chest pain!

[Joy]

Hi all, just wondered if anyone has experienced bad lower back/hip pain with Sjogrens! I have also had pain in the back of my left shoulder at the top part of my scapular. I am also having chest pains, which can feel like they are going through me to my back. I don't have a cold or anything, but it feels like the pains I had when I had pneumonia! I get somewhat fed up with all this pain, but wondered if this is something we can get or should I push for more help? Dr has put me on antibiotics but so far they don't seem to have worked.

Thanks for any replies, much appreciated.

[irish]

Has your doc done any blood work to rule out health issues like increased inflammatory "stuff" or possible heart involvement?? I get the feeling that perhaps your doc doesn't quite know where to turn at this point. Do you have an internist or a rhematologist who can deal with these issues. Seems like throwing an antibiotic at you when the diagnosis is up in the air might not be the answer to the problem. Just some thoughts. Hope you can get to the bottom of this. Irish

[Joy]

Hi Irish, thanks for your reply.

I have had the hip pain for quite some time now, but when my chest began to hurt, this worried me more. I kinda get used to the pains in my body although they do become hard to live with at times as they make me a bit of a moaner and not my bubbly self. 

I went to see my regular GP, my Rheumy doesn't know my problems yet. I think antibiotics for a 'normal' GP is probably standard in the UK as she said to me that because of my Pneumonia last year she thinks my pain is either an infection coming on or muscle problems, but the chest pain gets worse at night! bizarre. GP said to go back on Thursday if it doesn't improve with meds, so I think I will be going back. I will request an x-ray or scan, who knows how long this may take to come through! My last set of blood work showed that things were changing, not dramatically but I had some highs and lows in my readings and I have an apt with Rheumy in June, so a while to wait.

I just wondered if this kinda pain was something that people with Sjogrens suffered!

Thanks again Irish for your reply

[finallyadx]

Hi, I have had some chest pain/discomfort in the past and had an EKG and stress test with everything coming back normal.  I even had this a few weeks ago and went back to my PCP for it thinking it was my heart - he said I had injured a muscle in my neck that goes into my chest on the left side...but then I went to see my rheumy for an already scheduled appt with him later in the week - he said SJS does not generally cause heart issues unless it is an infection or inflammation around the area...I am not sure anyone knows what to do or how to treat a patient with SJS that has various symptoms such as we do...as someone on this board told me though, which was very wise advice - if it is chest pain and it does not go away or gets really intense - waste no time going to the ER or the drs ASAP...better safe than sorry.  If you have lupus you can get inflammation around the heart - do you have lupus?

Hang in there and hope you feel better soon.

[jazzlover]

Did the chest pain come AFTER starting the antibiotics? They may be causing acid reflux.

[LonghairWolfe]

Joy,

I have been having similar problems.  I get pain on the chest above my boobs along the collarbone....I think it is called Costochondritis.  It is usually on the left but I have had it on both sides.   It sometimes feels puffy like its inflamed.  I even had one side collarbone become dislocated and no one can tell me why except I may have hurt it it my sleep.  Of course to dislocate your collarbone usually take a lot of direct force.  but I have read that this can be a result of pSS too.  I just don't remember where I read it.

I also have pain in my hips and SI joints.  However, I first had nerve pain in my butt after an auto accident about 2.5 years ago.  The nerve pain is gone but now I have muscle spasms in my low back and pain in my hip joint & SI joints. A recent MRI shows paralabral cysts which indicates prior or existing tears in the labrum which also might be a result of the same auto accident.  Need an MRI with contrast to firmly diagnose.

Hope this helps. Let me know what you find out about your condition and maybe we can help each other.

[powderpuff]

I had all of the above symptoms and my chief complaint for the last 2 years has been low back pain/hip pain. Xrays of my SI joint and hips appeared normal. An MRI was never performed. My thought is that it is arthritis since my sister, aunt, and mother have spinal and hip arthritis. The pain and stiffness was so excruciating some days I could barely walk. Many nights I was turning every hour due to the pain in my hips and shoulders. I could not sit down for 5 minutes without becoming as stiff as a board.

Thankfully, the plaquenil and MTX have helped to relieve some of the pain and stiffness. I probably need physical therapy to help with my range of motion limitations.

