Myopericarditis

[Lovetheoutdoors]

Anyone on here had recent myopericarditis? Hospitalised 6 weeks ago for 2 days on colchicine but still occasional chest pain/ discomfort.

[Lovetheoutdoors]

Still me. So uncomfortable today and no one else appears to have had this inflammation of the heart. Came on very suddenly, mimicked heart attack as did the first lot of tests but later confirmed as not a heart attack. Been advised can take months to settle, nearly 7 weeks now. By the way, love how supportive you all are to one another.

[NorthantsSteve in reply to Lovetheoutdoors]

Hi. Sorry there doesn’t seem to be anyone around with your condition. I believe it’s a bit of a rare condition. Not like my blocked artery + heart attack + stent. We’re ten a penny! Good look and hope you feel better quickly. Sound horrible.

[Lovetheoutdoors in reply to NorthantsSteve]

Thanks for your kind thoughts. Hope you're ok now. My husband has had 4 stents. Apparently he has high bad cholesterol and low good cholesterol.

[Sunnie2day in reply to NorthantsSteve]

Trust me. It is.

[Sunnie2day]

Actually there are several members here who've had myopericarditis, I'm surprised they haven't responded yet.

I have recurrent pericarditis and recently my cardiologist told me he can't rule out my having had at least one episode of myopericarditis in the past.

In general the symptoms (pain, etc) takes me up to six months to fully recover from. The one that got me back under a cardiac team supervision started a year ago next month (mid-March 2019) and I still have some pericardial effusion that is causing some chest pain and wheezing (not everyone gets the wheezing, I'm one of the 'lucky' few).

Every day I find I can do a little bit more but I don't push it as pushing it causes me setbacks.

You probably already know this but sleeping with your upper body slightly raised helps. Also avoiding extreme temperatures with heat and humidity being a nearly guaranteed way to bring on a relapse, and mould is your Enemy No1.

ETA: oh yes, it most certainly does mimic heart attack. It can also present (when acute) as suspected heart failure. I wear a MedicAlert bracelet so First Responders know it's probably not a heart attack but an acute flare of my recurrent pericarditis. They'll then know to check for increased pericardial effusion that can go to a stage called 'cardiac tamponade' which squeezes the heart and restricts heart function - but isn't a heart attack and no matter how many times they try to shock my heart, the only cure is an emergency pericardiocentesis (echo guided needle aspiration and it's not fun).