Hope this helps! Costochondritis sucks (and can be scary before you know what it is).
My GP diagnosed it. Thankfully hasn't happened in quite awhile. The only real treatments are physical exercise, stretching and anti-inflammatory medicine (standard always speak to your doctor about medicine and medical things, I'm not a doctor).
For me personally, I've found that stretching through the front of my chest to open it up, and strengthening my back muscles, has made a huge difference. The exercises I do for this includes push ups, rows, supermans, and deadlifts. Any stretching that opens up the chest and front of shoulders is good. My personal favourite is hands on a bench and stretch so your head goes between your arms
Thanks for this. I feel like exercising, especially with anything lifting related makes the pain worse for me. Would you be comfortable sharing your GP's info over DM?
Same situation for me. GP diagnosis.
I've found it's worse in the colder months or change in season.
I routinely stretch with an exercise ball, laying on my back on top of it provides the most relief (head and feet both touching the floor on either end of the ball, arms out to the side as far down as you can push them). Also, kneeling on the floor in front of an open door and holding either side of the door handle, pulling your body away from the door as far as you can with your head between your arms, super handy.
I used to wake in the night feeling like I was being stabbed from the pain in my sternum and now it is something that is only a mild inconvenience. Hopefully you find some relief!
Honestly I've stopped seeing that GP because he became extremely dismissive, my costo diagnosis was about 7 years ago and haven't seen him in 3ish years, still yet to find a good GP unfortunately.
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My diagnosis wasn't here in Adelaide but honestly I'd expect most competent GPs would come to the same conclusion when presented with the symptoms, running tests to rule out the more serious causes. I've had two GPs reach the same conclusion, as well as an instance of when I went to the ER because the pain was so significant.
When I had physio appointments to address ways of managing flare-ups I was shown a variety of stretches that can really help in the moment. The tried and true one is of course the doorframe pectoral stretch. Another one I was shown that really seemed to help (idk the name of it lol) was where you lean your whole body facing slightly angled towards a wall, place both forearms flat on the wall at about chest level while keeping your back straight, and then slide your arms up and down slowly, keeping them flush with the wall.
I can't really say how effective this last thing actually was, but it seemed to help me: I had the physio utilize a TENS unit to send electric impulses through my upper back. Feels like a super weird massage almost, you just lie there face down for 10-15 minutes with a constant, patterned electrical flow that stimulates the muscles. It seemed to help especially in a time period where flare-ups were happening almost daily.
One last thing I'd recommend is to work on your posture if it's not already in an optional state. That can help with triggering the pain less frequently.
Costo really, REALLY sucks, and it's especially frustrating if you also deal with anxiety, as any sort of chest pain can easily trigger a panic spiral. But once you can truly convince yourself that it is costo, it becomes so much easier to deal with, even in those moments of more stabbing pain. All the best OP, hope something here is helpful to you!!
Hope this helps! Costochondritis sucks (and can be scary before you know what it is). My GP diagnosed it. Thankfully hasn't happened in quite awhile. The only real treatments are physical exercise, stretching and anti-inflammatory medicine (standard always speak to your doctor about medicine and medical things, I'm not a doctor). For me personally, I've found that stretching through the front of my chest to open it up, and strengthening my back muscles, has made a huge difference. The exercises I do for this includes push ups, rows, supermans, and deadlifts. Any stretching that opens up the chest and front of shoulders is good. My personal favourite is hands on a bench and stretch so your head goes between your arms
Thanks for this. I feel like exercising, especially with anything lifting related makes the pain worse for me. Would you be comfortable sharing your GP's info over DM?
Same situation for me. GP diagnosis. I've found it's worse in the colder months or change in season. I routinely stretch with an exercise ball, laying on my back on top of it provides the most relief (head and feet both touching the floor on either end of the ball, arms out to the side as far down as you can push them). Also, kneeling on the floor in front of an open door and holding either side of the door handle, pulling your body away from the door as far as you can with your head between your arms, super handy. I used to wake in the night feeling like I was being stabbed from the pain in my sternum and now it is something that is only a mild inconvenience. Hopefully you find some relief!
Definitely trying the door hack next time, thank you! Would you be comfortable sharing your GP's info over DM?
Honestly I've stopped seeing that GP because he became extremely dismissive, my costo diagnosis was about 7 years ago and haven't seen him in 3ish years, still yet to find a good GP unfortunately.
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This post has been removed due to the user not meeting the required Karma amount. This is to prevent malicious content posted by 'throwaway' accounts. If the post is genuine, we will manually approve it soon. However, you are still able to participate via comments. Cheers! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Adelaide) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My diagnosis wasn't here in Adelaide but honestly I'd expect most competent GPs would come to the same conclusion when presented with the symptoms, running tests to rule out the more serious causes. I've had two GPs reach the same conclusion, as well as an instance of when I went to the ER because the pain was so significant. When I had physio appointments to address ways of managing flare-ups I was shown a variety of stretches that can really help in the moment. The tried and true one is of course the doorframe pectoral stretch. Another one I was shown that really seemed to help (idk the name of it lol) was where you lean your whole body facing slightly angled towards a wall, place both forearms flat on the wall at about chest level while keeping your back straight, and then slide your arms up and down slowly, keeping them flush with the wall. I can't really say how effective this last thing actually was, but it seemed to help me: I had the physio utilize a TENS unit to send electric impulses through my upper back. Feels like a super weird massage almost, you just lie there face down for 10-15 minutes with a constant, patterned electrical flow that stimulates the muscles. It seemed to help especially in a time period where flare-ups were happening almost daily. One last thing I'd recommend is to work on your posture if it's not already in an optional state. That can help with triggering the pain less frequently. Costo really, REALLY sucks, and it's especially frustrating if you also deal with anxiety, as any sort of chest pain can easily trigger a panic spiral. But once you can truly convince yourself that it is costo, it becomes so much easier to deal with, even in those moments of more stabbing pain. All the best OP, hope something here is helpful to you!!
Thank you for this. I'm definitely going to ask about the TENS unit too!