Any Dr's in the house? Costochondritis

[Nooch]

So I woke up this morning with chest pain, back pain, some neck pain, and general discomfort in breathing. No shortness of breath or anything, but it hurt. Took the morning off from work and headed to the doctor, where the Nurse Practitioner diagnosed it as Costochondritis, an inflammation of the rib lining.

Was prescribed antibiotics as she said that an infection usually causes it, and I have had a cough for about six weeks or so, shortly after my Jaw surgery, so it makes sense. But what else could cause this, and how long do you think I have to deal with it?

The symptoms say the chest pain is akin to the feeling of having a heart attack... It's not fun :crap:

And while she says I'm still okay to ride and race, should I be concerned?

[2LeftCleats]

Hard to say without seeing you.

Costochondritis typically is not infectious as far as I'm aware but is an inflammation of the ribs, commonly where they meet the breast bone or along the bottom margins of the rib cage. The nurse practitioner may be describing pleurisy, an inflammation of the lining of the lung. The two types of pain can be very similar and often are severe though not serious. No specific treatment other than anti-inflammatory medications and patience. Assuming one or the other of these is actually the cause, they really should not impact riding ability although strenuous riding and deep breathing may be painful. So use common sense.

[Nooch]

Gotta love 'severe, but not serious' pain :)

She listened to my lungs and pressed between my ribs up around my chest, and judged my pain my the involuntary grimmace across my face...

Prescribed Doxycycline twice a day for 10 days and 2 advil every 6 hours... we'll see. I just want to make it thru my TT on Saturday, it's only 7 miles...

[2LeftCleats]

Wasn't as precise as I could have been. "Serious" referred to pain of a serious nature--cardiac, pulmonary embolus, etc--not to the intensity.

[Nooch]

no, no, I understood what ya meant.

I just thought it was amusing :)

[dekindy]

I had inflamed cartliage that hurt my chest so much when I breathed that it brought me to tears. This was about 10 years ago so I am going by memory. If I remember correctly, the doctor explained that a piece of cartliage runs from the bottom of the rib cage connecting somewhere in the upper chest and the path runs right over the heart. The inflamation might have been caused by stress. He prescribed medication since I thought it would be really expensive I did not have the prescription filled immediately. OTC pain killers barely dulled the pain so I had the prescription filled and found that it cost virtually nothing. One pill gave immedate relief taking away 80% of the pain. The second pill eliminated the pain and it has never returned.

[Bud]

I was diagnosed with costochondritis about 16 months ago. It hurt like hell. As you said, like a heart attack (or what I would guess a heart attack might feel like). It went away with time, and I was prescribed a lot of anti-inflammatory meds.

Fast forward to my recent visit to the doc re: vasovagal syncope. Unrelated to that, the nurse practitioner heard "something interesting" when listening to my heart. She posited that it might be pericarditis. The ultrasound was clean (no inflammation of the pericardium), and another doc thought the sound may be more related to my pleural functioning rather than cardiac. The associated pain (though minor at that time) was kind of similar to the "costochondritis pain" from before. So based on this, I'm not sure if I really did have costochondritis or pleurisy. As 2leftcleats stated, they are similar in symptoms (according to my understanding). Anyway, the pain eventually went away again.

So I'm not really sure what the cause of either of these episodes was, but none of the docs seemed too concerned and the pain eventually went away.