I hope you find answers soon. Take care.
PP

[Joy]

Hi everyone, thanks for your replies. my responses are delayed because of the time difference between the UK and USA.

finallyadx:
Many years ago, I had a GP send me to a physio because of what I thought was 'muscle pain' in my right hip, they pushed and prodded but the pain never left and has intermittently given me grief ever since. I have had other tests but like you they came back negative. Today my chest was painful all day and I was really tired at work, I have a physical job and so when I get home I could just flake out. In answer to your question, I don't have Lupus. (By the way, I love your post name, wish I had thought of that one!) 

jazzlover:
No, the pain was there and that is why the GP gave me the antibiotics, she thought it may have been the onset of an infection or a muscle problem.

LonghairWolfe:
I get my pain underneath my breast and sometimes in the middle of my chest, when it comes it feels like it stabs me through from the front to the back, if I touch the area I don't feel so much pain, it's like it's deep inside! Does this make any sense? My Rheumy checked me for costochondriitis last year after I continued to complain about chest pain after my Pneumonia, it turned out that through the coughing I fractured 4 ribs! Tonight I asked my husband if I should check this out because I remember coughing but not to THAT extent!

Regarding my hip/SI pain, I am trying to think back to any falls etc, and I have had many as I used to play netball, this is similar to your basketball. Clashes and falls were common place. I wonder if my pain is an old injury showing itself as I am getting older!

powderpuff:
I can relate to the stiffness. Getting out of bed or off the sofa I hear myself groaning. My Rheumy put me on Amitriptyline to help me sleep and cope with the hip pain, which woke me up in the night, but I couldn't deal with the weight that I was putting on so I took myself off of it! My mum had osteoporosis and I had a bone density scan many years ago but all seemed fine then, I wonder how quickly bones can deteriorate and if I should ask for one to be done. 

So thanks to you all for your help and replies. It's so great to be able to relate to other people who know what you are talking about.

[jazzlover]

Could it be your pancreas?

[lighthouse33]

With your family history of osteoporosis, I would definitely have a bone density test for osteoporosis, especially after suffering four broken ribs.  Here are some links that might be of interest to you.

What Accounts for Rib Fractures in Older Adults?

Journal of Osteoporosis

These limitations notwithstanding, from a clinical perspective, our findings indicate that older women presenting with a rib fracture should generally have a careful evaluation for osteoporosis and be prescribed pharmacologic therapy if appropriate.  This is especially important as half of them did not experience a traditional osteoporotic fracture (hip, spine, or wrist) that might otherwise have prompted such a workup.  Even those older patients who present acutely in the Emergency Department with fractures resulting from severe (~high velocity) trauma should be followed up with an osteoporosis evaluation as would be expected for women who present with a hip fracture due to a fall.  Finally, almost half of all rib fractures observed were precipitated by falls of various types.  Consequently, fall prevention strategies should also be considered in both women and men with a rib fracture [42]. 

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/josteo/2011/457591/

What is a fractured rib?

Coughing hard can also fracture a rib. This is more likely to happen if you have a disease that has made your bones weak, such as osteoporosis or cancer.

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/fractured-rib-topic-overview

Cough-induced rib fractures.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16007893

[mshistory]

Hi all, just wondered if anyone has experienced bad lower back/hip pain with Sjogrens! I have also had pain in the back of my left shoulder at the top part of my scapular. I am also having chest pains, which can feel like they are going through me to my back. I don't have a cold or anything, but it feels like the pains I had when I had pneumonia! I get somewhat fed up with all this pain, but wondered if this is something we can get or should I push for more help? Dr has put me on antibiotics but so far they don't seem to have worked.

Thanks for any replies, much appreciated.

That sounds like it could be pleurisy - it sometimes causes that chest pain that radiates from my chest through an arm to my back. NSAIDs or steroids would help if it is pleurisy. I hope you feel better!

[Skylar]

Just a thought - I presume your Dr put you on antibiotics because he assumes you have pneumonia? But it could be a whole host of things as already mentioned or pericarditis. If it's not getting better then you should call your Dr and get reassessed.

As for aches and pains - yes I had them but I've been able to get rid of them for the most part by changing my diet away from the standard American diet to one that is non-inflammatory. What we eat has a huge impact on how we feel and our inflammation. I now eat a starch based, whole foods diet - I found it at Dr. John McDougall's website - he has research ongoing with MS patients and this diet with Oregon State Health University. His website has all the information but he's also written books which I've borrowed from the library.

I hope you're feeling better soon.