Costochondritis agony.

[toolioo]

I have had costochondritis for over a year now. I am on a long waiting list for physio. I am in agony. I have tender spots in multiple areas over my chest radiating into my back. It brings me to tears. I feel like I need to stretch and for something to crack but I think that makes it worse. I have tried heat. Cold. Painkillers. An ergonomic chair. Nothing is helping. It is absolute hell. Has anyone ever been able to get rid of it? I am in so much pain.

You poor thing OP I have had it a couple of times and was prescribed anti inflammatories - Naoroxen which helped. Hope you get it sorted soon

Yes I was completely debilitated by it for a year in my early 20s. Rest as much as you can while it is flared up. Avoid long term anti inflammatories - over a prolonged period they actually stop it from healing. Then when it improves, get into a good exercise regime to reduce the chance of recurrence. Took 3 months to get rid of it after I got a diagnosis and this advice from a lovely placement doctor after a year of being fobbed off with repeat prescriptions for NSAIDs and cocodamol by the usual GP at our surgery. Stupid cow left me with a codeine addiction that I then had to kick on top of everything. 😡 It was not long before the NHS nationally recommended no more routine prescribing of opioids. Hope you get some improvement soon OP.

Do you know what the original driver behind it is?

I have autoimmune diseases, one that causes spinal inflammation and this. It shouldn't just happen without reason. So have you other problems and are you being listened to and things investigated?

Naproxen is helpful. But it needs a stomach protector. Heat is usually best. Multiple heat pads, sprays and showers.

If you have an autoimmune disease, accessing medication directly treating that could help a lot. Naproxen is a symptom managing drug not an autoimmune management drug.

I had it as part of Long Covid. Things that I found helped were 1. Moving to soft cropped tops (and ideally no bra) rather than conventional bras 2. Time (2 years). I cant take anti-inflammatories though so no idea if they help.

I've had a few bouts over the years but thankfully they were just confined to my chest/breast areas. My consultant mentioned that Evening Primrose oil could be helpful so I take a capsule every day. I haven't had any flare ups since I started taking them, some tenderness at times but not the severe pain.

I ended up in hospital with my first flare up, and it took around 18 months to settle. What helped most in the end was seeing an osteopath - it was horrifically painful the first session but by the 3rd one it had made a huge improvement. I tried Naproxen for 6 months but it didn't really help. I've honestly not known pain like it, and I'm normally pretty tough. Even now, if I'm stressed or run down I can get a flare up but touch wood it's never been as bad as the first one.

I had this for about 3 years. I had a really good sports masseur who did myofascial scraping with a sort of gua sha tool. Had 2 pretty brutal sessions but it cured it by about 95%.

OP, you have my sympathy! I had this once - years ago! It did last a couple of months but I've been fine for years. It mimics a pro-longed heart attack my GP said.

Try heat therapy, warm showers, heat packs etc and it should ease. I avoided the medication fortunately.

You could try looking up stretches on YouTube and in particular look up costochondritis foam roller exercises, but for me ive found it needs to be using a soft foam roller as the hard ones make all my pain worse but the soft ones really do help (I have a sissel soft foam roller). Its not a fix but it definitely helps

I found when it flares up the only thing that helps is belly breathing. Taking deep breaths into the diaphragm. There are YouTube vids. Shallow breathing triggers it. It’s been an adjustment but it means I can exercise now without flaring it up. Also ibuprofen gel on the sternum helped me.

I have tried everything. It gets worse when I sit. Sometimes if I sleep funny. If I have to drive a long distance which is regularly. I just can't get rid of it. I am at the end of my tether. Just emailed the NHS physio who I suspect will be shite!