My Costo and Tietze symptoms

I have alot of the same symptoms and also have ear and jaw pain in my right side. I was also dizzy and felt disoriented at its worst, been threw all the testing for heart and found that rest and going to the cranial therapist helped I know the inflammation is still there and have still had a few spikes in heart rate and BP but going way better just about back to my full work again. I feel from what I ve experienced and and what I've read on here is this is a condition that's going to come and go with stress etc so good luck to everyone that is dealing with this and enjoy our good days

Was hoping I could get some answers as to whether this is going to be an ongoing thing for me. Last year I had really bad chest pain that spread to my right arm, went to the doctor and he right away said it was probably Costo/Tietze but I’ve read online that they are different? Anyway the pain went away after a few weeks and ibuprofen like he said it would but now I’m feeling similar(not as bad) tightness in my chest and pain in the left arm this time. I’m 23 and while I used to be more active before my first bout of this, I’m still healthy and get sufficient exercise. I remember when I was 17 getting a really bad pain on the side of my chest under my right breast but my mother, an RN, told me it could be a pleurisy and to lay off the smoking. I did, it went away and no real concerning chest pains until last year. I still smoke here and there but not nearly as much and am wondering if this could be a trigger? Or if I should head back to the doc and have further tests done. I see some people have had heart palpitations which I sometimes get too but never accompanied w this pain and just chucked it up the being born w an abnormal heart beat. Should I be keeping more an eye on this?

I can totally relate to almost every one of your symptoms. Mine started after having my second baby. I got up to feed her in the middle of the night and thought I was having a heart attack.   After that I had a few other’s initially and to date it has been a year without any major flare ups! I am able to live a normal life in every way except I cannot sleep on my sides.

Anyway...  I spent hours surfing he web for ways to cure this awful condition. In the past year I have found stretching, working out to strengthen the muscles around the area, keeping hydrated, occasional chiropractor and keeping my essential oils on hand have been the key to maintaining comfort for me. I cannot even tell you what a difference the essential oils have made. They work so fast, so I don’t have to use them daily but whenever I feel even the slightest tightness or hint of a flare up coming I immediately put Cypress essential oil on my chest and layer with Deep Blue Rub from Doterra. 

Moderator comment: I have removed the link(s) directing to site(s) unsuitable for inclusion in the forums. If users want this information please use the Private Message service to request the details.

Hi there

Have been using BackPOD since December stay persistent with it and you'll see results. Steve August is also very helpful.

Best

Hello Nick and others, This is my first time on this discussion and I just had to send you somethings that have helped me over years, yes I'm sorry to say I have had this condition for over 10 years but please read on as I'd like to share some of the things that have really helped me and the signs I recognise so I can act quickly and get it under control so it doesn't get really bad. 

None of this is medical its just what works for me. just like you guys my first experience of the pain was unbearable, I felt like I had broken all my ribs on my right side and nothing seemed to help. Overtime I was diagnosed with costas. Great got a name but how do I deal with it in a physical job Im 54yrs now and at times its stopped me doing some of the things I wanted to do.

Overtime and rest it did start to feel better and here's what I did and now do at any signs its inflamed. I get a dull ache in my back, then pain in my sternum moving to my ribs on my right side, but now I know the signs I acted quickly.

I wear a wrap around back brace day and night, take ibuprofen for anti-inflammatory only about 3 a day as I've heard there not good on your tummy and 8 paracetamol spaced out over 24 hours and voltarol massaged in my sternum morning and night laying on the bed to get it rubbed in as close as I can to the area of pain I also support my ribs while in bed with a cushion, it sounds a lot but I only do this for 3-4 days and every day it gets better. If I don't treat myself like this it gets really bad, this works for me but of course I'm not a doctor and I'm not recommending it to anyone but I hope it gives you some ideas and you find some relief as I feel your pain.

I’ve been on google looking up everything about chest swelling and chest pains tonight, and I stumbled onto this (I have been making myself crazy thinking I have some kind of chondrosarcoma or something).

Anyway. I’m 31, male. About six months ago I began feeling dull chest pains (but stabbing in nature, namely very specific/localized pains, intermittent in nature as if being stabbed in a sense), right in the middle of my chest, but they quickly began to affect the left side of my sternum and the nearby rib cartilage most of the time. Over the next month to two months, the pain gradually became more noticeable, more common, and more severe. It had a wider area of effect as well, although it mostly stayed on that left side of the sternum (also felt aching in my armpits). I didn’t think I was having heart issues, but I went to the ER when I realized it was not getting better.

At the time, I had no idea if this was my ribs or something deeper inside. I suppose I wasn’t much help for the doctor in determining my issue, in that light. Either way, I was diagnosed with “atypical chest pain”. My EKG/ECG, blood work and X ray we’re normal. Great, no answer and no help.

As time went on (it has been 4 months since the visit which was on Jan 30, and about six or so months since it began), it got worse. I began to not only have pain which was on and off, but I started to get a feeling of pressure and tightness in my ribs (this was clearly a rib issue, I realized at some point). The pain was not constant, I’d have good days. However the pressure sensation was almost always there, unrelenting, and on the worst days I would get a fluttering feeling in my chest along with the pain, which basically happens on my entire chest (I’ve had palpitations, however I can’t be sure if this was the cause, as I’ve had them, very rarely, before this started). I have days with pain, which are usually followed by days of unrelenting pressure and tightness.

Well I still have no answers, except now I have swelling as well. Oddly the swelling is on my right side, not the left where the pain began and where it was for most of this time period overall (that side doesn’t bother me much now).

I think it is my third rib (I’m unsure of my ability to count ribs). I have a noticeable lump that I can feel by touching of course, but also I can feel it in terms of pain. It feels just like the rest of my pain, but at times I can really notice that lump is hurting or sore. It’s not  huge, but it’s certainly there. It started only a week or two ago, or at least that’s when I noticed it. It is 2-3 inches (1 inch = 2.54 cm) horizontally and about an inch vertically in dimension (thicker than my ribs normally are), but the middle is a defined lump that is fairly hard. When it was very swollen, it felt like a lump with a hill or mound type of contour. Tonight it feels more like an abrupt round-ish lump, after the swelling went down a bit. It seems to change in size/swelling, at least over the last couple days, ibuprofen seems to help to a degree, and simply having a “good day” (last night it felt smaller for example, like it was getting better. and this week was a great week where I had several days of feeling fairly normal, although it flared up again today).

Around the time I noticed the lump, I also had a morning where I woke up with pain upon breathing deeply. This had not happened in the previous six or so months. However this went away. It only happened on one day, and hasn’t happened since. It was odd. It felt like my chest was healing. It’s hard to explain but you know when you have an injury that is healing and it has a certain kind of soreness? It felt like that. But it got worse again today so, yeah.

Anyway, I’m sure I’m forgetting something. Sorry I have no answers for you, but it helps to hear similar stories for me, so I figured I’d share this. I know it helped me mentally to see your post, knowing I’m not alone. This is the first post I saw. Hopefully I’m not breaking any forum rules. Good luck and keep us posted.