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Costochondritis - Why Me?

Posted , 10 users are following.

manishc4
manishc4

Hi,

I am a 22 year old Male currently a student in university. I was 20 yrs and 6 months old when I contracted costochondritis. I was continuously lifting weights everyday when I felt a lot of pain on my chest and ribs. Thought due to excess lifting of weights my muscles were stressed too much and decided to stop. The pain slowly went away from my ribs but is stuck in the sternum and it is inflammed. Then I noticed the my ribs are inflammed as well.

I have had it for 1.5 years and most doctors say one thing or the other. Telling me not to worry and it is not life threatening. I have read everything about this condition and it is so depressing that it has no cure. I am on antiinflammatories and vitamin d as I was in complete deficiency in my vitamin d.

I do not want to believe that my life ends here and want to enjoy life but cannot. I was a very active person, sportive and had an athletic physique. It kills me that I cannot go to the gym, get a good body and depresses me that I am not getting better. Went to a physio and he worsened the condition and pressed too hard on my back giving me back pain. I have been in tremendous stress for this entire period and I am so young.

Along with this I contracted dermatitis and have lost most of my hair in the last 2 years. How much can one person take? I feel all hope is lost.

DOES THIS CONDITION WANT ANYONE ELSE WANT TO KILL THEMSELVES? I cannot believe that cancer can be treated at times but this condition cannot. I feel that life itself is over and I cannot proceed anymore. I am losing important years of my life and taking medicines and losing every bit of time just hoping that one day I will wake up and this god damn condition of mine has magically disappeared.

I think I need help mentally as well as physically. I do not know where to go and what to do about this condition?

1 like, 14 replies

14 Replies

  • Scouseindahouse
    Scouseindahouse manishc4

    Posted

    Hello,

    having similar symptoms at the moment and think It could be costo as I've already been told by my doc he thinks I have fibro and I know the two can be related.

    saw your post and just wondering how you are lately as I am a bit worried that you're struggling to cope?

  • Ranger507
    Ranger507 manishc4

    Posted

    Hope your doing better! A terrible story I'm 23 and 2 months in and I can still already feel your pain! All the best and hope to hear back!
  • abc84511
    abc84511 manishc4

    Posted

    I hope so much that you are doing better. Yes, I've had days where I have strongly contemplated suicide. But I have terrible coping skills and a history of depression as it is. I contracted this horrible thing when I was 18 and am now 20. For the first year and a half I convinced myself it would go away and am only now really seeing numerous specialists to get down to the bottom of it. I have to believe that soon it will go away for good and I can get back to my life. It's stolen two precious young years from me sad but I know there are a lot of options to make it go away permanently. I know you posted this a while ago but has anything changed for you? Please don't give up. People online who say we just have to "live with it" just aren't exploring every option. I've actually found that going online and looking at others talk about this has only given me less hope so I'm here to sort of spread the opposite message if anyone sees what I write. There is a way to get rid of it for good, especially if you are as young as we are, and you need to find a doctor who will get down to the bottom of your individual cause. 
    • Ranger507
      Ranger507 abc84511

      Posted

      I feel for.you having this for 2 years! How often are your flare ups , and do you have any tips for avoiding flare ups, I had a bit too much to drink the other night and iv been bed ridden with a flare up ever since! Lesson learned, any reply will be grateful!
    • abc84511
      abc84511 Ranger507

      Posted

      unfortunately I don't really have "flare-ups" because it is constantly, 100% of the time, bad :-(. I honestly haven't found anything that helps yet...I am gluten-free and vegan, drink lots of water, workout...I recently found out I'm deficient in vitamin d so I'm possibly hoping that supplementing will help me. Other then that I am getting cortisone injections in my chest next week and if that doesn't work will go on to prolotherapy and if that doesn't work nerve ablation. I'm going to try out some new supplements I recently bought too. I recall reading somewhere someone supplementing with collagen ii helped a lot. Good luck smile
    • abc84511
      abc84511 Ranger507

      Posted

      forgot to mention a very important thing--- through my research i've found that almost every single person suffering with this is deficient in vitamin D. do you know if you are or not? i recently got back some blood test results and i am, despite me taking it in pill form every day for months. but my doctor recommended taking it in liquid form because many people can only absorb it that way. i'm going to start taking his high dose liquid recommendation as soon as possible and i'm hoping that that in conjunction with the injections and some other new supplements will ease my pain for good smile. i really think you may benefit from taking liquid D as that deficiency so often causes pain and costo. good luck and i am hoping the best for you, hoping so much that your suffering can end soon. i know it will :-)
    • dawn68509
      dawn68509 abc84511

