Quit Smoking and Chest/Lung pain

[illektronika]

Hi,

I'm 32 yr old female.  I had been smoking for 19 years...woo long time.  About 2 1/2-3 mos ago I went from a pack a day to 3-5 cigs a day, then about a 3 weeks ago, I went to 1 cig a day and now I've been completely cig free for a week.  BUT...my chest hurts.  It's become steadily worse.  It mainly hurts on my right side and now I can feel it in my back, where I couldn't before.  It's gotten bad since I quit completely, but I have felt it this whole time.  I went to the ER a couple months ago and my chest xray was clear, also, had a chest xray done again and it was also clear.  The internet is a terrible place to research anything (go figure).  Everything there points to Lung Cancer, which obviously being a smoker, I'm terrified of.

The point is...has this happened to anyone else, simply from quitting smoking.  I've had other symptoms, insomnia, irritability, and the like.  But, the lung pain is really bothering me.  Especially now that I can feel it in my back.  Is it normal to have this kind of discomfort from quitting smoking?  Is my anxiety making it worse?  I'm a bit worried.

thanks a bunch!

[Troii]

Hello, I read your question I am not a Dr. but I smoked 50 years of my life and quit cold Turkey December 2008 and never looked back. I had all the symptoms of a dying person. I am glad you went to see a Dr. this was the right thing to do. Just to rest your mind. You problem like mine was stress from not having control over the Dopamine - Thought process. I went through hell. Once the nicotine decreases the body will respond in a positive way. This takes time and your decision to quit will give you this time. Look up Dopamine in Wiki and you will understand it better. Gosh I hope this helps. Feel free to address me at anytime I will try and help you through this. This is my first time here so I don't quite how it works but if you can message me do so. Be Well Troii

[carbonk]

Hey, I had the exact same thing, and then I got hot and cold and all sorts - I'm 3 months down the road and I get it from time to time, even after the all clear from the docs. You are thinking about it and stressing yourself out which becomes cyclic very quickly.

Relax, sip plenty of cool water, breath slowly and keep your sugar levels up, thats been the best advice I've been given so far.

Good luck!

[candlelover40]

It might be your anxiety acting up from quitting smoking. I think that you might want to get a second opinion to make sure that they didn't miss anything on the Xray. I also think that it might be your body getting used to lack of smoking. I hope this helps.