Rib pain and tenderness? What is wrong with me?:(

[Mom514]

So I have rib pain that comes and goes and sometimes it feels like I have a tight band going around rib cage. Some days (like today) it actually hurts to move and it hurts to touch my ribs on both sides. I also feel little popping sensations if I go to lay on my side. Anyone else had this and know what it is? My dr mentioned costochondritis? Or is it fibro? I've had this discomfort for over a year now since having my daughter. I've had a couple X-rays, ultrasounds, a ct, and lung test that were fine. I feel so discouraged because the pain and discomfort are very real and still there! Any suggestions? Thanks:)

[BellaLuna]

I have had the same exact pain...it got so bad once I went to the ER! Turned out to be costochondritis. They ran all sorts of tests on me also, and I have to admit I also did not believe the diagnosis at first. As time went on, and as the pain would come and go, I started losing my fear of it. I just accept the fact that I am prone to this inflammation in my rib area and try to be extra nice to myself during a flare up. Drinking calming teas, heating pads, and even a relaxing bath helps a bit. I know it is a horrible feeling, especially the tight feeling that makes it feel like it's hard to take in a deep breath. I hope you find some relief soon! Take care. :)

~BellaLuna

[hizzy]

hi, i've had this too off and on for the past 6 months, and in fact i've been experiencing it for the past 2 weeks or so.  my pain is usually near the bottom of my ribs and extends to the muscles under my arms (latissimus dorsi, i believe, if my high school anatomy knowledge is still intact!)...sometimes it extends up to the center of my chest, or up one side to just under my collar bone.  it's very tender to touch if i press on the muscles, and i haven't done anything to exert myself that would cause muscle pain of this degree.  i heard from a friend who received the dx of costochondritis at the ER that tenderness when you press along your sternum is a tell-tale sign....and costochondritis can happen with fibromyalgia according to my aunt who has a very severe case of fibro.  i haven't been dx with fibromyalgia, but i'm starting to suspect it since i've had lots of unusual joint and muscle pain for almost a year...rheumatologist tested me in january for everything else, and it was all negative, but only gave me a dx of vitamin D deficiency and sent me back to my internist.  my vitamin D was very low, but i've taken supplements and it is now in the normal range.  maybe ask your doctor to check your vitamin D level if you haven't already, especially if you live in a northern area and don't get enough sun...vitamin D deficiency can cause muscle and joint pain, and it's easily corrected with supplements.  don't just take supplements without having your level checked, though, because vitamin D can reach a toxic level in your body.  it must be monitored regularly.  feel better!!

[Mom514]

Thanks! I've actually been taking vitamin d3 2000 for over two months now. It's supposed to be 30-100 and mine was 19. Just got it rechecked last week and it was up to 26. So still taking it. My pcp did tons of bloodwork also checking for arthritis etc and everything was neg except for low vit d. I've been considering finding a rheumatologist to see if I fit criteria for fibro. Im sorry to hear you have this pain too and hope you feel better!

[hizzy]

Thanks! I've actually been taking vitamin d3 2000 for over two months now. It's supposed to be 30-100 and mine was 19. Just got it rechecked last week and it was up to 26. So still taking it. My pcp did tons of bloodwork also checking for arthritis etc and everything was neg except for low vit d. I've been considering finding a rheumatologist to see if I fit criteria for fibro. Im sorry to hear you have this pain too and hope you feel better!

wow, our vitamin D levels sound exactly alike!  i started at 19, went up to 26 after a few months, and after 6 months, i'm now up to 40.  my internist said vitamin D deficiency takes time to recover from, so hopefully soon we'll both feel a lot better.  i've been told to take 1000 IU daily now that i'm in the normal range.  glad your doc checked that because low vitamin D can go hand-in-hand with fibromyalgia and autoimmune disorders.

[Mom514]

Haha wow! Separated at birth? I'm glad yours is good now. Hopefully mine will continue to be like yours!:)

[RainyNY]

I have been diagnosed with costochronditis also, but I feel it on my sternum and the bones above my breasts.  It's painful to touch, move, and sometimes just aches.  I also get a popping or cracking when I move.  A couple of months ago I had similar pain on the bottom of the sides of my ribs but it went away.

