Costochondritis pain and discomfort

Firstly, I feel for anyone that has this - it is nasty. I have recently been diagnosed with costochondritis, following chest infection. I have good days and terrible days. On one good day I can go for a decent walk, but then a couple of days later I had about half a dozen, what I call "chest crushes" ( the feeling you are having a heart attack because the diaphram is trying to expand against inflamed joints/cartlidge in your ribs/sternum) in one shop. I am currently resting and taking Naproxen. I am hoping that when this is gone, I can share my experience on here with how I did it and how long it took.

What I do know is if you feel this heart attack sensation - Don't panic or be scared, this will make you feel worse than you need to be, its not actually life threatning and your other organs, including your heart are not being afffected. Just relax, calm down, take time on your breathing and it will subside in about ten minutes, try not to guard it, just mentally soak up the pain and just try relax.

If you feel flutterings in your chest, ( or what I describe as pac man running around in there )its the nerve endings kicking off - take paracetamol to calm it down - this could take about 45 mins. I have found that positioning affects it, so if you are sitting and feeling pain, walk around the house a bit, jiggle about, lie down or sit, the opposite of what you were doing to find relief - I know its hard but getting stressed, paniciky and anxiety wont help you much....so I am hoping by reading this, you have a friend, who knows what it is like and can tell you what I do know, to help out.

I have had ECG, been told it has nothing to do with the heart, an Xray wont show anything. So dont waste time worrying about these things if you have a Costocondritis diagnosis. It is inflammation of the rib joints and/or cartlidge and can manifest as dull pain, random stabbing pains, sharp pain and the feeling of having a heart attack, nerve endings causing fluttering sensations and trouble breathing, although you canbreathe - there is enough oxygen going in, it just hurts to breathe and you take shallow breaths to compensate or your body will only allow shallow breathing - but you wont stop breathing- so relax.

Hi All,

I can empathize with all of you my condition (costochondritis) started about 10 years ago during a very stressful period of my life. It seems like any type of stress or agitation will set this off. My pains have been all throughout my front lower chest and sometimes stretches to the lower back on my left side. Some of the other triggers that I stay away from are alcohol, cigarettes, and high fat foods.

When I stick to a balanced diet and I'm in better shape, I have far less painful instances from costo.

My job is extremely stressful and I tend to have moments of panic where I feel like my chest is caving in. The pain is almost unbearable, but taking deep breaths to calm things down eases some of the pain. I just started doing yoga, but it really hasn't been long enough to tell how effective it is. It seems like anything calming will help. Also try chamomile, valerian root, lemon balm, or other relaxing herbs. They have worked for me. Beware that some of these herbs will make you drowsy.

I wish you all the best in the battle against costochondritis!

Ok update from post 16th March - I am a lot better. I basically laid down for a week and did nothing as suggested by another postie on this site and took as higher dose of anti inflammatories as I could.

Back at work now and managed a whole week. It is now saturday and I have a slight chest tightness but then I was stuck in a half hour traffic jam which didnt help. I have found out to avoid caffeine. My occupational health specialist at work advises taking "devils claw" .

Also recommended are vitamins like evening primrose oil and zinc for general bone/muscle and general strength boosting. Avoid stress, lifting, sudden movements and the like. A blood test revealed I have some infection and inflamation left in the body - so not out of the woods yet. My next test tommorow is if I can go for a long walk without crushing chest pain. Kind of nervous but I have to test myself now and see how much better this really is. I am still taking 500mg ibroprofen every 4 hours and using algesal muscle cream which has been a godsend on the top of my chest when it felt heavy.

Will post again in a fortnight. Hope my info helps.

Evening - fellow sufferer, I sincerely hope anyone reading this gets to a conclusion of their pain in the quickest way possible. My situation was that approx 6 weeks ago I was taken into A&E (it followed a nasty cough). Usual tests carried out (echo scan, bloods, ecgs, chest xray) but i was eventually diagnosed as having likely costochondritis or some sort of myaglia.

