Costochrondritis

[Sealily]

Has anyone successfully got rid of this and if so, what did you do?

I’ve had it for 8 months now and it’s ruling my life. The GP diagnosed it 6 months ago and said rest and painkillers. I went back nearly 3 months ago and they did a chest X-ray which was normal.

I can’t sleep comfortably or exercise my upper body anymore, lift or carry heavy things.

I’ve had this for almost 10 years now sadly. The bones in my chest are now raised and stick out. Doesn’t help that I’m almost flat chested so it’s very obvious.
At first it was very painful, I had to take time off of work, I had a desk job so when I returned occupational health were involved with updating my computer desk and chair. It helped for a while but I found sitting for too long made it feel worse. Im now in a more active job and it definitely helps.
The cold weather makes my rib cage ache. I’m 31 but feel like I’m in my 70s when winter hits.
I updated my mattress and use different pillows to help me sleep at night. I find being raised slightly helps. Warm baths and heat patches help too.
originally I was given muscle relaxers and different types of pain killers but they didn’t agree with me.
Im almost 10 years in and I’ve kinda learned to live with it annoyingly. It feels part of me now. Some days are good and I don’t feel any pain but others days are bad. I avoid lifting things now, I use cushions when sitting down and if I’m overly active one day then I’ll try take it easier the next.

Mine is linked to stress and also my spine is misshapen a little so I unnaturally pull to one side when I walk. I find relaxing is the best plus walking. But I do have a very high pain threshold, have fillings at the dentist without anaesthesia and had a gynae op under local when most go under general, all the nurses were clucking all over me about how brave I was. Basically get rid of the stress. Mine flares when cold or stressed now.

@Expov @Hiddenvoice

Thank you for your responses. It’s an awful condition isn’t it? Just to get up off the sofa I have to put an arm behind me to push myself up otherwise the pain shoots through me. I have read that a sizeable amount of people who go to A&E (anywhere not just the UK) and are found to have no heart problems/anything else found, actually have costochrondritis. If this is correct and it’s quite common then it’s disappointing that there is little knowledge of or treatment for it.

I have come across Steve August on YouTube and his theory of the cause seems to fit with me and how mine started. Mine started a few hours after a sports massage (long history of back pain anyway) and during the massage it was particularly sore on the left side of the back of my lower ribs. This is where Steve August (a physio) says costochrondritis originates but it refers pain elsewhere. He also says it’s a poorly understood condition. I’m going to try his exercises and see.

Overnight my pain spread from the back ribs to my left front chest/breast/underarm/arm and is the worst pain I have ever experienced after childbirth. I got Covid a few days later so I didn’t seek medical advice as I thought no one would see me (GP now says they would have), but I was so frightened I would die in my sleep of a heart attack and asked DH to meep checking on me. Ridiculous now that I was in pure agony for over a week and had no proper pain relief (co-codamol barely took the edge off and getting in/out of the bath was agonising, hot water bite has limited use).

I hope you both manage to beat this condition someday soon; I can’t imagine having this for years 😢