Q:
Yesterday, I started getting this cough that hurt down in the chest and didn't think anything of it. I thought that I was just getting a cold. Then I went to exercise and had to stop after 20 minutes because there was a lot of pain in my chest. Then when I was walking home last night, I could again feel the pain in my chest and when I got back to the room, was coughing and really felt the pain for five minutes. The pain isn't there all the time and I don't cough too much otherwise. Is this something that I should get checked out right away? What might it be?
A:
Chest pain almost always should be evaluated by a health care provider, when it is persistent, associated with exercise, cough or shortness of breath. It could be a strained rib muscle, pleurisy or a sign of pneumonia or other lung inflammation.
~The Doc
