Ribs back pain (costochondritis)

[Happy Lizard]

Hello,

I posted here about a week ago about my condition, but the post got deleted with the recent forum crash.

In brief, I have pain in the top left rib and back pain on the relatively the same spot.

It stared a year ago. Was very severe. It started as twitching that i’d feel around the left breast. couldn’t walk, and my shoulders were tight and lifted up the whole time. Every movement was causing my ribs to pop followed by inflammation like pain and twitching.  
nothing was giving my any relief including siting and lying down. It’s now better after many months of stretching and releasing muscles around the spine.

 

however the irritation is still present , I still can’t lift my left arm or move it around without occasionally popping my rib.
 

I’m curious If anyone have had this before ?

I’ll update this thread with more information, but feel free to ask anything.

Thanks.

[Michael569]

Hey @Happy Lizard ,

How long has it been going on? Have you had any medical assessments? Any blood tests? MRI or scans of the rib cage? 

Any leads to what could have beem a contributing factors?

 

[Happy Lizard]

@Michael569

I’ve had this for about a year now. I saw two doctors, one had no idea what it was, did blood test and a CT scan, which showed no signs of autoimmune disease or damage to internal organs.

the second doctor was able to diagnose me with costochondritis right of the first visit. Which was very helpful, I looked it up online and found some stretching exercises that helped me a lot. 

I’m seeing a rheumatologist now. He believes that one rib possibly has calcification on it. And i’ll be getting an x-ray soon to confirm. 

I think main reason could be that I over exercised during covid. Did lots of breathing exercises, WHM, running and yoga which possibly either caused an injury to the rib, or exasperated an existing one due to siting in front of a monitor for too long (I’m CS student)

[Michael569]

@Happy Lizard What you can try is see if you can get your hands on a Chinese remedy called Yunnan Baiyao, it should be a topical ointment. It may be pretty difficult to get it but if you have ones of these Chinese medicine shops near you worth checking in. Or really just some sort of inflammation-relieving herbal remedy. 

Acupuncture or some sort of manual heat therapy could be effective here as well. Possibly sauna as well, who knows. Other than that try making your diet as an anti-inflammatory as you can. I'd do everything possible before being put on some sort of medical anti-inflammatories like NSAIDs, that stuff ain't good to be taken long term. 

Good luck ! drop me a line if you have any questions 

[Happy Lizard]

@Michael569 thank you I'll try to find this medicine.

I'm basically sold on the idea that anti-inflammatory drugs are bad, and such conditions need physical care or adjustment. I'll be updating this theard with what I've tried, what worked and didn't. This condition is really bad and a lot of people are susceptible of getting it because of bad posture, I-hunch and sitting for long hours infant of a computer. 

[RobertZ]

I'm sorry to hear about you excruciating back pain--not being able to move around without causing injury sounds horrible. I had some upper rib pain before, and I could hardly breathe. Don't lose hope!!!

1. I concur with Michael569 on the Topical Chinese medicine. When I had severe upper rib back pain, I splurged on an expensive bottle of ointment at a medicine store in my local China Town, and that medicine gave me significant relief. 

I don't know much about bone calcification, but good luck with your scans!

2. I had an intense lower back pain that almost debilitated me for 6 months, and hurt badly for 8 months. This lower back pain is likely irrelevant to your upper rib pain except that the resolution of my pain demonstrates a counterintuitive phenomenon in the world of pain: referred pain. In my case, my 8 months of shooting lower-back pain disappeared all in one day! I found out that my shooting lower-back pain might be referred pain from medial glute atrophy. I did some strengthening exercises for my medial glute--no joke, the back pain disappeared immediately, after 8 months continuous pain. Referred pain might be irrelevant to your upper rib. Still, the possibility deserves mention, because an obstacle to resolving referred pain is not obvious.*

3. For the more exploratory type of person, multiple sources indicate that two peptides, in particular, are excellent for healing many kinds of injuries (if the back pain is from an injury):

 - BPC157 (injected near or in the injury area), and

 - TB500 (inject anywhere, even subcutaneously in fat).

Note that although TB500 is an anti-inflammatory, it purportedly does not interfere with some important inflammatory processes involved in healing (unlike NSAIDs).

4. Finally, I hesitate to mention Nandrolone because taking Nandrolone is a serious decision. However, back pain is also a serious matter for some people.

Nandrolone is a much-loved** and much-hated*** male sex hormone created, I understand, from a female sex hormone.

Disclaimer: Understand possible genital changes, possible changes in sexual function, and the the likely requirement of injecting sex hormones for the rest of your life, if you take Nandrolone even once. These are just some of the things to consider with Nandrolone--so research Nandrolone well before even thinking about trying it.

Despite its minimal joint healing properties, many people find that Nandrolone significantly reduces or eliminates all kinds of joint pains, both in the short and long-term. For example, cracking arthritic joints are filled with a watery cushion, and can often feel like powerful rubber bands, free of pain and dysfunction. 

----

* Tunnel carpel pain in the wrists from the back of the shoulders is another common example of referred pain.

** For example, Dr Edward Lichton prescribes Nandrolone for severe Chrones disease patients (e.g., post bowel-removal), and studies often miraculous recoveries at a molecular level, at a lab in Ontario, Canada. 

*** Note that, in some countries, it is a criminal offence to possess Nandrolone for personal use (not Canada). So, not only do some people personally dislike Nandrolone, but some governmental executives literally hunt people down and lock them in prison for having this stuff.

[Happy Lizard]

@RobertZ thanks for your reply, and sorry that you had to go through such pain. 
 

I’ve been seeing some good results the past two days. I guess I should’ve not given up on stretching so fast.

[Happy Lizard]

Costochondiritis can be very hard for physicians to diagnosed.Most doctors have no knowledge on the true cause of it and therefor fail heal it.
it can become the future's epidemic, simply because it accumulates over time and is directly related to sitting in front of a monitor for too long or using a mobile phone with bad head and arm position (I-hunch).

Speaking from a personal experience it's terrible! and very few resources exist on how to treat it properly. it can be a pain in the butt if you have it and don't know what has happened to you. it really deserves learning about.

Best resource for costochodritis that I've found: 
 

 

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/costochondritis/


hope this helps whoever gets this ?

Edited November 20, 2021 by Happy Lizard