Hi,
Recently given up smoking after 12 years of 20+ smokes. i'v been off them for about 8 weeks
I also suffered from chest pains, chest tightness, breathing difficulty, muscle aches (pretty severe), sore joints, sinus problems reflux, digestive complaints etc...
What they don't tell you about quitting is that 'quitters flu' is very common and, depending on your smoking history and dependence on the smokes quitting can do all sorts of things to your body (temporarily) as it tries to repair itself.
These symptoms last anywhere from 3 weeks (minimum) to 12+ weeks. Eventually though you do start feeling better. To help recovery you should also change your lifestyle a bit... e.g more excercise, better diet, more resting - less stressing and working.
Whilst quitting it is normal to feel c**p, don't expect to be able to do everything you normally could. You will eventually feel much better... but its a process.
Thank you SO much everyone!!! i was so worried with the pain on the left side of my chest and shoulder but this has put me at ease!!!
I'm 45 and smoked since I was 20. In my 20's and 30's I would say about 20, maybe even 30 a day.Cut down in my late 30s and now in my 40's to about 5.
Anyhow two weeks ago , and rather a royal pita, I woke up in the middle of the night with extremely aching forearms which progressed up to my shoulders. Sweating and a great sense of unsettledness.The pain was like I imagine you might feel if you'd done a 100 pressups or something but still different.Not screaming pain but really quite unbearable. This progressed to such a degree that I didn't really recognise that it had crossed my chest and that my breathing and chest was really tight. As I was rocking forward and backwards whilst sitting on my bed in real distress I began to believe I was having a panic attack and even though I considered this to be less of an emergency it was so disturbing and unbearable I needed to call for help. Whilst on the phone to emergency services I had to interupt the call to be sick. 4 times in rapid succesion and the best way to describe it was it was like something out of the film The Exorcist.
The emergency services arrived and did various test and got me to chew an aspirin.
Then 4 more tests in the ambulance at which point i was informed "I don't want you to panic but I am now convinced you are having a heart attack"
My response was "Oh bloody hell..what a pain!"
They gave me a dose of Nitrolingual which made me very dizzy but did help.Put in an intravenous for possible morphine but decided that wasn't necessary and rushed me off to a heart hospital and straight into surgery for a Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.
I was lucky. I had a stent fitted to open my right artery ( the one that I believe supplies the lungs with blood) My other arteries were completely clear but a small vunerable plaque in my right artery ruptured creating a clot and subsequent Myocardial Infarction.
Two days in hospital and I was back home but the road back to full fitness is only just begun.
Very tired, can walk to the end of my street twice a day at this time very slowly.
I'm now on a variety of drugs for the rest of my life which have given me some side effects such as hypotension..dizziness spaced out feeling from not enough oxygen (blood) to the brain because of low blood pressure and pulse. Particularly when standing up. Doc changed doses and this has helped a lot. I imagine my body will eventually get used to these new drugs.
Diet.... Seismic change...Fruit and veg of course but Transfats and sat fats out so doughnuts cakes biscuits ready meals processed food and cheese :( pretty much gone.
It's all about prevention now.
Now of course I will never know how much my smoking caused this but as my cholestrol levels where pretty low, outwith of stress, it would appear cigarettes are the smoking gun.
Of course I have immediately quit. Pretty much the best cessation therapy you could get I imagine. But you'd be surprised that I was told 80% of smokers who have a heart attack start up again once they feel more confident and time has passed a bit. That pain I just had in my chest wasn't another heart attack.
Since my attack I have been having pain in my chest as described in this forum. I actually called the emergency services again one night because it wasn't going away and although the ambulance ecg seemed ok I still had to go to A&E because of my recent history where 7 hours i was tested and then moved into an A&E ward (which was not fun) whilst they worked out if I had had or was having another heart attack based on my elevated troponin blood count.
As you can imagine having smoking chest pains directly after having a heart attack is pretty disconcerting. Still I find it surreal to possibly say I'm lucky to be having them.
I thought to post this as it has been very positive to find this forum re smoking chest pains and more importantly for anyone like me who thought " I've still got time to give up" or "It won't happen to me"
I'm an 11 stone male, was generally reasonably healthy I thought.Drank perhaps twice the rda of alcohol. Didn't really exercise but walked everywhere.Cholestrol pretty good.
The senior cardiac consultant said I'd been unlucky.
