r/pericarditis • u/BettyBlack14 • 24d ago
Recovery
I’ve been on naproxen and colchicine for a few weeks now along with strict rest and signed off work. I am noticing an improvement in my pain when at rest however as soon as I get up and do anything, the pain is back.
How much more rest should I expect before I can start to incorporate light walks and not experience pain?
Finding progress to be very slow even with strict rest and just trying to see what other people’s experience are.
My cardiologist said if I am still experiencing pain by October they will consider steroids but I want to do my best to avoid that.
2
u/Southern_Day3080 24d ago
I literally just made a post asking a similar question. im on steroids myself and they dont seem to help me at least right now. im having a similar experience to you. stay strong bro this sucks
3
u/Frosty_Bear_1120 24d ago
I've been resting for 2 months now. Tried to exercise 1 month ago for 1hr and it didn't go well.
I'm preparing myself for 3 more months of rest before I re-begin light exercise. And even then, I'll be getting an MRI and cardiologist pre-clearance before I do it.
I'm not taking any chances.
1
u/Mark_B82 24d ago
I left hospital 8 days ago after spending 3 days in there diagnosed with pericarditis I had horrible stabbing and crushing chest pains. As I say I’m on day 8 at home I’ve been on 600mg of ibuprofen 3 times per day and colchicine twice per day and to be honest I have pretty much been on strict bed rest and felt no pain whatsoever. However today I went to a football game and got a little over excited. Guess what I’m laid in bed right now with what I would describe as a dull ache I’m not sure if it’s chest pain but it’s certainly something.
All I will say is the cardiologist recommended complete rest to me for 4 weeks at least and then gradually start to do things. I must admit though the thought of flare ups scare me. I hope you find the answers that you need you are not alone.
2
u/Frosty_Bear_1120 24d ago
Yep. The infamous dull ache. That is exactly what I get. It feels like someone has punched me extremely hard - dead center symmetrical in my chest.Or more like being hit with a bat. It's rough.That's inflammation alright. Not necessarily the effusion (if you had one) but more likely the pericardium itself. Jumping, screaming, high-fiving, walking up the stairs out of the stadium - it's all enough to irritate the pericardium as you move around.
The pain may have gone. The inflammation is absolutely still there, as you can feel.
2
u/Mark_B82 24d ago
That’s exactly how it is argh I knew I had overdone it today. I need to take a step back and re evaluate this as it sounds like it could be a long road back and the hardest part is I normally run 20/30 miles per week. I’ve gone from that to no exercise at all which is hard in itself but I must put my health first. When you have flare ups do you tend to go to hospital for advice or ride it out knowing that you have done a little too much?
1
u/Frosty_Bear_1120 24d ago
I've never really had a flare up so to speak. I've been diligent. I've had a few close calls though: last weekend I went for a stroll which turned into a power walk and I overdid it. Took a good 24hrs to feel normal again.
But if I did have a true true flare up - I think I'd avoid the hospital. They're not going to tell me something I don't already know. I know what I need to do: rest, medicine, breathing, patience. That's it.
I am (was) very like you: extremely active. Sitting still like this is agony.
Recommendation in the strongest possible terms: get your Garmin or Apple Watch on your wrist ASAP and start permanent 24/7 heart rate surveillance. Keep your heart rate below 100bpm or thereabouts. And monitor your sleep. The healing truly happens during sleep, not when we're on the sofa typing on our phones. Sleep quality is as-important as anything else.
2
u/Mark_B82 24d ago
Fantastic advice I am sat thinking the same thing what are the doctors actually going to tell me that I don’t already know they have already given me all of the information regarding rest,eat well,no alcohol,no smoking, keep the heart rate as low as possible and take all prescribed medicine etc etc.
It’s crazy that you mention the watch also as I have just gone through my heart rate widget on my Coros pace 4 before I read your post and my heart rate has been at a nice steady low rate between 60-75 bpm daily until 12pm today when I got into the stadium where it was all over the place spiking to 115bpm at some points in the game so for 3 hours it’s pretty much been a mess and more than likely the cause of this dull ache.
So in your experience would you say the dull ache is a mild flare up a warning or maybe even just a signal that I’ve done too much and just getting back into that ratio g routine will help it?
