Anyone have Costachondritis????

[twanger]

Yes, I have had this off and on for 15 years. It started while I was doing pectoral exercises. Went away for awhile when I stopped and comes back every time I do them, usually a day later. Now I have the pain almost constantly when I push on the area and sometimes it is just there. When I am anxious ( which is 24/7 now) I feel it more. I suppose that I tighten my muscles.

[kentuckywoman]

I was diagnosed in July of this year. My pain started in May, so I got diagnosed fairly quickly. I was given an injection called a chondra block. My Pain Dr. told me I may need another if the first one did not work or if the pain came back. It helped some and I am planning to call for an appointment for the next injection next week. The next injection he said he will do with xray to guide the needle. He said I would not need sedation..wanna bet?? The first one hurt enough and the next one will go deeper. I do not like needles in any circumstances, so that is a big reason for the delay..It is nice to share experiences with others with this condition, but a bit depressing seeing how long some have suffered.

My PM had prescribed Duragesic patches for the pain, but I stopped using them as they made me too drowsy. I did not like not being in control. He then prescribed the awful VIoxx and had taken me off them 2 weeks later as it raised my BP 22 points. That was a month ago, and my BP still is not down to where it was before the Vioxx.

[fadam0023]

I got mine by doing a weight exercise w/out realizing how much weight was on it. But w/ me, I wasn't diagnosed w/ it until 3 years later. When it first happened I didn't really think of it. But a few weeks later it started to really bother me. I went to one doc who thought it was asthma. So we played that game for about 6 or so months. Then I went to another doc who put me through all sorts of tests. He did heart, lung, and gastro tests thinking it was something along those lines. After those tests came out normal, it was about a year later, I just decided just to deal w/ it. The first two years was really bad. I had to sleep on my side. Sometimes it felt like I was being stabbed in the chest. I had a ton of pressure. It was really bad. One day I was at a Patient First for something else and my mom asked a doc there what it could be and he told me it was Costachondritis. It would have been really nice to have had a doc diagnose me w/ this back at the beginning rather than going through all those tests. But it is 11 years later....it really only gets bad when the barometric pressure drops or when I am stressed. But I can now sleep on my back. I think mine wouldn't have been so bad for so long if I was diagnosed w/ it right away instead of 3 years later. I had a feeling from the beginning that it had to do w/ the weight machine but the doc who put me through all the tests said he didn't think that was it. Needless to say I do not go to him anymore. LOL.

[rugrats4]

Could someone please tell me exactly what type of symptoms are associated with this?
I have quite a bit of chest pain, in the middle of my chest pretty much a constant and yes it does hurt to press on it. I also have ribcage pain usually on the left side, occasionally on the right, and i have noticed it is worse when the barometer drops.
Thanks for all your help

[fadam0023]

The symptoms for me was basically just pressure..and alot of it. For awhile the pressure was in my entire chest area. After awhile it started to be more centralized to the left side of my upper chest, kinda near my bra strap. It did, and sometimes still does hurt to press on it. At the beginning again I had mainly pressure but also at times I had stabbing pains on the left side. If you have costachondritis then all you really can do is take ibuprofen(sp??) and wait. It sucks but it is basically an inflammation and inflammations in the rib cage area can take awhile to heal.