Pericarditis

[livingwith]

I am a widowed twenty nine year old father of a beatuiful two year old boy. Then all of a sudden my life took but yet again a brutal twist.
It all started about a week ago when i thought i had a terrible flu. I had told my friends and family i felt like i had been ran over by a semi truck (six times). My head, muscles and especially my left arm ached like never before. Little did i know it was more than just a flu.
Only 2 days after my first symtoms [symptoms] i woke up with severe c...Read the full article

[Debra]

Your story sounds very much like mine. Only my chest pain was immediately apparent with the onset of my "flu" and it was gone the next day. But I was truly sick--as sick as I had ever been in my life. I recovered at home from this "flu" and started having problems with chest pain and shorntess of breath a few weeks later. I had a cardiac workup and the pericarditis was found. It was small and I never had to have any fluid removed. Steroids did not work, Indocin did not work. Finally got put on Colchicine and Aspirin for three months(August-Oct) after I found a new cardiologist. There is a study that has been done on a group of patients with pericarditis --they used the colchicine and aspirin. (You can do an internet search using COPE pericaditis study.) I am better now. I too, felt horrible for a long time(May-September). Slept a lot, had chest pain, headaches, dizziness irregular hear rate, feelings of impending demise. It is scarey--but it will go away. I don't know if the colchicine and aspirin helped or if this just ran a natural course and burned itself out. But the study showed that the chances of relapse decreased on the colchicine. We also used Nexium to help protect the stomach from any ulcers due to the aspirin. I dissolved the aspirin in water and drank it down with a big glass of water.
Drink plenty of fluids and stay well hydrated --is what my cardiologist told me too.
I think there are no quick cures for it.

[faith_heals]

My 13 year old son was diagnosed with pericarditis last month. He spent 5 days in the children's hospital and was given morphine, oxycodone, and what finally worked to control the pain was fentanyl. He was sent home with prescriptions for prednisone (steroids), 400 milligram ibuprofen and oxycodone. He was on predisone for about 10 days. After he finished the prednisone, the pericarditis recurred and he was hospitalized again the first week of October. The doctors think that he wasn't on the steroids long enough. This time he was hospitalized for 7 days and they continued with the same treatment, except this time he has been on the steroroids for about 20 days and they also gave him another anti-inflammatory called indomethacin to take. He took his last steroid yesterday so we do not know if the pericarditis has been totally eradicated or not. They still do not know the cause of the pericarditis because my son never even had as much as a cold

[Linny]

I am a 21 year old girl, senior in college - I have had recurring pericarditis for about 7 years now. It began when i was 16 i had awful chest pains for an entire week before I spoke up and said something to my parents - I was feeling sick like I had the flu and extremley tired all of the time. I was hospitalized and eventually they found out I had pericarditis - some doctors believe I got it from a viral infection from the tools at the dentist - which I hadn't realized is actually very common. I agree with previous comment on the Colchicine - I was on it for a while and it really kept the pericarditis under control. Since I am pretty young they didn't want to keep me on too many medicines for a long period of time so I began taking Naproxen - 500 mg every day - after a year or 2 i began taking it every other day - occasionally having to go to the hospital because the pericarditis would come back. When it comes back I have found that Indomethacin helps me to recover quickly and works really well - however it did give me a lot of stomach pain. Most of the doctors I have spoken to have said that Colchicine works the best. I have a system now - at the very first sign of feeling the chest pains I stop whatever I am doing and take a Naproxen... if the pain remains or gets worse I will get pretty light headed and tingly because it so hard to breat - I prop pillows against the wall or bed and lean forward and take a Vicodin because it calms me down and also helps with the pain. This usually saves me a trip to the hospital and I will start my routine of taking Naproxen twice a day for 2 weeks and then just once a day then every other day until I stop taking it. I had been off of it for about 6 months with no trouble but every time the weather changes and it gets colder I seem to have problems again. I carry the Vicodin with me wherever I go - it has helped me alot so far - however I would have to say to prevent the pericarditis Colchicine has been proven to work the best - Naproxen also worked well for me too. Good luck!

[faith_heals]

Linny this was very enlightening. As my son is still battling the pericarditis He has been hospitalized again since my last post. Just when we thought he was doing better and they began to taper the steroids, he had another episode. He is now seeing a rheumatologist and was put on colchicine, along with the other meds. So hopefully he will began to progress. They were never able to determine what caused my son's pericarditis and are calling it idiopathic. However, it never dawned on me that he could've picked up a virus from the dentist office, as he goes to the orthodontist every couple of months. It's good to read these posts to know that we are not the only ones dealing with this very troublesome condition.

