Excessive yawning and chest pain

[Ali08]

I am a 21 year old female with no health problems.  I don't smoke, I am not overweight, and I am a pretty active person.  I've always had this weird chest pain that's bothered me.  It is in the lower left side of my chest below me breast.  It feels like a muscle ripping.  When it hits, I cannot take in a deep breath because the pain is very severe. When I was about 9 my mom took me to the doctor about this and he said it was muscular or something.  Nothing to worry about.  It did it off and on through the years but only lasted a couple of minutes.  The other day it hit again but lasted for 45 minutes and was very severe.  Since then, I have had mild chest pains and a problem with excessive yawning.  

I saw a post awhile back that dealt with excessive yawning and wondered if anyone had found out anything.  I yawn constantly!  It feels like I can't get a deep breath in unless I yawn.  I went to the doctor after the chest pain and had a chest x-ray in which everything was normal.  He listened to my heart and breathing for awhile and also said everything sounded fine.  He chalked it up to acid reflux which I do have.  But, the pain with acid reflux is much different than the chest pain and seems to be entirely unrelated to the yawning.  

Does anyone have any ideas or found anything out about the excessive yawning?

[National Jewish]

The pain you describe sounds very much like pain of the chest wall that includes the ribs, muscles, cartilage, intercostal ligaments and nerves.  That is it does not sound like pain from the pleura, lung or any of the underlying organs.  The most likely cause would be a physical degeneration and/or separation of ribs and cartilage but a condition that primarily affects the nerves.  Intercostal neuritis could also cause such pain.  The body's response to such pain is to take more shallow breaths and then, in response to that, to take a deeper breath to expand the lungs, in this case, a yawn.  Any abnormality of the breast bone, also called the sternum, could also contribute to your pain.

You might wish to seek consultation with an experienced pulmonary specialist or a, non-cardiac chest surgeon who has had extensive experience with lung surgery and, hence, with the chest wall.  Another possibility would be a pain clinic, with a specialist with a special interest in this type of chest pain.

[Ali08]

I was wondering about that.  I have never had asthma problems.  However, I just moved into a new apartment on a lake and several friends of mine who do have asthma have had really bad problems when they come over.  I am wondering if there is something in the apartment that is doing this to me.

[mkrab]

i yawn alot and have trouble getting a full chest of air. i know that it is asthma but mine is strange. you may very well have two different problems but asthma sounds like it is there