Coping With Pericarditis

After 3 weeks of seeing several different types of doctors, the 1st doctor I went to (my family doctor), called to give me the results of a test he had ordered (a CT scan of the chest). It showed that I had fluid around my heart (pericarditis). I was told to go to the ER immediately where they promptly put a tube in my chest to drain the fluid. This tube remained in my chest for about 3 days while it continued to drain the fluid from around my heart. I was still having chest pains, so they ordered a cardiac catherization, which showed I had about a 70% blockage in one of my arteries. They stented that and no more chest pains. 4 months later, we still don’t know what caused it the pericarditis For awhile the fluid would accumulate again, but not to the extent that it had originally. A final treatment with steroids seemed to clear it up. My symptoms where fatigue, shortness of breath, sharp chest pains that went to my back, between my shoulder blades. I was also had dizziness and fainting spells.