I don't know if this applies to your symptoms -- but here's my 'chest pain' story from my childhood, which had a very happy ending.

First some more recent background:  I am now 66 years old.  I have no history of symptomatic heart disease -- but I am taking a small 10 mg dose of Lipitor prescribed by a cardiologist that I consulted because of the history of heart disease among 6 of my 9 brothers (4 bypasses, 1 stent, and 1 untreated death). The cardiologist prescribed the Lipitor after I had a 'virtual' cardiac angiogram which showed some arterioslcerosis, but not serious enough for any intervention other than taking the small dose of Lipitor.

When I was a child, however, I experienced many very frightening episodes of severe chest pain. This happened many times, but I never told anyone about these episodes (the pain usually went away after several minutes or an hour or two).

However, one night (when I think I might have been 12-13-14 years old), I awoke in the middle of the night with those severe, stabbing chest pains. They seemed more intense than ever before.  I thought I was doing to 'die.'  I was so afraid that I woke my mother up and told her about it.

She was concerned enough that she took me to the emergency room at our local hospital.

I got to see the doctor right away -- I guess because we had mentioned severe 'chest pain.'

The doctor asked me to describe the pain.  I probably told him something like: "It feels like my heart will 'break' if I try to breathe." (During these episodes, the pain did seem to intensify if I tried to breathe 'normally.' So whenever I got these chest pains, I took only very 'shallow' breaths to minimize the pain.)

After further examination (and maybe an EKG, I can't really remember), the doctor asked me to 'trust him' -- and he told me to 'breathe deeply through the pain.' I took a deep breath, even though it did hurt a lot. Then I did it again. And again, and again. After a few deep breaths, the pain began to lessen -- and soon disappeared. I was so 'happy' -- the doctor had taught me how to stop these pain attacks myself.

I think the doctor mentioned the words 'pleural pain' before we left the hospital. But maybe it wasn't really 'pleurisy' (which involves 'infection' and 'inflammation,' which I don't think was part of my childhood problem). Maybe it was just some kind of muscle cramp in the chest.

After that night, I still experienced those pain attacks as frequently as before. But they no longer frightened me - because the ‘breathe deeply' method that the doctor taught me always made the pain go away.

As the years went by, the pain attacks occurred less frequently. I like to think that I ‘discovered' myself what might be bringing them on. At some point, I noticed that they seemed to occur after I was doing something that constricted my abdomen - while bending over to tie my shoes or do some other task - but only if I had unconsciously held my breath while doing so.

If I remember to breathe ‘normally' - no matter what I am doing while bending over - I don't seem to have the problem.

On the infrequent occasions when I do get that old ‘pain' -- and with my family history of heart disease -- I now have to always ask myself:  Is this just my old childhood chest pain?  Or is this something different?

Hope this helps you - or anyone else.