Costochondritis pain and discomfort

Firstly thank you for all the very useful info and tips! 

I suffer from mild asthma however following a nasty infection in my left lung it has been exhasurbated (for about 6 weeks now). I finished my antibiotics about a month ago but have continued to have "attacks" of sharp chest pain, difficulty breathing, dizziness (perhaps through panic!) and pain around the back of my lungs. 

These attacks had been happening almost daily and having had an ECG, bloods, and two chest X-rays the doctors advised me it was muscular pain following the infection (I believe to be Costo).

Has anyone else had experience of Costo with asthma? Or found CBT helpful with the anxiety/panic? 

I also wondered about exercise as a trigger? I walked up a rather large hill yesterday (about 30 mins walk) felt v breathless and have had 3 attacks in the 24 hrs since.

Been taking paracetamol but now on co-codamol! 

Anyway many many thanks in advance for any advice, always appreciated :-) 

I xxx

Instead of giving you my lengthy back story first (however I will write it afterwards so you can read it if you so chose) I will impart my techniques to manage the symptoms.

FIRST AND FOREMOST (apologies for shouting) GIVE UP SMOKING (apologies again)

It is not the nicotine, I know because I have ran a series of tests with e-cigarettes and NRT patches, neither the e-cigarette nor the patches affected me in any way, save as to the typical side effects accompanied with nicotine, however smoking an actual cigarette triggers my Costo off instantaneously.

Carrying and lifting - unfortunately, if you like I have children (3 of them including twins) then lifting is as innate to you as feeding or sleeping, however you need to cut down on the amount and question the necessity of lifting, as this will enflame the costal cartilage and then back to square one.

DO NOT JUST LAY IN BED - This is actual counter-productive as you are not evenly distributing the load of your body through your skeletal structure, you are point loading and if you lay on your side, newton and his pesky laws win and you are applying more load through your chest and ribs.

ANXIETY! - Yep, the gift that just keeps giving! I cannot say you are not having a heart attack, however if I am having a heart attack, then I should probably register myself with Guiness and their book of world records as I must be the only survivor of a 3 year heart attack. We have been conditioned to believe that chest pain=myocardial infraction, that is non-sense, there are clearly lots of conditions that cause chest pain, including hypersensitivity due to anxiety that mimic the symptoms of heart attack, chances are if you suffer from Costo and have the symptoms, it is the Costo, but of course if you are really concerned go to the A&E.

NSAID’s - Here the old adage “Everything in moderation” is certainly applicable. Most NSAID’s such as Ibruprofen (Nurofen etc) Diclofenac and Aspirin have harmful affects on the digestive system, especially the stomach, they can also cause problems with your liver. Take them in bursts, 3 - 4 days max when it is bad, then rest off for a few days or as long as you can. 

Muscle Relaxants - I take Bromazepam which relaxes me, but of course you can also create further problems with reliance by taking them. Think long and hard before you do, if you do not suffer from Anxiety then steer clear!

Light Physical Exercise - It seems to me that a lot of sufferers seem to just do nothing physical, this in itself can cause all kinds of problems including depression, get out and walk, during an attack of Costo, do not walk fast, keep your breathing right down to prevent further irruption of the Costal Ligaments, but you will feel bette for doing it, and it will keep your mind healthy!

THERE IS NO MIRACLE CURE……. but talking really helps!

A little about me:

My humble beginnings were as a child forced into care due to a series of very unfortunate domestic circumstances (my step father had a penchant for beating to within an inch of my life, and had on one occasion, or the day world stood still and I was robbed from my mother, very nearly did). 

I managed due to the support of my peers and the people around me to get straight A’s at both GCSE and A-Levels, which for me at the time was my magnum opus!

I joined and served in the Royal Marine (42 RMCDO) until I left in 2004 after a few rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan. I had served 7 years until I left. During which I had also studied and gained a degree.

Soon after leaving, I had been first on scene to a car accident, to which my friend and I had managed to pull the occupants free from the car prior to it becoming an inferno. It had dawned on me at the time that there must have been over 50 people on scene that day, none of which volunteered their help.

That very event sent me into a deep and existential journey where isolation was the only way to understand the world…. This was my take on the situation, turned out that the events of that day had triggered some latent form of PTSD and I had actually isolated myself for the past 3 months, become and alcoholic and believed I could well be on the way to becoming the next messiah, problem was I was 32 and died at 33 so I only had a little time left!

Anyway, after losing my girlfriend and son, (she left and I still do not blame her) and a failed suicide attempt, which thanks to a man walking his dog at 4.30 in the morning, thwarted my cunning plan, I decided to seek help, this is where they tell you real kicker, PTSD has no cure! Brilliant! Very long story short, this is a disease with good days/months/years and bad… Pretty much like normal life for anyone, only problem is, when it gets bad, it gets really bad.

So, I managed to get back on my feet, 33 came and went, still alive, realise that maybe I was not the messiah after all and that I need to proceed!

My first dance with Costocordritis…. It was not a foxtrot, more like a waltz! 2011 came and my friend and I decided to go snowboarding in France. Whilst boarding through a forest, a clearing appeared and somebody had quite rudely laid a strip of tarmac with 3ft high curbs which I managed to protect the rest of body by smashing my rib cage into, snapping 2 ribs forcing one through the lining of my chest and cracking 6.

Rehab was long, but some 6 months later, chest pain, pressure on my chest, numb left arm….. HEART ATTACK! My new girlfriend and now wife rushed me to hospital, at this point I had convinced myself I was fine and it was a panic attack (had never had one up to this point, but now they seem part of my monthly ritual) however the doctor was concerned about my ECG, I then allowed the demons in) Just to digress, I think now if my anxiety as my friend, my old reliable friend that pops in now and again in order to remind me that he is still alive and well, ready to jump on me when the mood takes him, the problem is he is very convincing when he seduces me in opening the door. Back to the point, so I ended up spending a few days in hospital, everything was fine.

This occurred maybe 3 more times with me being rushed to A&E… There is no dignity in this, but equally no diagnostics, just a “You seem to be fine now, go home”. 

Who can really live like this? So decided to do my own forensic investigation, had all the blood tests under the sun, all fine with the exception of my ALT levels, and chest x-ray was clear, most likely no cancer. I then looked at the symptoms, there are lots of conditions that mirror my symptoms, but none more that Costo, so when on holiday, (the UK is not the best place for diagnosis) I dislocated my toes, and when seeing the doctor I asked him for his opinion, he examined me and in about 2 seconds said yes, with little doubt in his mind that I was suffering from Costocordritis!

Then my journey began into the best ways to manage the inflammation (as above)

Any way, if you managed to read my little essay, then god bless you and I wish you all the luck in the world in living with Costo, everyday is a gift no matter what the circumstance.