[NeverAgain1]

I had the same thing.  You can call it costochronditis or a "symptom" of Fibro, but what this is is *Please read carefully* real pain and physiological changes caused by an accumulation of stress and anxiety, which perpetuates itself two ways: by fear of the symptoms and by decrease in movement.  I am not saying the pain is not real, that it is "all in your heads", but the only successful way to rid yourself of this horrible symptom -- and Fibro as well-- is to understand that the causes are not some physical pathogen or imbalance in the muscular system. 

The "cure" takes work.  It takes skilled relaxation (meditation, prayer, acceptance) and not fighting or straining against the pain or the tight muscles.  It takes a gradual return to activity as pain level permits, and most of all, you must realize that this is not a "disease" but the result of chronic stress and anxiety, which has to be understood and controlled. 

If you are in a bad state, medication may help, something to settle you down and give temporary relief from the symptoms.  Then you must do the mental work.

My torso was once so "torqued" that a massage therapist I went to (which provided no relief) had seen nothing like it.  My ribs actually dislocated from the tension and muscular pull.   If you want to real life ideas on how people understood, dealt with, and cured their costo, I suggest googling Dr. Walt Stoll and looking up the subject. 

Knowledge, ultimately, is the cure.

[msgb98]

I am having this right now. It hurts tremendously.
I have gone to the doctor on a number of times each thinking that there is something seriously wrong.
I think in my case it has to do with stress. I know it has to do with stress. I am constantly stressed out.
My mother I think has something similar yet she has reason because in the last year she had had 2- 14 hour open heart surgeries.
I have had fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue for over 20 years and this has been a constant in my life for the last year.

[NeverAgain1]

I am having this right now. It hurts tremendously.
I have gone to the doctor on a number of times each thinking that there is something seriously wrong.
I think in my case it has to do with stress. I know it has to do with stress. I am constantly stressed out.
My mother I think has something similar yet she has reason because in the last year she had had 2- 14 hour open heart surgeries.
I have had fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue for over 20 years and this has been a constant in my life for the last year.

Mine came on with caring for about six years all together for a sick relative (not even a parent), with whom I had major resentment.  It started as a "discomfort" and blossomed into incredible, horrible pain that nothing helped.  Oddly enough, this relative had something similar but not quite so bad, and my mother had contorted muscles in her back after surgeries.  It may be a family congenital weakness.  The only way to "cure" it all is to learn new coping methods, to consciously practice relaxation or meditation, and to find out how to change your thought patterns.  Fibro and CFS have been with the human population since the beginning of time, and have gone under different names since then.  Fibromyalgia used to be Fibrosis, for example, until maybe thirty years ago.  No pathogen or cause has ever been found for either, and the rib pain is just more inward tension turned outward.  It is not a mental illness, and *read carefully* the pain and fatigue are real, but are caused by your build up of stress and anxiety, things you are aware of and things that might be lurking in your unconscious.  The good news is that you can find help and help yourself.

Try to seek out help. If you need a some medication to calm yourself down, take it.  Forget the stiff upper lip stuff.  But the med is not a cure and finding the mental process to work through it all is.

[msgb98]

Thank you for the help Never again.
I appreciate it.
I distribute my stress in so many ways and I manifest it in many different ways too.
I have sort of learned that if I am not going out and it is winter (like now) then I might go about my day without a bra as that usually constricts the ribs. I wear a turtleneck and a sweater and no one is the wiser. Just me so that I am not in discomfort. If I go out I will put one on.

[NeverAgain1]

Thank you for the help Never again.
I appreciate it.
I distribute my stress in so many ways and I manifest it in many different ways too.
I have sort of learned that if I am not going out and it is winter (like now) then I might go about my day without a bra as that usually constricts the ribs. I wear a turtleneck and a sweater and no one is the wiser. Just me so that I am not in discomfort. If I go out I will put one on.

