nothing to add from anyone?

Hi sthomps,


I was wondering if the pain has lessoned at all? Could you describe your symptoms more clearly? I have been suffering for the past 4 months -- I have not been diagnosed with costo yet, however, I am fairly certain this is what I have. My doctor is in the dark after a battery of tests, xrays, etc. and I am at dead ends. All the information I read about this is very depressing. I'm 28 years old and am worried about dealing with this daily, chronic pain for the rest of my life.

Well it's kind of hard to describe the pain atm, because eventually I did break free of it all. Not to say it won't come back (i believe I am actually pretty likely to have a similar diagnosis in the future) but for the moment I am fine. Anyway the pain I can remember feeling was around the front of my ribcage to my sternum. It was a tight pulling pain that felt like it could be muscle/tendon/cartilage that is just tight to the point where it hurts to breath. That is one thing that I noticed with mine, most days it would only hurt a little bit with regular breathing, and a lot if I took a deep breath, but some days it would hurt Really bad to just breath at all. It wasn't to the point where I set off my asthma because of decreased breathing (yeah my asthma didn't help matters either) but it was very unpleasant and I would only be able to sleep on my back when normally I kind of sleep on my stomach and side at an angle.

Yes the information is pretty depressing, as you notice I was pretty depressed myself for a while. Oh and normally a case like mine isn't normal. Your case shouldn't last over half a year like mine did, trust me did all the reading myself as well and talked with a couple doctors and physical therapists so try not to get too down. Also mine stayed going on for over 9 months, but it did eventually break so just know if it is costro it will for you too.

Regardless if your doctor is stuck maybe suggest that a common non-lethal diagnosis such as costro is maybe possible and see how he reacts, and also if he hasn't come to a similar conclusion already, maybe get a 2nd opinion.

Very Important here. He will prob give you prescription grade IBprofein. It didn't work for s**t on me, but I also have a strong immunity to most drugs, it would have taken something along the lines of 2 doses of morphine and heavy muscle relaxant to reduce pain, but for you the prescription should probably work. Also make sure to invest in a nice re-usable heating/cooling pack. Something that can REALLY help is going through cycles of heating up the pad and throwing it on your chest over and over for a few hours while watching TV. Any kind of physical labor that you do, unless its ungodly mandatory, don't do it. If you can get someone to lift up to over 25lbs for you really do it. Pain is increased and healing is decreased when you cause your body to do work force, even things simple as contorting your upper body cause an issue. So no lifting, try not to stretch your torso, and no carrying things for long periods of time.


I know its long but i hope it helps

Hi Sam,

Thanks so much for your reply. I am so happy to hear that you are doing better. Although, I too have been doing a lot of reading and research on this, and it seems that the healing time for something like this is anywhere in the window of 3 weeks to 3 years (if any).


Your pain seems similar to mine. Mine started back in early December 2008, at first I thought it was a pulled back muscle, as the pain radiated from my back, near my left rib area, but now it also affects the front near my chest and the pain runs along the bottom of my left rib cage. It is a constant, deep pain that is sometimes hard to describe. Most days, it doesn't bother me too much with regular breathing, however, any deeper breathing or strenuous activity causes the pain to increase a whole lot and I cannot do even simple exercise much anymore. The doctor had diagnosed it as an inversion of one of my back muscles, and I have been seeing a physical therapist on a weekly basis for the past 2 months. While massaging of the area seems to help reduce pain at the time, I notice that later in the day the pain comes back very strong, and I am worried that manipulation of the area only makes it hurt more, which should not be the case if it were a muscle problem.

Anyway, at this point I am going to seek a 2nd opinion and hopefully get a diagnosis. As far as pain meds, during the first month of my pain I was taking hydrocodone, a fairly powerful pain reliever that only mildly lessened my pain. I am wary of taking too much acetaminophin or other NSAIDs long-term because of side effects, so after the first month I have been trying to cope with the pain in other ways. At this point I am usually able to get through most days without needing meds, but on some days when its really painful I will take a few Advil.

Its still very depressing not being able to exercise or do any outdoor types of activities which I loved, however, your situation has given me hope. I'm going to continue in my research on this and hopefully one day it will get better.

Thanks again for your response.

I had a prancreatist attack 1yr and2 months. I was just diagnosed with with this disease. Well, my chest has been hurting ever since. I have been using ibuphrophen off and on for a yr. and has not done anything. they say this goes away after a few week.. It has been for a yr. go figure...what is longest case for this.....