Please tell me what costochondritis feel like

[itiswhatitis82]

Because I feel like it can't be this bad.
That's what I've been diagnosed with but it feels like my heart and my chest. It hurts to cough and I just feel sore around my rib cage.

If you have had it what did it feel like, how long did it last and anything to help.

Thank you.

I was diagnosed with it last year following a viral infection but I didn’t think it could be as it didn’t fit the online description. But basically it felt like a pressure / ache in the centre of my chest.

Like someone with cold hands grabbing you around the ribs, hard. And hurting to breathe deeply, as if you were wearing a corset around the widest part of your ribcage. Had it in my 20s, doctor said to exercise less (I didn't really heed that part) and treated with ibuprofen.

I genuinely thought I was needing to be hospitalised when I was diagnosed with it. I had a pain in my chest and rib area and could barely breathe or move cause of the pain. I was prescribed naproxen for it which helped slightly and I've only had 1 flare up since being diagnosed with it in 2011 but I'll never forget the pain. A friend of mine suffers too and she thought she was having a heart attack.

To me it felt like a jagged but blunt knife being dragged carelessly through my ribs, especially the breastbone at the base. I found gentle stretches, changing position often helpful. Painkillers didn’t seem to touch it so I ploughed through without them. Lots of rest and a gentle heat pad.

Poor you it's awful and scary. If I press all along my sternum and ribs it's so tender and often painful. I have had it for 4 years on and off. Sometimes in just flares up but I don't know why. The back pod and stretches are the only thing that helps apart from strong painkillers.

Oh wow thank you for the replies it sounds exactly as described by posters, especially the corset around my ribs. I just didn't think it could be this back, genuinely thought I had something wrong with my heart. I have some naproxen so I'm going to try taking that and hope it works

I have chronic costochondritis as part of EDS. When it flares it can fool you - even after three years - that it's your heart, it must be palpitations! But it's not, it's an inflamed sternum that hurts to press. I also get it at the sides of my lower ribs because they 'slip'; sometimes that hurts so much that you'd swear your rib just broke.

Horrendous, I couldn't breathe and it felt like my lungs were on fire, I couldn't stretch my chest or put my arms behind myself because of the pain. It's been about 3 months now and it's still there though it is a lot better and I seem to suffer from flare ups. Take anti inflammatories and rest as much as you can x

My gp has mentioned EDS, what tests did you have for that.

Has anyone had their side breast/arm pit hurting with it, it does feel muscular

I thought I was having a heart attack

That sounds horrendous, so sorry you suffer from it. It's just the worse feeling and the fact that nothing helps.

I get a very sharp pain under my left rib cage.
Last 30 seconds.
Told it would go in a few months, 4 years I still get it
especially when I'm cold.

Yes mines horrible like a Victorian corset. I have eds and Sjogrens too. I was tested for MS initially due to the horrible hugging feeling. Mine flares up after viruses especially Covid.

It took me the better part of a decade (or 3, depending how you look at it) to get a diagnosis.
I was investigated for everything under the sun including things like MS, partly because my symptoms rapidly ramped up after having Swine Flu so it presented initially like post viral fatigue. Then I had anaphylaxis, they realised I had POTS (the trifecta of fun) and some other comorbodities. I was diagnosed through the 2017 nosology after I put the pieces together myself and a panel of GPs agreed the diagnosis.

Also yes to the pain radiating to your armpit.

I should add I have hypermobile joints so this is a reason I’m susceptible plus a slight scoliosis. It flares when I’m stressed.