HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

costochronditis

Support Forums
>
Rheumatoid Arthritis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 1/8/2009 1:30 PM (GMT -5)
I was diagnosed with costochronditis  which is inflammation of the chest walls and rib cage. I heard this is a form of arthritis . Does anyone know if this is true? I would appreciate any help because I am having severe pain.
Posted 1/8/2009 1:45 PM (GMT -5)

Hi Kara,

I don't have much info, however I have had a few of those episodes and they are so painful! Literally you cannot breath or move because the pain is so intense.  I'm sorry you are having to go through it.  I had mentioned it to my rheumy once and he never called it anything in particular but just said to keep watch on it.  For awhile I was having several in a row, but haven't had the pain in many months.

Posted 1/8/2009 7:03 PM (GMT -5)

Hi Kara,

I battled with this for ten weeks after a bout of pneumonia. So I know your agony. In my case they thought it was pleuracy until my GP saw me and realised it was probably arthritis rearing its ugly head in yet a new location!!!

My rheumy ended up injecting several ribs with cortisone plus put me on 15mg of prednisone per day for a few months, i'm slowly winding back off the pred. Now on 7.5 mg, trouble is I keep flaring with the decrease. I've had bronchitis twice! I'm on humira and mtx as well. Now she has upped my mtx to 15mg per week in the hope of countering going off prednisone. But the long and short of it is, the injections really worked for me. She injected the hot spots, I had lots of general pain and refered pain but the really bruised spots seemed to be the main source.

Another friend found humira worked for her, I had to go off the humira while recovering from pneumonia and had a horrendous flare at that time so whether thats why I got the costichondral pain I don't know but it was agony to breathe and I lived on painkillers, now I'm pretty good rib wise just the odd twinge especially if I'm coughing.

Hope you find some relief soon. 

Posted 1/9/2009 5:41 AM (GMT -5)
I ran out of pain meds and cant see my pain doctor til tuesday. My family dr prescribed me 800 mg of Ibuprofen for it yesterday . He said he doesnt prescribe narcotics so I will have to wait til my pain dr appt on Tuesday and see if he can help me. I am still in a lot of pain . Does anyone have a tips how to deal with the pain.?
Posted 1/9/2009 10:13 AM (GMT -5)

Hi Kara,

Is your pain constant?? or are you having episodes of the pain throughout the day? I'm not sure what to take for it since mine only lasted a few minutes at a time and then was gone.  Could your doctor prescribe a Medrol Pack? Since it is inflammation, that would probably help, but then I'm not a doc :-) Or if you have an urgent care center that sees patients on a walk in basis, perhaps going to one of those might help you to get something to get you through until next Tuesday.

Posted 1/9/2009 2:29 PM (GMT -5)
Im feeling better today but yesterday it was a constant pain and it hurt everytime I took a breath or moved. I also have nasusea from the pain. The hostipal had me on percocet ,phenegran and Ibuprofen. The percocet and phenegran also helped me sleep. I am going to ask my pain doctor if he will put me on percocet and phenegran because it worked quite well.
Posted 1/12/2009 1:13 AM (GMT -5)

Hi Kara,

Prop yourself up at night with pillows, it helped me a lot plus I took codeine phosphate in a prescription dose when I was really bad as I found the opiate drugs like endone too strong for me. I'm not sure if the drugs have the same names in the states or not? Plus hot water bottles help or a heat pack can provide some relief, but as I said before cortisone injections really knocked it out. Heart goes out to you, it's so exhausting because you're trying so hard not to breathe deeply to save yourself from the pain.

Hope you find some answers soon. I think lots of things can set off this type of pain, infection in the lungs being one of them, so it's not necessarily arthritis as your cause.

✚ New Topic ✚ Reply