      Posted

      Hi I'm a 39 year old women and have had this condition now for 12 months in that time I've had 3 weeks in odd days pain free I guess even a terminal I'll patient wud get that the pain is with me 100 % of the time also it's s constant left side ache hurts when breathing in but not all the time sum days are better than others pain also down left arm and shoulder upper left bk pushing in under collar bone aches like a dull ache never sharp ,I have no pain on inner ribs pain seems to move ,I've had chest xray mammogram numerous bloods and ecg all negative I cry all the time as my life is absolutely ruined by this
  • manishc4
    manishc4

    Posted

    Hi everyone, 

    just wanted to provide an update. I completely forgot I had opened an account here. 

    I wanted to to let you know what worked for me. I just turned 24 recently and around February this year I stopped consuming medicines and decided to do something completely different. Bear in mind that my condition was the same in February and I had seen 4 different specialists and consumed the medicines required but no change

    My symptoms were -

    - while sneezing there was intense pain in the sternum

    - while yawning same intense pain in the sternum

    - certain movements and twists and turns I would feel disturbance in the chest

    since may I decided to do some yoga. I am an Indian so yoga is very well known to be an amazing medicine without the side effects of drugs we consume. I swear on everyone I have ever loved that within 1 week my above symptoms noticeably disappeared. I could move, lift weights, sneeze and no pain, yawn and no pain and stretch my body.

    the yoga I did was just 3 days a week for 1 hour each day. There was some mantras, meditations and then yoga poses. Then a flare up occurred after 3 months in May of this year while I started my yoga for that day. I did not panic and rather finished my session and rested for 1 and a half day. After that it disappeared again. Another flare up occurred a few months later and then subsided again in a day.

    I am happy to say that I am almost 90% healed from that wretched condition. The minor 10% is something that I feel internally but does not bother me at all.

    I wanted to let you know my story since I want you to attempt to try yoga if possible and stop all medicines. They seldom work for this condition. Maybe you might find the right doctor but not in my case. Yoga helped me in reducing the painful symptoms by 90% in 1 WEEK.i wasted atleast 2 yrs and 10 months on medicines and yoga helped me in 1 week. 

    Please give it it a shot guys. You have nothing to lose. I wish you the very best and hope you find relief the way I did. 

    HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS

    • Ranger507
      Ranger507 manishc4

      Posted

      Glad to hear , yeah mines is gradually going down, I feel like I'm on a knife edge though one wrong move and I'm done for lol the feelings it brings are horrible! Anxiety is through the roof with thissad but ill just keep resting and hopefully it goes away
  • CharRiv
    CharRiv manishc4

    Posted

    I recently started having flare-ups all in my right chest, as well as having pains in different joints. As soon as i started taking a vitamin supplement containing Glucosamine, Condroitin, Vitamin C, and Magnesium, within in about a day I noticed the pains significantly drop. I also wasn't eating properly before the flare-ups started so most likely I'm deficient in different vitamins as well.
  • david19812
    david19812 manishc4

    Posted

    I have had this for 2 years got it when i was 28. I serv the mltry as a submariner and now am unable to work or even do the basic chores around the house. The pain gets so bad i claps to the floor. I am on anti depression pills and many pain relife drugs buy foind little help with any of it. Still doing manybtest. It has caused my heaetbto inflam in some cases as well had to be treated at hospiyal manybtimes. I have come to terms with mybcondition and still try to be active as much as possible. Its a hard thing to live with it pays its tole on you mentily. But i find it helps to know that im not the only one with this condition. Its sad to hear that ppl go threw this as well but its good to hear that we are not alone. The doctors say this is most lickly for life and to plane myblife around it. I will be released soon from the mltry and inthink its good to build a support systm to help eachother out.
    • dawn68509
      dawn68509 david19812

      Posted

      Hi David just wanted to let you know my paid I had for 2 year solid was entirely down to food which was soya I had changed to soya milk in Jan 15 and it started 3 weeks later I never ever would of thought this kind of pain could be caused by this I suffered 2 years went to hospital emergency 4 times in a year asked my husband to section me so at least they'd find out what was wrong I cried daily the pain was unreal yet I stopped soya and after a week started getting pain free days a couple of weeks later it was gone and has never come bk please look after everything you eat and drink as you would never think a soya drink I had in my tea 4 times a day could cause this much pain

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