Keeping hopeful

[Classic_yellow]

Hello, when I was 17 years old I had reoccurring chest pain, after years of trips to a and e and doctors prescribing me anti-acids, I was finally x-rayed and diagnosed with an enlarged heart due to a large pericardial effusion (fluid in sack around the heart) along with fluid on the lung. This was drained and I was discharged yet nearly 10years later I'm still get reoccurring flare-ups lasting 2-6 weeks of chest/right shoulder/shoulder blade/ neck pain, worsened when breathing in. Colchesine is not helping my suspected reoccurring pericarditis and there is no physical evidence or pericarditis or pericardial damage on my recent cardiac MRI, echo or x-ray. The pain is unbearable at times, and I am unable to lie down. I have explored many routes and I'm running out of hope, my mental health is spiralling down and I feel I'm a burden to my family. I wish I could get a team of doctors to just look at me and diagnose me like on that diagnostic programme for solving complex cases. Any words of wisdom or miracles out there? I'm 26 and have suffered for 10 years, I'm starting to wonder if I need to stop looking for a cure and learn to manage the pain better. My whole life is on hold ....

[Okayyar]

Hi, I know how it is to feel that hope is preventing you from living your life, I mean so is the pain, but waiting on medical support can feel futile and that you're wasting your young life with doctors that aren't helping and just pass you on to someone else. I have chronic pain and fatigue and I'm 21. Being so young and being disabled by something that can not be seen is so hard. My ability to hold on to hope comes from the knowledge that there is a bigger plan for my life than constando unbearable pain. This is the bad bit, the bad bit is obvious, so you gotta go out and seek the good, try not to concentrate on the bad because it will always be there, you just gotta find as many flecks of joy as you can to make the pain worth it. I promise you that everyone that struggles with anything has a choice to let it make them a better person on not. Most people I know become better in adversity, and that is the perpose of it. You gain more empathy and understanding, and a greater ability to laugh at the dark. "you never know how strong you are, until being strong is all you have left" chin up. You have a journey ahead of you, but it won't all be bad. And the good is worth the pain.