Pericarditis longer than 3 months

[Darron_12777]

Pericarditis longer than 4 months

No improvements. difficulty breathing

No inflammation shown on bloods or effusion shown on x-ray

Cant see my dr with the covid going on

Previous Myocarditis but Cleared.

Please advise or assist

Thank you

[Kristin1812 Heart Star]

Have you managed a phone consultation with your GP? Ours seem very happy to discuss over the phone.

[Darron_12777 in reply to Kristin1812]

I have the keep asking me to contact cardiologist & not getting any answers

[Sunnie2day]

I have recurrent pericarditis and am just now (last week) declared clear of an acute flare I fought from March 2019 through March 2020. My cardiologist would prefer to see me in person but the pandemic makes that impossible, we had several email exchanges and a telephone consult. My GP is also available via telephone - yours will be as well and you should report via telephone your current symptoms.

A few questions:

Are you on Colchicine?

Do you have a blood pressure monitor, an oximeter, and a thermometer, and if yes to any/all, are you logging your twice daily readings?

Are you logging when your pericarditis symptoms are better/worse and when those conditions occur?

(Logging on a sheet of paper means you can tell your medic your vitals and symptoms, etc, over the phone - makes it SO much easier for her/him to diagnose and possibly prescribe)

Pericarditis usually is so mild most people just think they have a heavy lingering cold. For them it is over in about a month. Others have more involved case - like yours lasting as long as six months, and still others go on to develop relapsing (where the initial case doesn't clear but goes quiet for a few weeks then flares back up again) or chronic/recurrent where the initial case clears completely but a few months later an entirely new case occurs, and the clear-new case cycle repeats a few more times leading the medic to diagnose chronic (US term) recurrent (UK term) pericarditis. You write you've no effusion (oh you lucky person, you!) so more than likely you're still in the initial case and it should finally clear in a few more months (six months from onset to recovery in people with longer lasting initial case - but ONLY your medic can make that determination)

The best thing to do is to contact your doctor, either the GP or cardiologist, report your current situation, and see what he/she says.

A few more questions:

Are you trying to push yourself to exercise or perform household/work chores? If yes - stop. An active case of pericarditis is not, repeat not, helped by pushing yourself.

Are you taking long hot showers or enjoying steam baths, sauna, or overly warm and humid living spaces? If yes - stop. Heat and humidity will only aggravate an active case of pericarditis.

Are you getting at least seven hours sleep per night, and are you giving into the overwhelming urge to have a nap during the day? If yes, well done. Keep it up! Sleep is restorative in an active pericarditis case.

When sleeping, are you elevating your upper body slightly? If no - start NOW. An inexpensive wedge pillow (under £15 on Amazon or eBay including P&P) makes a HUGE difference in how well your sleep works to help your body recover and clear the pericarditis even in the absence of pericardial effusion.

Are you eating a well-balanced diet - especially are you getting your five-a-day on fruit and veg? If yes, again, well done you, keep it up. If no, start. Even tinned fruit and veg helps during this pandemic when fresh may not be easy to come by.

But most importantly - telephone your medic today and report you are still having problems with the pericarditis. Every GP surgery has someone on the telephone lines. For example, mine has the practice nurse taking calls and deciding if someone needs to have a phone consult with the duty GP; my cardiologist's secretary is doing the same - I can telephone and speak with her and she'll have the cardiologist ring me back.

Please update after you've spoken to the medic.

[Darron_12777 in reply to Sunnie2day]

Wow thank you. I have contacted my GP & he has said contact cardiologist & then I’ll contact my cardiologist receptionist and he doesn’t let me speak to the doctor so really feeling left in the dark here

[Sunnie2day in reply to Darron_12777]

Your cardiologist's receptionist should pass on to the cardiologist the information you've given - including that you've spoken to the GP who wanted you to contact the cardiologist.

Perhaps it would be best to make a telephone call back to the cardiologist's receptionist to make sure he understands you are worried, that your GP told you to telephone the cardiologist and ask if you can expect now to hear from your cardiologist.

If that doesn't get you some results from the cardiologist's receptionist the best thing to do is telephone back to your GP, permit a slight hint of panic to creep through your voice, and ask if they will please-please-please chase the cardiologist to get you some proper advice for your lingering pericarditis. Sad to have to do that, and most likely the receptionist is overplaying his position as a 'triage' man (they do that sometimes and they're usually not qualified to decide who should speak to the doctor - or not - but some will take it on themselves to decide so chasing up by the GP is usually needed to 'light a fire under' their pomposity. Oh dear, sorry, rant over!)

Meanwhile, are you on Colchicine?

[Darron_12777 in reply to Sunnie2day]

Ok thank you, will try calling through again. Hope you & your family are well in the time of need?

[Sunnie2day in reply to Darron_12777]

So far so good at Casa Sunnie2Day, thank-you for asking! We live in a small town (very small, more like a large village) in NE Scotland with no cases so far - but everyone is observing the 'lockdown' carefully making it no surprise we're not seeing any cases here.

I hope the same for you - having pericarditis is bad enough without the worry of coronavirus piled on top.

Please update after you've tried the second round of telephoning.

[Darron_12777 in reply to Sunnie2day]

Glad to hear you are well well! Will get onto them again right away