r/SlippingRibSyndrome

So you’re going to see Dr. Hansen in West Virginia for a consultation or for surgery. That’s great! Now wondering, “How do I do this without breaking the bank?” Here’s some things I did (that maybe aren’t obvious to others) to minimize costs:

 

Tip 1: Fly into Pittsburgh and take the bus down

For cheap flights, check sites like Skiplagged. Note that Skiplagged doesn’t index every airline, so also check Southwest, etc.’s website too. Generally speaking, you want to book as far out in advance as you can. Depending on where you’re coming from, flying is almost certainly going to be cheaper than driving.

The name of the bus is Mountainline (busride.org). It’s the Grey Line you want, from Pittsburgh International Airport to Bridgeport. It’s cheaper to book through them ($20) versus through Greyhound’s website (around $25 if I recall correctly). This is much cheaper than renting a car (>$100/day). The bus drops you off right by a number of hotels in the area (which are also walking distance to the hospital).

 

Tip 2: Some of the hotels offer hospital patient rates and have breakfast included

This is a “call and ask [nicely]” situation, but some of the hotels right by the bus stop have discounted rates for hospital patients, and they’re not insignificant discounts either. Some of them also have “free” (included in the price) breakfast, so don’t forget to include the “Is it cheaper for me to stay here and go out for breakfast, or stay here and get their breakfast?” question into your math.

 

Tip 3: All Glory to Sheetz!

Sheetz offers a large variety of food, including made-to-order food. If this is your first time in Appalachia, do not overlook Sheetz as a phenomenal resource (or, at minimum, a way to save money versus UberEats).

 

Tip 4: You can InstaCart to the hotel

If your hotel room has a microwave, take a look at what you can get on InstaCart. Microwaved noodles aren’t the worst. This may or may not work out to be a cost saver versus grabbing stuff from Sheetz.

Cost Tally:

When I went in for the consult, I flew into Pittsburgh (~$200 round trip), took the bus to and from Bridgeport ($40 round trip), stayed at a hotel with a patient discount (~$90 / night x 2 nights -> $180 (this ended up being cheaper due to how flights worked out)), ate hotel breakfast (free), and ate at Sheetz (~$30). This all worked out to be under $500 plus medical expenses.

When I went in for the surgery, I flew into Pittsburgh with my +1 (~$225/person x 2 persons = $450 round trip for us), took the bus to and from ($40/person x 2 persons = $80 round trip), stayed at a hotel with a patient discount (~$110/night x 7 nights = $770), ate hotel breakfast (free), and primarily ate Sheetz (maybe $15/day/person x 7 days x 2 persons = $210) and microwave noodles (maybe $30 off InstaCart). We also took an Uber to and from Mountain State Brewing and had some great pizza (maybe around $60 for the night), which I highly recommend. I put the tally at $1,600 plus medical expenses.

 

So depending on your luck with air fare and hotel costs, and depending on your dietary preferences, the out of pocket expenses can work out to somewhere around $2,100. Yes, this is a lot of money for people who are very severely impaired by horrendous rib problems, but I hope it isn’t impossible.

 

I know that the hospital allows for payment plans (without interest) on the surgery and consultation. I paid around $150 a month in order to no longer be in crippling pain. Maybe your travel expenses can go on a credit card so you can actually thrive.

 

Anyways, good luck, and I hope you found something here useful.

I miss my old life more than I can put into words. I miss being a body builder so fucking terribly it hurts me so bad. All I wanted was to train. I used to curl 30 pounds with ease and now I struggle to pick up a liter of soda.
I can’t find a SINGLE doctor (YES even the ones on the “SRS Specialist” website) that will help me. They refuse to diagnose me because nothing showed up on MRI CT or X ray. None of them are experienced or educated.

I’ve seen 7 doctors since last October and have gotten no where besides an injection that made everything worse.

I’m done with the positivity. I’m done. I miss my old life more than I can put into words and I’m so fucking tired of everyone telling me it gets better. Because for me, it won’t. I don’t have money to go traveling out of the tri state area and I’ve seen every single thoracic surgeon I could find online in my state.

