Dr. Boris is away, but I would recommend that you explore the environmental option with your doctor. It sounds like there is no active cardiac issue for us to address here. Good luck.
On Nov 29 I wrote to you about my youngest son (16) who was complaining of chest pain and subsequently of weakness in the left side of his body. I called his pediatrician and she had me take him to the emergency room to have him checked out. After running several tests, including blood test and a Head CT w/contrast. Every test result was normal, but his white blood cells where a little low which the hospital thought might be caused by a slight viral infection. He was prescribed 600mg of Ibuprofen, and after a few days his left side felt better.
My biggest concern is that he's still complaining of the pain in his chest along with the breathing problems. And recently my other son (18) who shares the same bedroom, has also started complaining of chest pains but not as intense. I am at a lost and wonder if the root of these problems could be environmental? Since it's cold, we have started to run the heater in the house. Could a malfunction in the heater cause this type of problem?
I am also wondering if the pleurisy in teenagers supposed to last for months or years at a time? Because in the case of my youngest son, he has had this condition for six months, and both boys have always been very healthy.
Thank you.
Dear Vali,
I cannot say what this is pointing toward, as there are many unanswered questions that I would need to have answered if I were performing his evaluation. There are lots of reasons for chest pain, although the vast majority of chest pain in pediatric patients is non-cardiac in nature. I find that it is not a good idea to review a long list of potential problems with patients if I do not have nearly all the information that I would need. Your doctor should be able to perform a complete history and examination in order to determine the etiology of the chest pain, or at least to rule out the large majority of dangerous or life-threatening reasons. Once these are ruled out, often reassurance is helpful in these cases, but the history and physical evaluation should be adequately thorough to point toward a reason.