Costochondritis pain remedies (sternum, doctor, recover, vitamins)

[sunsky80]

I just wanted to share couple of things that helped with my costochondritis pain. I have suffered from the pain for at least 1 year now and know how it feels so just sharing what has helped me. I have not fully recovered yet but the pain on the left side has definitely been reduced.
Just fyi. I am not a doctor or from medical field but wanted to share this as it might help someone who is suffering from Costochondritis pain.

I started taking these couple of months back and it has helped with the pain:

Vitamin D supplement
Multi Vitamins
Calcium and Magnesium supplements

This is the schedule I follow when taking these supplements:

Monday, I take Calcium and Magnesium
Tuesday, I take Vitamin D
Wed, I take multivitamin
and then Thursday I go back to Calcium and Magnesium, Friday Vitamin D and Saturday multivitamin.

So I don't take all the supplements on the same day. Sunday I don't take anything.

Also I sleep on floor. I have carpet in my room but I do put a blanket on the carpet and then sleep on it. I have been doing that for couple of months now.

Another thing you could try is when going to sleep, tell yourself that pain has gone. Close your eyes, focus on the pain area, ribs on the left and tell yourself that your ribs and sternum has been healed. Tell yourself that your cells have been repaired and the pain is gone now. I know to some this might sound ridiculous but give it a try for few days and see what happens.

Try it these things for few months and see if it helps you with the pain. Obviously results won't be instantaneous so please have patience and faith and god will heal you.

[tgbwc]

I came upon this thread in a search. Thanks for posting. I think what is bothering me is costochondritis. I'm thinking I will email my doctor since she has not identified it as such. My symptoms do seem to fit the bill.

Last March I had weeks of a deep, dry, croupy cough. It made my chest sore and I eventually became very congested. You could hear the crackling in both lungs. I went to the doctor and she gave me a breathing treatment. Had some inhalers to use at home and the congestion went away, but about a week later I noticed a soreness in my chest just left of my midline. It was as though I had been hit in the chest with a golf ball, but would only truly "hurt" when I sneezed. It was at its worst through May/June. I went to the doctor about the soreness and she said I may have pulled something and to give it a while. I went back during the summer and she said I was still within the healing window. By August it had improved, but now it seems to have leveled off. It has not worsened. I can feel it (a bit sharp) if I press slightly with a fingertip and occasionally with certain movements (pushing down with the left arm, pulling on a sock, turning the head when backing out of the driveway) it is slightly sore. It can still hurt a bit (like a burn you get when you pull a hamstring) when I sneeze. My doctor is concerned that it has not gone away in 8 months and sent me for an MRI, which showed nothing. I read that an MRI won't necessarily show it. She said the MRI was reassuring, but is now sending me for a CT scan of the pancreas. I really do think it sounds like costochondritis.

[boomer76]

Thanks for posting this thread. I have been diagnosed with costochondritis recently as well. I think there is a 3-pillar approach you can take to treatment:

1) Stretching and Yoga, try using a device like the Backpod
2) Pain medication - naproxen and tylenol
3) Hot/cold therapy - use ice packs and hot packs, heating blankets, etc.

It is important to have your doc run the requisite scans though because costochondritis can masquerade as other much more serious conditions like PMBCL (chest cancer, rare)