Infrequent Minor Chest Discomfort?

What is causing my chest discomfort?

• Im 19 years old. When i was 16 i went to the hospital for chest pains and pressure and they told me i had pleurisy. I took the medications necessary to quiet my symptoms but every winter since my chest has started hurting quite a bit. I have extreme discomfort in the entire area of my lungs including in my back but especially on the left side. Sometimes i get sharp pains on the left side of my lungs.... At one point ive been diagnosed with costochondritis and i had pneumonia over the summer this year. Plus sometimes if i walk for long periods of time or do a lot of exercise i get a cramping pain in the bottom left side of my chest. They've done a CT scan and 2 chest x-rays but no solution has been found. I am currently on flovent twice a day and started about a week ago and it seems to help a little but not nearly enough. I have a very hard time sleeping at night because putting any pressure on my chest and/or laying in a way that constricts my air way hurts and makes it hard to breathe. Im just really tired of being uncomfortable and need an answer! Any suggestions?

• Answer:

  Based on the various answers you have gotten, I don't know if they have figured out what is going on with you. If it is pleurisy then your doctor should try to find out why you have it since there are a handful of things that cause it. Check out http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002347/ for more on pleurisy. Now so far as the roll of flovent, it is a good sign that it is helping some. I would definitely let your doctor know and see if you can either increase the dose or be put on a combination inhaler like Advair or Symbacort. Hopefully one of those will help. You didn't mention anything about smoking, so I'm presuming you don't. However if you do you need to quit. The other thing to consider is going to see an osteopathic physician who does manipulation (kinda like a chiropractor but they went to medical school). A lot of times they can help if there is a musculoskeletal aspect to this pain, which it sounds like is a good possibility. Hope you feel better soon.