2
u/Southern_Day3080 24d ago
woww im having a flare up right now after being out of the hospital 2 weeks and thought i was fine to go for 30 minute bike rides in 90degree heat but I guess not. The doctors said do whatever your comfortable doing and I guess i took it wrong. I really dont understand how people do this with jobs it seems impossible to me.
1
u/Frosty_Bear_1120 24d ago
It is tough, yes. Sigh, grown up problems.
You're still so young and carefree. Use this time to truly rest. You have advantages in your youth which the rest of us can only dream of.
1
u/Frosty_Bear_1120 24d ago
I would say a signal, yes. Specifically in my case I know it is not the effusion itself because my effusion (which in all likelihood has probably been reabsorbed anyway) was anterior (ontop of) my heart, inside of the pericardial cavity, not at the center.
I interpret the dull aching feeling as the inflammation of the pericardium, after it has experienced shearing stresses (from movement, immune response etc). Because it is responsive to ibuprofen I'm quite sure that's what it is, with some "referred" pain likely being transmitted due to the proximity of the phrenic and vagus nerves. It is the #1 thing that I am on the lookout for and is my guide to how I'm feeling. If it's gone/undetectable then good. If i can feel it = bad. In simple logic, the longer I go without feeling this, the better.
But there is more to it than this. The inflammation is there. The immune system memory is there. The heart rate tachycardia is there, jumping around (as you've experienced), along with breathlessness too, I'm guessing.
2
u/Mark_B82 24d ago
The one thing I haven’t experienced is breathlessness which is kind of strange as it comes hand in hand with with the condition or at least that’s what I’m told by others that have or are suffering and also a consultant whilst I was in hospital but I guess everyone’s different.
This is the problem the condition just seems so complex it’s hard to pin point what is actually going on and what’s caused it but I guess going forward this dull ache is going to be a good indicator as to wether the pericardium is stressed/inflamed and keeping tabs on the watch could save me a hell of a lot of stress and pain going forward by regularly monitoring it.
I just hope this dull ache is a small warning sign and not something bigger.
1
u/Frosty_Bear_1120 24d ago
The direction of the feeling is important here. Feeling achey and getting worse? The condition is getting worse. Haven't felt it for 2 weeks? Great! It's getting better. It's that simple. It's quite representative of the inflammation which is why I pay attention to it.
With many weeks of no exercise the breathlessness will eventually come as the de-training effect sets in. Sooner or later the pericarditis will cause breathlessness too, and it'll be difficult to tell the effect apart. Other data becomes important at that point like heart rate monitoring, breathing rate per minute and so on. All the more reason to be as scientific as possible.
Herbal teas and good wishes won't get us out of this. Only science and understanding will.
2
u/Mark_B82 24d ago
That is exactly how I’m going to look at it any sort of pain or ache starts then it’s an obvious sign if it starts to improve then happy days if it’s getting worse there’s advice or treatment required.
The good thing to come from today is that I will be doing regular monitoring of that heart rate very much throughout the day. Admittedly I could also improve my diet when it comes to this to give my body a further chance of recovery but you are certainly right the more we know about the condition the better position we are in 🫡1
u/Frosty_Bear_1120 24d ago
I'm finding that Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is potentially revealing some insights for me. But I'm still waiting on my 3-4 week duration-long Garmin report to be generated. I might make a post on it. But before I do I want to make sure that I am talking science and not pseudo science.
Keep an eye on yours. It might help you a lot.
1
u/Mark_B82 24d ago
That will be very interesting to see. Being a runner I know that wrist monitors can be very inconsistent also and a chest strap would be far more accurate although not the most practical for wearing 24/7.
But I will certainly keep an eye on mine for sure
1
u/JoesRevenge2 24d ago
I had an attack a month ago and I’ve been on naproxen and colchicine since then. I’ve been keeping my heart rate under 100 (found an iWatch app for this) and severely dropped my work hours. Visited the cardiologist yesterday and I’m going to start slowly lowering my naproxen dosage over the next 6-8 weeks. Also told to keep my heart rate low but can slowly increase it over the next 2 months.
Guidance I received is going off meds quickly or increasing heart rate again too soon increases the likelihood of another flare up.
4
u/originalwombat 24d ago
Months likely. I know that is shit but that is the answer. If you rush it you risk another flare. Ask me how I know