Hey I'm new to the community and hopefully posting in the right place!
I'm 27, F, with no previous health conditions.
I have had persistent chest pain and extreme fatigue since July, which has taken a massive toll on my mental health. Around 5 days after my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, I had severe pain in my left rib and the surrounding area, with sharp stabbing pains in my upper back. This came on suddenly whilst getting into bed one night and I was very breathless due to the pain. The rib pain persisted for 3 days and did not improve, so I called for advice and was sent to A&E for an ECG and X-ray. My X-ray results came back clear, and after some strong painkillers I was happy to get home and assumed it was muscular. The next evening once again, around the time I would go to bed, I had very intense chest pain and pain in my arm and thought I would faint. I couldn't move or get into any sort of position that relieved the pain even slightly, I thought I was having a heart attack but also thought it was incredibly unlikely. This pain lasted around 3-5 minutes, and then became less severe and more frequent, so I took painkillers and managed to fall asleep, eventually. The next couple of days, I couldn't get out of bed, it felt like there was an elephant sitting on my chest, my chest felt very tight, I was having heart palpitations, shortness of breath, and regularly feeling very lightheaded and unwell. After a couple of days like this and negative covid tests, I went to a GP for an emergency appointment (I was not registered with a GP due to living in another city for 3 months for a project) and was referred back to the hospital. My blood tests came back with elevated CRP and D-dimer, so I was given a blood thinning injection and sent for a CT scan the following day. The CT results came back clear, and I was sent home. Over the next couple of weeks, my pain persisted but was not severe, more of a discomfort and this continued for the next two months (minus the shortness of breath and feeling lightheaded). I thought that it may be muscular or anxiety related, so decided to rest and push through, hoping my symptoms would improve on their own. My symptoms did improve slightly, however still persisted, and I never really got back to feeling like myself. I was very active before the symptom onset, working out 4-5 times a week, and not someone to sit down for long periods of time. Since the start of these symptoms, I have not been able to workout due to extreme fatigue and chest pain upon slight exertion.
Flash forward to the past fortnight, my symptoms have become worse again. My chest pain is sporadic and comes on when resting, during exertion, and after taking a deep breath. The chest pain feels like squeezing and sharp stabbing pains, during mild exertion it feels like my heart is working in overdrive. I feel constantly exhausted, have a continuous chesty cough and constant muscle aches, find myself sleeping a lot more, and not having the energy to do most things. Even standing in the shower has become quite tiresome. Has anyone experienced anything similar to this? Or have any advice? I will be seeing my doctor in a weeks time, however I'm worried I will be met with another dead end. This has been going on for about 13 weeks now, I realise I should have visited the GP earlier, I was just hopeful things would improve. I really want to feel like myself again.