pain question

[mamasbabygirl]

Hello everyone. I am liking all of the good news that has been going around. I have a quick question. Mom is in severe pain today. The pain is about 4-5 inches out from her armpit on her chest. She says that when she breathes, it just kills her. I notice her trying to cough, sounds like there is a bunch of junk, but she said it hurts too badly when she coughs. Is this what a pericardial effusion feels like? Thanks, Love, me

[stand4hope]

Probably not. It sounds like the pain is caused by something else. We have been told to watch for shortness of breath and tightness in the chest. I didn't check your profile before I started typing, but she would probably know from a CT scan if a pericardial effusion was present. Here are the symptoms of a pericardial effusion:

The common symptoms of pericardial effusion include dyspnea (85%), cough (30%), orthopnea (25%), and chest pain (20%).

Pass HI: Malignant pleural and pericardial effusions. In: DeVita VT, Hellman S, Rosenberg SA, Eds.: Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology. Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven Publishers, 5th ed., 1997, pp 2586-2598.

Peggy

[mamasbabygirl]

Thanks Peggy. She still hurts today, but does not want me to call the Dr. She is strong, but also head strong, or hard headed, whatever you want to call it. Thanks again. Lori

[Remembering Dave]

Dave had one whopper of a pericardial effusion and didn't even know it. no pain. he might have had a bit of shortness of breath, but not enough to make him complain. of course, Dave can take alot before he complains.

sorry to be late answering this, wish I'd seen it yesterday. but I didn't get on the internet yesterday. every time I got anywhere near laptop Faith was all over me "me help me help" and then we HAD to play the Blues Clues game CD.

Take care,

Karen