You need to do what you have to to make yourself as comfortable as possible.  But who wants to live like this forever, and you don't have to. Study what anxiety does to your body, then resolve to relieve it.  May I suggest "Get out of your Mind and into Your Life," by Steven C. Hayes?  It is not about pain per se, though it is covered, but about cognitive behavioral therapy, but advanced, and with science applied. It is known as ACT, and there is a general website about it.  You can google Hayes and/or ACT and you will find it.  It is good for understanding how the mind works, but if there is an underlying emotional problem -- troubled relationship, sexual abuse, etc.-- that has to be understood as well and expressed and joined with behavioral therapy.

You will get there.  Anxiety does not have to be an endless malady.

[Turner1298]

I was diagnosed yesterday with Fibro. It was the rib pain that sent me to the Dr. It hurt from my sternum all the way around and down in back. It hurt to even wear a bra. I am starting PT tomorrow. Hope it helps. Tried Cymbalta and it helped with the pain but way too many side effects. Infact that's when the rib pain hit was coming off the Cymbalta.

My biggest worrie with Fibro are 1) With all the pain how will we ever know if something serious is going on? and 2) How bad is it going to get? Cause it hasn't gone away and has only gotten worse. I'm a nurse and have three kids with a very active life. There are days whe I'm so tired I can't seem to move!

[NeverAgain1]

I was diagnosed yesterday with Fibro. It was the rib pain that sent me to the Dr. It hurt from my sternum all the way around and down in back. It hurt to even wear a bra. I am starting PT tomorrow. Hope it helps. Tried Cymbalta and it helped with the pain but way too many side effects. Infact that's when the rib pain hit was coming off the Cymbalta.

My biggest worrie with Fibro are 1) With all the pain how will we ever know if something serious is going on? and 2) How bad is it going to get? Cause it hasn't gone away and has only gotten worse. I'm a nurse and have three kids with a very active life. There are days whe I'm so tired I can't seem to move!

Dear Turner1298,

Please go back and read my past posts on rib pain.  I also want you to know that Fibro is a diagnosis of exclusion, a catch-all when doctors cannot find anything wrong.  There is no known pathogen for Fibro, nor any structural cause.  This is a growing realization of many medical providers.  So what does this mean?  It means that YOU HAVE REAL PAIN from biological and physiological changes to your central nervous system.  How does that happen?  It happens on two levels: one is due to a life of reacting badly to stressful situations (not your fault; it's hardwired into some of us); the second level happens when daily stresses re-enforce our poor reactions to stress. Muscles, nerves, tendons and ligaments all are effected. 

I can suggest two things.  One is to read a book by a female doctor who had Fibro and recovered, and google a forum called TMShelp.  This forum is dedicated to psychogenic caused physical problems.  Again, the pain is real, but the cause lies with our behavior.  I have been where you have been, and it started with rib pain and ended with my torso being so torqued that my ribs kept popping out of place. 

It may be harder for your to accept psychogenic causes for illness because you are a medical practitioner.  Or it may be easier, because you have an understanding of anatomy.  When you get to the TMSforum, read "Ace1's "Keys to Healing".  He was a doctor crippled by pain. He does not treat people for fibro, but is a doctor of oncology and blood diseases, I believe.  You will find his and "Hillbilly's" and "Balto's" posts informative and instructive, too.

The book is, "Freedom From Fibromyalgia", by Nancy Selfridge MD. 

I too  was on Cymbalta, because my pain was thought to be neurological in origin.  It did nothing to reduce the pain.  The only thing that helped was Ativan, which clued me into more so to the psychogenic origin of the problem.

I had to review my life, practice skilled relaxation, adjust my thinking and do my best to resume normal living.

I might also suggest a book by Steven C. Hayes, called, "Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life".  The book is about behavior modification, "ACT": "Act Commitment Therapy".

You can try PT, but you have to ask yourself about the proper dx.  If there is no pathogen or structural cause to Fibro, what good will PT do?  Normal exercise and losing the fear of the pain is the key. 

You will get there.   You should look into this option sooner rather than later, because the longer you fear goes on the worse the symptoms will get, and I can assure you -- if you have had a complete workup-- that with three young kids and a highly stressful job and other normal concerns of living, you are dealing with the results of chronic anxiety and unconscious problems finally manifesting with physical distress.  You have the mother of all tension headaches, only your head is your rib. 

Feel free to PM me if you want further info.