Potential costochondritis or something different ?

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Hey all,

Since January i've been suffering with right chest and shoulder pain on a daily basis, and I must say it's getting me quite worried.

I can feel a pressure point in my chest, located around the junction of my 2nd rib and its cartilage. It is also slightly (not sharp at all) tender to touch. I get some other pressure points too, but not necessarily tender to touch and they are not at precise locations. My intercostal muscles also feel quite sore. Most of the time the pain is widespread : I get pain behind my flank under the armpit, dull ache around my clavicle, stabbing pain in my lower ribs or upper ribs from time to time that are increased while breathing deeply, and most importantly fairly important shoulder aches : it feels like my trapeze muscle is constantly sore (often hard and tender to touch) ; some milder upper back pain comes along. Important to notice that usually these pains dont happen all at once : they kind of "rotate" several times a day if i may say. When pressing on my lower back i can locate a few tender points, just at the back of my lower right ribs. Occasionally, i get tingles and slight pain in my arms and fingers but it might be completely unrelated. Symptoms are increased when i sit for long period of times, and decrease when im in bed. Every couple week the pain noticeably subsides, only to come back a few days later. I visited my GP in january who told me that it was pain caused by cramped muscles because of excessive anxiety, and that it would come back to normal shortly. But it didnt.

The pain is never unbearable. Could this be signs of some kind of costochondritis ? Even though i read that the main flag for costo is sharp pain when pressing on sternum, which I dont have. Like most people who get pain that lasts over time, I'm worried I might have cancer, in this case lung cancer given the location (despite being a 21 years old who never smoke and with no other symptom than pain). What do you think ? It really is in my mind all the time at the moment, I rarely even think about something else which of course only make pain worse.

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  • Posted

    Hi sorry to hear that you are suffering with this horrible condition too

    I've had it nearly 4 years and am waiting to see a pain specialist in july

    hope you get some help too

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