You Should Know

Ahh, this is fun. Every time I'm like "Is this it? Is this the one?"

But no, it never is.

Oh nice post. I totally have this.

Treatment: Reasurance

Its okay. You're not dying. Calm down.

The pain is agitated by expansion and contraction of the chest. Taking a deep breath and allowing the rib cage to fully expand can relieve the pain, however it will feel unpleasant initially. At the point of full expansion, it can feel like a rubber band snap in the chest, after which the initial pain subsides.

Oh I gotta try this.

Holy fuck it has a name.

Of course it has a name ..... Of course I'm not the only one this happens to.

I had no idea they had a name!

I've had it as long as I can remember, though not very often. It would only be a few times a year I'd say...

For me, the way to deal with this was to raise my arms above my head in a stretch. Made it stop every time.

Thought I was having a heart attack the first couple of times it happened.

As an adult, I still have them from time to time, but not anywhere as frequently, though still without any warning.

I see legs and a dick in that drawing, not lungs.

The first time it happened to me I was sleeping and the pain woke me up. I drank some whiskey and went back to bed to try to die in my sleep. Unfortunately I did not die peacefully.

My god it has a name... and so many people here seem to have it? I thought i was a freak for having this. Nobody else ever said anything about having similar pains.

Oh yeah that happens to me since I'm a kid. I was told it was harmless but never had source.

See, I am unfortunate in that I know exactly where my chest pain comes from and it is from 6 of my ribs being broken and fused together from falling off a cruise ship and breaking them on a railing on the way down.

The interesting part is I didnt know I broke them until years later when I was hit by a car and the hospital doctor was just like "oh yeah you just hurt your broken ribs again, put some frozen peas on it and wait for the pain to go down"

Anyways, dont break your ribs unless you want to know when the weather is changing by pain.

Ah so it is a known thing and has a name, yay! Thanks for sharing.

I've had this since before I was a teenager...decades ago. Still happens from time to time. I've always considered it somewhat like a cramp in my diaphragm and so always breathe just deeply enough that it starts to hurt then relax and next breath try a bit deeper and keep that up until I "work through it."

Well thanks for sharing this. I've been getting this since forever. Now that I think about it though I don't think it's happened in a while.

Anyway, much appreciated!

Oh, good, I’m not dying.

Yet.

As I got older those random pains have me worried "is this a cardiac event?!" despite showing no other symptoms for one.

back in the day everyone told me it was in my head

I have experienced this many times in my life. Was always terrifying and painful til someone posted something just like this years ago. Now it's just painful. Still scares the crap out of my wife every time she sees it happen to me to though.

The best way to get rid of it when it happens is to fill your lungs as much as you can, and then bear down lightly like you are pooping. After that it’s gone.

Happens to me about 3x/yr and always has.

I'd take this over proctalgia.

It's a spasm of the anal sphincter and it feels like someone jamming a hot knife into your asshole without warning.

Yeah man, I’ve had this shit since I was a kid. Doctors never told me about this, couldn’t ever figure it out.

I don’t really get these anymore like I used to, but man they suck. As an adult it might hit me once a year and I’ll just be like oh yeah forgot about this. It’s just this crazy sharp pain in your chest, you can’t take deep breaths, just gotta pause and breathe shallowly till it passes.

My favorite time was when I was climbing a ladder up a roof, like really? Now?

Thanks ! Didn't know that was harmless. And people call me mad..

Jesus. Thanks for posting this.

Oh good so it’s not just been me dealing with this random pain for the last 20 years…

Oh hey.. I used to get those all the time as a kid!

Eventually I worked out that it could be made to instantly go away if I stopped breathing and just stretched my shoulders back and twisted in the same direction that the cramp was on

It always felt like a stabby, stabby muscle twinge right under my rib bones.

I was sure the image was of buttcheeks and hanging dong

There's also pleuritic chest pain, which cen resemble precordial catch but is more severe, can cause the pain to radiate to.your arm or jaw, and gets worse when you inhale. It can happen when you've got the flu or some other lung infection and feels an awful lot like a heart attack. In young/healthy people it may not be cause for concern, especially if it only happens once while you're recovering. But it can also be a sign of severe pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection, lung cancer, and pericarditis. I meant for this to be a fun fact but now I'm realizing it's more existential horror and health anxiety than educational. Get your chest pain checked out folks

I've always heard it referred to as "wind pain"

Thanks for this revelation. It has a name! All my siblings got these and they told me "it's a gas in your lung" which i ran with for years haha Once, still as a kid, i got it for 6 hours so we called a doctor. She diagnosed it as intercostal neuritis triggered by high and unusual physical excertion the previous day. Prescribed nothing

So it doesn't mean I'm low key having a heart attack?

Thank god.

Does anyone know the name for the sensation where you stretch and suddenly your innards feel all wrong, almost like being on the verge of a cramp but not and you suspect that if you don't return relatively quickly but gently to an unstretched position that something may go badly wrong inside?

I wonder if it's genetic, or just very common. All five of my siblings and I have had this.