I was taken of my migraine abortive because of angina and breathing problems, and while it is true the Imitrex made these a whole lot worse, the symtpoms have not entirely gone away. The chest pains do not concern me overly, since they are not that bad... I think more a result of my heart palipatations and skipped beats lately. What does concern me is the breathing issue, as it is nothing I have had prior to a bad bout of bronchitis, or is it a symptom of FMS.
It basically feels like my chest gets heavy. I can breath in fairly well, sometimes with some wheezing, but when I exhale it seems like nothing is coming out. It comes on suddenly, only lasts a few minutes and occurs every couple of days. It happens when I am lying down, when I am sitting it is just more a heavy feeling and awareness of breathing a little off.
My doctor essentailly brushed this off as a Imitrex side effect, and certainly a lot worse when I was taking the injections and a lot more frequent. I mentioned it was persisting, but she has not investigated it any. So essentially I am wondering if this is like asthma, or has any idea what this might be?


You can find more information about Imitrex at the federal government's Medline Plus Web site. Only your health care provider can make the individual Diagnosis of asthma, which should include making sure your symptoms aren't the sign of heart failure. You don't mention whether your doctor made the suggestion that your symptoms could be asthma and not related to your medications or other conditions, such as heart disease. In any case, it is understandable why you are concerned about shortness of breath and a heavy chest as these can be signals of serious medical conditions. Only a health care professional can make an accurate diagnosis of what's going on.
Patricia Theiler
Community manager