[Debra]

I am sorry to hear your son got sick again. I hope the colchicine works as well for him as it did for me. I have been off of it for three weeks and am doing well. It can cause diarrhea and cramping. I controlled it with immodium and tried to live with it. When it got unbearable -- we decreased the dose and that seemed to help. Most recent ultrasound shows a very tiny area of inflammation and no fluid collection behind it. I am to followup with my cardiologist in four months. I also have a rheumatologist--he never found any of the autoimmune diseases that can cause pericarditis I had extensive testing. So, they still feel this was a viral cause. I can't believe how incredibly sick I felt for the entire summer. Now I am able to walk on my treadmill again!!

[jan52]

I am a 52 year old mother. The first chest pain was in april and my enzyme leavel showed heart attache . I was kept in the hospital over night and everything was normal in the morning,so they released me. That is when the flu like symptoms started . In May i was told I had pericarditis I was lucky I had no water around my Heart. I had 3 treatments of aspirin in all. The last one I just finished Nov.11th.It was acting up again. My last ultersound on my heart showed everything looked fine. But I still have some of the symptoms .Shortness of breath when I lay down and chest pain and if I walk up stairs or stupe down to get something I am out of breath and my legs are weak . I still have chest pain everyday. Now I can add nausia and diarria to my list and I have just finished my third treatment of asprin.The diarria and nausia has been acting up for 6 weeks . They say it take time to recouver,but I wish it would just go away and stay gone.I was a very active person before .

[Dino]

I am 37 years old and live a very active and healthy lifestyle including weight lifting,cardio and martial arts. I've never had any serious health problems until I came down with pericarditis. I was experiencing chest pain when I took deep breaths, shortness of breath and rapid heart beat with bad headaches upon any kind of exertion for a few weeks. I thought I had bronchitis which had given me similiar symptoms years ago. An echo test showed, however, that I had pericarditis and a good amount of fluid around my heart causing tamponade(restriction of heart function). I was admitted to the hospital the same day and the fluid was drained. I was released 2 days later. The procedure provided immediate relief, but since, I still have chest pains and shortness of breath. I have been given Ibuprofen only but it does not seem to be helping much. I feel crippled and I'm afraid to exert myself with any activity. It has been one month since I had the procedure to drain the fluid and about 8 weeks total with the condition. A subsequent echo showed no new fluid accumulation, but I still have pain. I'm very frustrated and want to get back to my activities. If anyone has any suggestions on what treatment I should seek, or ask for, that helped speed their recovery I would greatly appreciate it.

[faith_heals]

If you are still experiencing pain, you should ask your doctor for colchicine or indomethacin (indocin). Or if you are currently seeing a cardiologist get a referreral to a rheumatologist. My 13 year old son has been dealing wih pericarditis since Septmember and he sees his cardiologist every couple of months for an echo and ekg, but is under the care of the rheumatologist. The cardiologist will only be concerned about the heart, while the rheumatologist will do what it takes to get the pain under control and irradicated the inflammation. They will constantly do lab work to monitor the inflammation in your blood. Like you, my son was very healthy and active and the doctors think his pericarditis was caused by a virus. Right now his pericarditis seem to be under control. However he is taking 9 mill of steroids (prednisone) a day. That is down from the 40 mill per day he was taking in September. (The doctors are trying to get him completely off the steroids.) He is also taking indomethacin twice per day, colchine once per day and zantac twice per day. He is free of any symptoms, but the rhemuatologist said that he will probably still be on the meds several more months. Hope this helps!

[Debra]

I agree with the other person who posted. Seek a referral to a rheumatologist and follow with the rheum and cariologist also. Colchicine and aspirin were pretty effective for me. I got sick last May and remained quite symptomatic until October. Started on colchicine and aspirin in Sept. I never had much fluid accumulation--just a lot of pain.
It still recurrs when I exert--such as fast walking on my treadmill. Stopped the colchicine and aspirin in November. I take aspirin when it seems to flare up. So, it is not completly gone. I think it is chronic. As long as I can keep it under control--I am content.
I am still being followed ny rheum and cardiology too.
Good luck.