I am significantly better at the moment. I walked over 11,500 steps yesterday and feel mostly fine today. I'm becoming far less aware of my breathing as it's pretty close to normal. I'm not really feeling the chest wall inflammation the majority of the time but I do know that it's there under the surface still. I had to step up on a stool this morning to reach something and I pushed up with my arm on the counter as I stepped up, and I immediately felt a strong flash of pain across my sternum and I have a dull ache there now. So I know that as long as I basically keep my chest completely and utterly clear of stress/pressure that I feel close to normal.
The inflammation seems to be down enough that it's not affecting my heart rate and it's also not being triggered by a slight increase in cardio activity. So my goal at the moment, is to keep as active as I can while letting the inflammation keep receding. Because I triggered pain this morning, I won't do my early walk today. (Which is the one that I do alone with my music and manage a decent pace.) But I will do a gentle stroll this evening. And I'll judge tomorrow's walks on how I feel tomorrow.
I have learned that any exercise that puts stress on my chestwall is a sure fire way to feel worse. So any form of push-up, even a diagonal push-up off the counter sets me back. Any work with weights, even baby weights. Any planks/downward dogs/cobras/anything that involves taking any of my body weight on my chest is a complete and utter no/no. Because it will 100% set my recovery back. I've also found that pilates/yoga that focus on the legs, but involve pulling my legs up tight to my chest or leaning my chest forward to my legs can cause a relapse too. In addition I won't do any activity that requires balancing because if something happens to make you lose your balance, you will unconsciously engage your chest to keep yourself up and I don't think that's worth the risk. And while I can dance around the kitchen a bit while I clean up/cook, if I try anything like a jump and spin, it also engages my chest muscles too much right now. Heavy sweeping and mopping also causes a set back. Kneading bread dough would cause a set back.
The absolute key right now is to keep on remembering that I have chest wall inflammation, even if I can't actually feel it, it's still there. There are warning signs that I'm inflaming it, like a sore throat/lump in throat, sternum pressure, etc. I have to try act like it hurts even when it doesn't, because doing something unthinking, like pushing off with my arm when I stepped on a stool, sets it back. Many, many, many of the supposed gentle exercises I've tried, have set it back. I also have to accept that unfortunately life means that I will repeatedly set it back and if I do, I need to immediately acknowledge that and revise back whatever activities I had planned. My short term goal is to never, ever, ever trigger the inflammation bad enough to cause breathing difficulties again. My longterm goal is to heal completely and get back to normal. There will be steps back along the way but if I can avoid breathing difficulties, I don't mind days with more pain than others.
I'm finding that I'm coping mentally better by treating this like an injury that needs healing. When I was focussed on the idea of this being a new and terrifying new virus that nobody has ever really fully recovered from, I was freaking out and constantly throwing random solutions at because I was afraid and desperate to recover. But using a diagnosis of chest wall inflammation, because that's what both my pleurisy and costochondritis are, I have a clear treatment plan because millions of people throughout history have recovered from that. And it's helped both mentally and physically. I know what's wrong and I can calmly and steadily improve.
*(An important note on that, is that I have had diagnostic tests that show no bacterial infection/clotting/lung scarring etc. If you haven't had those reassurances and have ongoing symptoms do talk to your doctor/111/go to A&E/etc.)