probably caused by Interferon tx but there is no way to be sure.  
  
  Going forward he said that if it happens again to take 3 advil 3 times a day. The pericardiam gets inflamed and causes fluid to build up which cases pain. It could of been caused by a infection or a virus. Slight chance it was Auto immune so he is referring me to a rheumatoligist.

  My Gastro told me to take a baby aspirin everyday to combat inflamation and this may stop it from coming back. He is the only Dr. that gave me any advice on how to possibly stop it from coming back.

Bobby

[bandman54]

thanks for the insight on the chest pain.  My breast pain has quit hurting.
ps - IR does not show up in standard blood test.   And don't be swayed by the "oh, your A1C is perfect and you fasting glucose is fine".
I had both and am damn near  diabetic!

you have to have a fasting insulin and a fasting glucose test.  My doc didn't even tell me to fast and had no idea what HOMA, pre-diabetes was.  He does now, and is helping me get this under control.

There is some debate over HOMA being an accurate measurement of your bodies ability to use insulin effectively.   Some feel that the clamp test is the only real way to tell and that is expensive.   So some docs are in the dark.
Some can be reluctant to order a fasting insulin test.  Don't know why.
You have to be real diplomatic, but it can be done, or find another doc that will order the 2 tests.  Post the results here and someone will figure out your HOMA score.

I believe that if you have been eating the typical american diet for over 15 years then you more than likely do have some degree of Insulin Resistance.  just my opinion.  I am  not interested in arguing with anyone.  My riba rage has left the building!  lol.
j


jp

[Bobby1952]

   I thought IR would show up in blood tests. My Glucose is always perfect never a tad high. I also had the 3 tests that they give you to see how fast it goes up and that was good also.

[Bobby1952]

   Pericarditis feels just like Pluerisy. When you take a deep breath it hurts. It can move to your lungs also. It usually hurts in the middle over the heart and when you lay down it hurts more and you can't get comfortable. With me it usually throbbed like an infection.

   The Dr's say the tx is anti inflamatories. It can be very scary. You think it is your heart but the Dr told me my heart is in great shape.

Bobby

[bandman54]

What exactly does Pericarditis feel like.

I had pluerisy once and almost called an ambulance.   I thought I was having a heart attack!  Drove to the ER and was hooked up to ekg and told.. you have pluersy... take two tylenol... and it knocked right out.

Know i am having this pain on my breast plate , it feels like muscle sorness, but it is such a bony area... weird.

thanks for the forthcoming description of what you had,

j

[Bobby1952]

   The most likely cause of the Pericarditis was not neccesarily the Interferon itself but all of the Infections that I had on TX which were caused indirectly because my immune system was depressed. I had one infection or another the whole time that I was on tx along with a fever most of the time.

   Once the Pericardium gets inflamed it can become inflamed again. It just may take time to subside. I had 3 episodes in a year and antibiotics and anti inflamatories make it go away. I have the feeling that I have seen the last of it. I hope I am right.

Bobby

[portann]

You've been a great help to me, posting about these cardiac issues that may be tx-related. Sounds like you're in excellent hands.

Please keep us updated. I hate chest pains, too.

[Trinity4]

Or just let your cardiologist handle it Bobby.  He's the professional.

My daughter has the same thing you had.  She doesn't have HCV or IR.  It just happens and her doctor told her it can reoccur.  No need to put the cart before the horse and LOOK for additional things that may not exist.  

[merryBe]

glad to hear that your heart condition is treatable.

you might want to persue this a little further however.  Fluid in the heart sac could be from just the interferon, but it could also be because the INF has caused changes in your Insulin resistance. INF has Insulin resistance and bringing on diebetes as one of its more serious possible side effects.

part of insulin resistance contributes then to fatty liver disease, which you also do have, and IR can also lead to fluid in the pericardium...which worses as diebetes progresses.
It's poosible you may have had IR for years and not known it....

Since you have a couple of risk factors, if it were me, I'd want a work up by an endocrinologist to make sure you are not entering diebetic territory. Whether it's the SOC or just something thats been coming long before it is very common for HCV people to have IR...and it also improves chances of SVT and improves fatty liver to be treated for these conditions when they do exist.

My advice is you try to discover if there is a route cause for this fluid, be it circulatory, matabloism, or whatever.
You will be healthier in the long run if you get to the root cause.

try reading the recent threads in this forum on Insulin Resistance and/or metformin to get an idea.

[Isobella]

Great information.  Thanks for the followup post to your chest pain.  Hope this is the end of post tx probs for you and you continue to regain your health.

Good luck,

Isobella

[charm27]

I remember you posting about chest pains. Im so glad you got tothe bottom of this and its NOT SERIOUS. Hope your feeling better emotionallly and phsically.

Feel better and good luck with everything.

Charm

[Kristina538]

Hey Bobby;  it's good to hear you got a diagnosis.  I hope it's not too hard to treat and that you're on top of it soon and that it dissipates as quickly as it did with Smaug.   Thanks for posting and hope you're feeling great soon.

[smaug48]

Good news Bobby.  Hope you are going to take the cardiologist's advice and go see a rheumatologist.

Once I got rid of my pericarditis, I never took anything to keep it from coming back.  It did come back once a few years ago (about 15 yrs after I first had it) when my appendix burst, but I could feel it right away, got treated and it was gone within a couple days.  No probs since.  

The commonality from the two incidents, I think, was a stressed/depressed immune system.  I'm also a bit of a special case because some chemo I had to treat cancer a long time ago had the potential to do heart damage.

smaug