I am a fit (ish) 43 year old male and must admit the last few weeks have been the longest and scariest of my life! For me the pain varies in location (can be in the central breast bone, moves slightly above left and right breast and then sometimes down into the rib region on either side). However I dont get excruitating pain more of an indigestion and a bruising type feeling but the last weeks have been made much worse by the nausea and dizziness sensation that seems to be with me every second of the day (could this be stress?).

I have been in to see a couple of private specialists for cardiology and lung checks but they've not found anything untoward and neither have prescribed anything other than rest and ibruprofen.

I dont really know what to do next and whether I should go back to see my GP again (have been 4 or 5 times already) and demand some sort of ECG stress test as I've noticed that my dizziness increases greatly with any form of movement. Am I definitely suffering from Condo?

Ps. Both the specialists felt my sore areas and they werent particularly painful when touched so it was diagnosed as a "mild form of costochondritis"

It seems I was either miss-diagnosed on this condition last year, or I am extremely lucky as I have only had the pain once for a few weeks and it has not re-occurred again since, however I do sympathise with all of you that do suffer with this condition

Hello All,

I as well have been diagnosed with costochondritis. I am a healthy(ish) 27 year old... I do smoke and have had some stress in the past few months...so when I first had the sharp pain in the right side of my chest just slightly above my breast I thought I was having a heart attack (fully aware heart attacks typically take place on the left side, this is what this pain felt like, or so I assumed as I have never had a heart attack). I lived with the pain for approx a week and when it had first began is was isolated. Therefore, I wasn't TOO concerned as I have had pains down my chest in the past brought on by stress.

This bout lasted a week and began to make me nervous as I didn't know what it was. First my GP was concerned I had a possible blood clot in the lung therefore shipped me to the ER for an ECG, XRAY and blood work. Everything came back clean as a whistle and they told me I was suffering from anxiety.

I left the hospital with discomfort and pain and they sent me home with a low dose of anti-inflam - These did absolutely nothing! Advil extra strength was doing more for me at this point. I gave up on the anti-imflams and stuck to advil when I was desperate and keeling over. Particularly before bed....Everything seems to be worse before bed right?! Ugh.

On Tuesday this week ( now three weeks into my misdiagnosed "anxiety" ) I started to do my research and realized there was no way in hell I was suffering from a three week anxiety attack.

I took myself back to Emerg and demanded an answer. I explained that my pain had worsened it was no longer in one isolated spot but rather radiated through my chest... into my upper back, collar bones and shoulder bones. I literally feel like my muscles are ceasing up and seems impossible to move quickly. If I could describe arthritis and what paralyzed feels like, this would be it.

The doctor on Tuesday night explained that what I was complaining of, considering ALL of my tests came back clear was costochondritis. So low and behold, I am now among the many humans out there with this awful condition.

He prescribed a low dose of morphine (5mg) which he said to take twice a day as needed... I obviously cannot function at work on morphine so I only take ONE at bed time, it seems to put me to sleep quickly and without pain. When I wake up in the morning it all begins again. I have tried to relax, calmed my breathing, even yoga. Nothing at this point has helped. Maybe I should take some time off and stay in bed?

Yesterday (three days after the last doctor visit) I have lost my voice. Could be completely unrelated however, I have a feeling it isn't. Has anyone had this happen to them? The only logical thing I can think of is that I am so swollen it could possibly be putting pressure on my diaphragm, vocal cords etc?

I constantly feel like my back needs to be "cracked" however it is so high up I cannot just stretch and do it myself. The pain that radiates through my chest affects the mirroring spot on my back and is unbelievably uncomfortable. I feel like the only relief I get is by putting pressure on the sore "bruised" spots that hurt, which i know will just irritate it more.

Any advice would be completely appreciated!

I will do anything to help get rid of some of this pain and get back to normal.

Help.