29 years old - Male - Chest Discomfort / Pain for 8 Months. Seeking Advice. (All info inside)

Hello everyone,

Let me start with my info.

29 years old

Male

140 LBS

5'9 Height

No previous medical history ever.

My dad has a weak heart. Cardiovascular disease.

Mother is clean with no problem.

I've been dealing with a chest discomfort/pain for almost 8 months now. I have done countless searches online trying to find out what may be wrong with me, or even find advice from others that have experienced the same thing but to no avail, was I able to find help.

The Pain - How it occurs

The pain is there every single day of my life for the past 8 months. EVERY single day. However, it's not the type of pain that happens when I'm standing still. I can mostly feel the pain when I stick my chest out. Whenever I expand my chest, I feel discomfort/pain inside of my chest. I can feel it under my sternum bone. This made me think that it's probably my lung lining that are inflamed and possibly swollen, so it's causing discomfort when I expand it. The pain is much harder when I sneeze. Sometimes, I would feel the pain when I cough but a lot of times I don't. Just like taking deep breath. Sometimes I would feel sharp pain, but sometimes I won't. But most importantly, the pain and discomfort is there 24/7 every time I stick my chest out or stick my chest in. The pain is mainly in the middle of my chest but sometimes it'll cause discomfort on my right side or left side chest. Other times, I have felt sharp hard pain in the left side of my chest where my heart is while laying down. I have also felt sharp pains around my shoulder bone and the back of my shoulder. I have felt pain on my back area also. Also, about 3 weeks ago, I've developed new symptoms such as a lump-like stuck in my throat sensation and my stomach stinging. My stomach also feels solid when I press it while laying down. These physical pain have been haunting me for months.

The Tests

For the past 7 months, I've visited countless doctors to try and figure this out fast and get it resolved. All the tests I've done, I will list it below.

2 visit to ER

3 Chest X-Ray

3 EKG

1 Chest CT Scan

1 Chest MRI Scan

3 Annual Blood Test (std included)

Echocardiogram (heart check)

Heart Stress Test (heart check)

Endoscopy (check stomach and esophagus)

Abdominal Ultrasound (checking kidney, liver, and stomach)

Majority of these testing were done for elimination. Eliminating other risk such as heart attack, esophagus inflammation, and others. Everything came out normal except my Vitamin D which was fairly low. At this point, I don't know exactly what test I have to do now. One thing for sure is, I haven't exactly gotten my lungs checked except with radiology scans. I was told that for most lung problems, radiology is the only thing needed. However, if it's pleurisy, this can't really be found from radiology and how come non of my doctors suspected this?

The Probable Cause

So while being in pain and literally depressed for the past 7 months, I've sat and tried to wonder what exactly could have caused this problem to begin with. So I took my time to recollect my memory and try to remember when exactly the pain first started. I remember the first time I felt this pain was extremely mild. I was sitting on my computer chair and smoking Juul e-cig in my room. It was just a slight discomfort under the right side of my chest. It felt like a bone was cramped or something and needed to be popped/cracked. It was a very mild discomfort so I completely ignored it (thinking it'll get better with rest). However, ever since that day, the pain grew worse. I did some heavy lifting and other physical activity as time passed and believe that may have made my situation worse. Please note that this was all before the whole e-cig/vape epidemic. I quit Juul after I felt the discomfort but it didn't help. Some of the other list below may be the probable cause.

I received a corticosteroid shot on my butt for an allergic reaction. I heard corticosteroids can cause a very bad side effect. I remember after receiving this shot, I started to develop huge stretch mark on my thighs that I have never had in my life before.

Extremely heavy object lifting. I had to clean up this giant pot in my balcony that was filled with water + mold (from heavy rain). I covered it and lifted it to throw it away. This thing was about 400 LBS and I can't carry such weight. I'm 140lbs and thin. Could this have tear my muscle?

Weakened chest bone from low vitamin D?

Rib problem - when I was little, I had an accident that made one of my rib get pushed in. So one of my right side rib line is kind of "pushed in" compare to the other ones. It kind of feels like I'm missing a rib line but it's in there. I never had any problem with my rib or my body while growing up. 20 years later, I'm starting to feel this chest pain. Could the rib be connected to my chest pain?

So at this point, I don't know what to do, what test to do, and what steps to take. I tried taking vitamin D 2000mg per day but it's not helping me. I've tried taking medication such as NSAIDs but it's not relieving the pain. I even got a NSAID shot at the ER which didn't make the pain go away. The pain and discomfort feels like something is just... stuck there under my right side chest. It feels like it needs to be cracked or popped. It's extremely annoying.

So overall, I would really appreciate it if anyone can share any good advice on what I should do next to try to get this resolved.

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