But if I could go back and never smoke that first cigarette. Each one was like digging a microscopic hole but 20 years later I stood at the bottom of an enormous well unable to climb out.
My job now is to get super healthy but I'll miss alot of those normal treats ( at least for a while)
It really is worth giving up !!
The same is happening to me.....
What i think is happening is that the period after quitting is a very stressful time for the body and mind....this can cause tightness in the chest due to stress on the body of suddenly being without nicotine aswell as the anxiety caused by losing your psychological comfort in smoking.
Basically i think it's anxiety. Maybe a lot of us quit because of health reasons and these reasons (cancer, heart attack etc..) are in the forefront of our minds during quitting which cause us even more anxiety!
A common feature of anxiety is a tight chest. Tension. Soooooooooo......
try meditate. Try deep breathing. If this doesn't work try this- Take a sloooow deep breath in through your nose..hold for 2 seconds, then breathe slowly and forcefully through a small hole in your lips (a whistling shape, if you get me?). Repeat.
If you are very concerned then GO TO THE DOCTORS :D
Honestly though i think it is anxiety and stress...even if you dont feel stressed it is a stressful time for you and your body. Take time to relax.
Mike
I quit smoking 4 days ago. Smoked a pack a day till then for 15 years. Having the same chest pains that run down my left arm. My blood pressure is fine and I'm still only 39 with no history of heart issues and I'm in shape and weigh only 125lbs. So assuming this will pass. Would also like someone to follow up on how long it took to pass for them?
Thank you, this was my most likely guess at an explanation but am really happy someone has helped shed light. I started smoking when I was 10 yrs old, I have quit cold turkey for 5 weeks that is 24 yrs worth of smoking causing considerable chest and rib and random heart pains over past few days. The constipation was pretty bad and I can safely say thank goodness this has settled. So too will the chest pains...I'm rooting fir my cilia to do their job, I'm rooting for myself (long overdue) and in rooting for you x
This is not what I expected. It is painful after using ecigs. And the pain is scaring me. I quit ecigs 3 days ago. Why does this hurt? Thank you. There is no info out there about quitting ecigs that I know of. Good luck with your endeavors. I hope this pain goes away.
Hello...Thank you for sharing your experience getting off cigarettes. I thought that getting off cigarettes with ecigarettes would be anything but painful. I do not crave nicotine. The pain I feel when smoking ecigs is there. It is scary. There is no place where I can find people quitting ecigs. I will take your advice and be a little easier on myself. Your post was helpful. Thank you.
hi all,
thanks for sharing the consistent symptoms of pains suffered during the journey of quitting. I've been suffering the same issues. Can anyone who has recovered from the pains let us know how long it took to recover and any other resides or things which we can use remediate the pain?
Thanks in advance.....
hey, alot of helpful information here, especially about the pain being related to cillia growing back and stuff. I have had some chest pains and back pains since i quit been about 2 weeks now been smoking 12 years .. and i was really concerned to the point of having an anxiety attack. sooo pain = Gain got it!
personally e ciggs dident help me quit, infact i found myself ingesting even more nicotine because i could now smoke anywhere, and it also made me feel sick and made my chest hurt, not like the same kinda pain i feel now after quitting real cigs a different pain ...hard to explain.. just saying smoking is smoking.. only thing in your lungs should be air
Hi All,
I started smoking Feb'13 and continued for 4 months (8 cigrettes/day) and quit smoking for about 1 year. And Again started smoking on Jun'14 (this time 1 Pack/Day) and quit smoking Oct'14. Now its been 7-8 weeks after qutting. I feel Chest pain in the right and Shortness of Breath. Am afraid to go to doctor.
Can anyone please let me, if this pain and SOB is normal or it is mandatory to consult doctor? Please adivise.
You're going through EXACTLY what I'm going through.
Started smoking when I was 14, and I'm 17 now, and quit.. I'd say about 3 weeks ago,
Horrible chest tightness, in my right lung,
Got an EKG or whatever done, heart was fine,
My joints have been sore too but I didn't relate that to anything,
My heart was having crazy palpitations too scaring me till I was crying.
I also just got over having a miscarrigae on June 4th, 2014.
I can barely breathe, and my lungs feel so tight and it's bothering me so bad and I just want my lungs to feel normal.
Can a doctor or someone please reply to this post or one of the others explaining why we are all feeling so bad from this?!