Hey everyone, I've had mild chest and back pain for as long as I can remember.
Recently the chest burning has gotten so bad that it's waking me up in the middle of the night.
It can be the centre of my chest, underneath one rib, lower abdomen, upper abdomen, pectorals, or everywhere. If it's not my chest hurting, it's my upper back hurting.
At times the burning becomes so unbearable, I can't sleep. Which causes stress, because burning means inflammation and inflammation means disease progression.
I was diagnosed with emphysema via CT scan to which I was confidently told that's what I have. I have a 8-year light smoking history with a pack year of about 0.2.
All the symptoms line up with emphysema too so I'm just waiting for spirometry to see the severity of the disease.
I always thought the pain was just coming from muscle fatigue after intense workouts, but since diagnosis, I've not been working out as I've been depressed about what this disease will hold for me in the future. I'm 25 and feel like my life has been ripped from beneath my feet.
I know I'll snap out of this rut soon, it's something I'm slowly starting to accept. And I've seen people on this form have COPD for 30+ years, and I'll happily take living to 55, though it's not what I want, I'll settle for all the time I can get.
Anyway, I was wondering what sort of stage people often experience chest burning and back pain?
It feels like pure inflammation. And is much much worse when lying down. And is not too bad when I'm out walking.
The subject line is my chest burning related to COPD, but that's more rhetorical as I've got no other real health problems except for mylungs.