Renne,

I suffered from pleurisy for years which is inflammation in the lining between your ribs and lungs, making your lungs rub on your ribs. It's EXTREMELY painful. What you're describing I think is slightly different. and I've seen it described before.

I would guess that anemia is to blame for how your chest feels but I don't know what to say about your throat. But who knows....only your doctor can tell you what's going on.
-Sarah

How would anemia cause this? I do have issues with anemia right now...

Are you having trouble swallowing? You can get RA in the artenoid joints in the throat, and I had it in my left vocal fold. If the swelling gets bad enough, it can close up the throat, causing death. Then I got thrush on top of the nodule. After 8 months I still have not recovered. Not sure about the chest, except for pleurisy. Be sure to have it checked out if it gets worse.

Renne,

Are you running a fever? Are you coughing anything up? Are you having any difficulty breathing? How about chest pain? Were you unable to sleep because of the heaviness in your chest or because of your fear? Keep in mind signs of bronchitis or pneumonia, which we are particularly prone to with R/A. Call your doc if you have symptoms of infection.

You can get inflammation and/or fluid in the sac around your heart or your lungs. For the heart, it's called a pericardial effusion, for the lungs, it's called a pleural effusion. You can look it up on the net for more info. I have pericardial effusion from R/A, but for me it's not serious yet. I've also had pleurisy, which can be quite painful, but rarely life-threatening.

If your pain gets severe, you should go to the ER. Any severe chest pain should be checked out immediately. Hope you are doing better soon.

Anita

I have had both pleurisy and pericarditis before. I had pain in the rib area with deep breaths with pleurisy. The pain with pericarditis was in the sternum region. The only thing that helped was sitting leaning forward. I slept sitting up leaning forward over a stack of pillows. This was how I knew when I had pericarditis. The pain would stop. Both of these got better with Prednisone. No antibiotics since it was inflammation not infection. ** You do need to worry about cardiac disease also with RA. If you are worried go to ER. Your peace of mind is worth the expense. We woman should not take heart disease lightly. We don't have the same symptoms that men do. It is harder to know if is the heart. Tests need to be done to be sure. Even as a nurse practitioner myself I have been fooled before. Tests are the only accurate way to know.

I second Alide's comment about getting ER assistance if you have a fever and your symptoms persist. RA can cause several different inflammatory lung problems, which are nothing to mess with. Be safe.

A long time ago, I had inflamation in the lining around my heart. It is pericardosis, or something like that. The way it made me feel was as if I had been punched in the heart. It was bad enough that I went to the ER, and that is how it was diagnosed. IV steroids took care of the problem, and in a couple of days, that feeling of being punched subsided. Hope this was of help to you. I hope you get to your DR. this morning and get it checked out. If it is bad enough, don't hesistate to go to the ER, as you know, your heart is nothing to play with...

Second alide and bc2 comments - please be sure to see a doctor as soon as you can.

Renne - please let us know how you are doing - I hope you went to the ER

Lynne

Thanks everyone.. .have an appt tomorrow at 1:45 with a GP. I will let you know. It actually felt better yesterday... we will see if today is the same... take care