Persistent Chest Pain: Physio?

[NotQuiteCockney]

I have been having a dull ache in my ribs, on one side, for weeks. I'm quite sure this isn't a heart attack.

It hurts when I breathe in, depending on position. If someone sits on my chest, it gets much worse. It hurts sometimes to move my arm on that side, too.

I did see a GP a while back, and she listened to my chest, so I'm pretty sure it's not a collapsed lung or something serious like that.

I'm struggling with RICE for this muscle. Should I try maxdosing iboprofen, or just go to the physio?

Go to physio. Have you fallen and bruised/cracked a rib perhaps?

No falls, no smoking.

I do have very mild asthma, but it's not really happening at the moment (warm weather), so I've stopped taking my meds.

The pain comes and goes a lot - I keep thinking it's gone, and then it comes back. If DS2 sits astride my chest, it hurts a lot and seems to come back very badly. (Obviously I've not been encouraging him to do this, but it's hard to avoid entirely.)

It may be a spine/joint problem causing muscle spasm in the muscles between some of your ribs? I have chest pains too sometimes and when it gets bad it hurts to breathe in too deeply or move in certain ways. I'm currently seeing a (very dishy) chiropractor who says that 'referred pain' is very common when you have an underlying joint problem that needs sorting because you carry yourself differently to compensate and that can cause muscular pain in other areas (or something like that!). May be worth trying out an osteo or chiropractor? Back probs seem to be part of the whole deal when you have kids I think!

My physio practice does manipulation, so I'm inclined to see them rather than an osteopath or chiropractor. I think it may be a shoulder muscle problem, tbh, given I have some movement difficulty on that side, and a (mild, fairly ancient) history of shoulder muscle problems ...

I think I will try to be more serious about resting it, and take some iboprofen for a bit to see if that clears it (it's not that painful, and doesn't seem to be getting worse) and will resort to physio if those things don't fix it.