26 years of wondering what this is
I’m 36 and have experienced flare ups of this pain ever since I was 10, when I had a particularly long lasting, severe chest infection which caused coughing fits lasting for up to ten minutes at a time.
The first time I went to the GP I was told it was probably an issue with my airways and prescribed a blue inhaler. After going back several times to report the inhaler was giving absolutely no relief, I was just told to keep trying it.
The second time, I was told it was ‘anxiety pain’ and to try deep breathing to calm down when the pain started. Despite me explaining that actually, taking bigger breaths was near impossible because it worsened the pain. I wasn’t listened to.
I gave up with the doctors and have been living with this, enduring severe episodes of pain especially during and after having a cold/cough.
Finally, today I tried again and third time lucky. This doctor didn’t interrupt me, wrote down everything I said and after some questions and a basic physical examination said “Has nobody ever mentioned costochondritis to you? I think that’s exactly what this is”. Once she started describing what it was, I genuinely burst into tears at finally being listened to and being given an answer that made sense.
Unfortunately, she has told me there is no specific cure as yet for chronic costochondritis and it’s more about pain management. Reading the posts/comments on this thread has already given me further insight and I’m hopeful that I’ll try something new that may help me, now that I know what I’m dealing with!