Tightening of Chest While breathing

[Famde05]

My child has had a problem x3 weeks with her chest tightening when breathing, this usually bothers her the most at night, and most recently she has experienced sharp chest pains on both sides near her rib cage.  We've been to the emergency room once and to our urgent care twice with a recent follow up with our doctor.  At the emergency room and urgent care facilities they treated her with a nebulizer, these treatments gave immediate relief, but the problem soon returned during that night after returning home.  She has been put on steroids (prendisone) at two different times.  With our most recent visit to our pediatrician she was taken off the last dose of prendisone.  The doctors conclusion was that there must be some sort of stress that's causing the problem.
The oxygen saturation showed that she is at 100%, I was told that the chest xrays were good (I didn't see them personally).  But here we are with the same problem, and I'm concerned.  There is no associated wheezing during breaths, no fever, although there is a small and infrequent yet nagging cough that my daughter seems to have had for the past 2 years, we have been counting that off as part of her seasonal allergies.  Could there be another problem that is being overlooked or misdiagnosed?  My daughter is on the following meds; Flovent, Albuterol, Singulair and Zyrtec

[Victoireh]

I think you are doing all you can right now your child. I agree, that heart problems can give the same kind of symptoms. It should be at least looked into to rule anything out, especially if the pulmonary specialist is unable to give any answers. And in the rare cases, anxiety can be the cause of a plethora of symptoms. But that should be the last diagnosis given after all other testing. It's difficult to try and understand what is bothering the child as they don't know how to express really what is bothering them physically or mentally. Do take care, and have patience.

[Famde05]

Thank you for your response.  She does have seasonal allergies that causes the asthma. Did I mention that she has this small nagging cough (dry), that we've been dealing with for a couple of years.  My daughter was also checked for oxygen saturation, and because those readings came back good the doctor believed it may be due to anxiety.  We are unable to figure out what could be causing her anxiety.  We are scheduled to see a Pulmonary specialist in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, having to go through the late nights, have her mother and I very concerned.  We went to the local childrens hospital (emergency room), and again she was treated with a nebulizer, the treatments give some relief but the tightness returns.  We were sent home with a nebulizer which helped for a short time (we are able to use it once every 4 hours as needed).  It has gotten to the point that the treatments aren't helping anymore.  After seeing the pulmonary specialist, I believe we should be looking to see if there is anything going on with her heart.

[Victoireh]

I don't really know what to say, except that I noticed that she is taking medications for asthma, and you didn't mention whether she has been diagnosed with it. She could have cough variant asthma, where no wheezing is evident. I have asthma and I don't make wheezing sounds till I'm rather bad. It drives my family doctor nuts because I don't present the typical way that most other asthmatics do. She can't tell by listening to my lungs as to how my asthma is doing. But I often have chest tightness as one of my symptoms. It's a sign of lung obstruction. And breathing problems at night is very common for asthma. Has she been allergy tested? Has she had pulmonary function tests done? If they're over 5 years of age, they are able to perform one. Other then that she should be seen by a pulmonary specialist if you want her lung/breathing issues to be looked into.