Fuck slipping rib syndrome. This has completely ruined my life and taken away my identity. I am nothing but rib pain. That’s who I am. Someone whose chest and ribs hurt

Hi, I just wanted to share my experience with you. I had suture surgery on both sides three years ago and am still going strong. I'm not 100%, but I'm around 60-70%, and I manage pain with pain pills occasionally. I see many posts about multiple surgeries, and unfortunately, some are handled by horrible surgeons who lie or cover it up because they think we don't understand why we're in so much pain. They are wrong. This is another reason why we need to use 3D imaging from a CT scan so we can keep this as evidence of structural failure caused by surgery. Some SRS surgeons don't like 3D because it reveals what they did, so they discourage ordering CT scans and also avoid seeing 3D. Additionally, there are SRS surgeons who value all information and don't have to be thoracic surgeons. Trauma and general surgeons are also highly skilled in chest wall procedures. Please protect yourself. I know a great lady who can help with 3D imaging, and she is a founder of srsinfo.org. She is not a doctor but very knowledgeable, and I am so happy to have known her for many years. If you need her help, go to the website and contact her. She has helped reveal many scans and shown what was happening — honestly, better than doctors in my opinion. Such a humble lady.

I (29f) have a previous post explaining my slipping rib since December. Since then I have been doing physical therapy. I was doing PT, which I thought was helping. In april i found out that I needed to get my gallbladder removed. Everyone was telling me I’d feel better once I got my gallbladder removed. Long story short. I got my gallbladder removed in May. I haven’t been able to do Physical Therapy since surgery. I’m just barely off of my weight restrictions. I wanted to start getting back into physical therapy but I haven’t. I went paddle boarding a couple of weeks ago. My physical therapist said that if I can paddle board for hours, I’m probably okay and don’t need PT anymore. It’s been 2 weeks since i paddle boarded for the first time. I tried camping for one night and paddle boarding once since then. My ribs are sharply moving around. Poking out of my chest, poking inwards in multiple places. It’s back to where it was before and it feels like it’s only getting worse. It’s pinching my lungs at times and the pain is wrapping all the way to the back too! Sorry I don’t know the rib names. So with one rib I was mostly dislocated around the front sternum area, right under the breast (that’s the one that sticks out), now I can feel it reaching all the way into my back. My other 2 are my floating ribs and they disappear inside of me. I can’t wear pants that are tight, I can’t sit certain ways. It’s sore to touch. Also, when I flex my abdomen, it hurts too.

Anyway, I’m starting to feel discouraged. Even if I stopped PT for a while, I feel like 7 months is enough that it shouldn’t be doing that anymore. PT or not. I’m worried there is something more wrong with me. I feel like I can’t do anything.

I need encouragement. Advice. Anything please, I’m starting to feel helpless. I have all this energy and I want to do things but my body can’t do anything.

Hi everyone,

I’ve had what I think is SRS for about 13 years, but not a typical presentation. Mine is almost entirely related to where my ribs meet my spine. I have some pressure and had a rib sublux in the front and actually am currently feeling pain and pressure along the front right now but have about four ribs misaligned and accompanying back spasms all the way between my scapula and spine on the right.

For years this was just “that annoying thing” where I would go to the chiropractor and get fixed up. Then I started needing some acupuncture. And orthopedic massage. Then PT (thankfully my PT understood my hypermobile ribs).

But as I’ve hit my 40s, it’s gotten so much worse. Back muscle spams that last 9 months despite treatment. I’m two months into PT right now and haven’t even gotten to strength training because of the unrelenting spasms. I got an orthopedic massage to release the muscles which worked… and then three other ribs shifted higher up.

I’m also extremely active, I do aerial for fun and sometimes compete. The ongoing spasms made it so my scapula doesn’t sit right, which shoved my shoulder forward, which caused an impingement that has deeply weakened my shoulder and stopped me from doing half of what I am capable of doing in my sport.

And it’s not even the intensive activity that triggers the slips. Picking up a bag of laundry was the first slip, and more recently I’ve had a rib slip in my damn sleep because I was stressed out and tensed up.

I found a website linking to SRS thoracic surgeon specialists in the US and fought for a month to get a referral for an appointment. Now I’m seeing an underling in two days, who may call in the specialist or reschedule me to see her.

Along the way I had a trusted sports medicine doctor gaslight me, tell me it must be a disc (MRI said otherwise) and told me to get a breast reduction. I had a PT discharge me because she didn’t know how to treat me. I had a chiropractor gatekeep PT or even seeking the opinion of a surgeon.

Now I’m here. I am not familiar with my options for surgery. If anyone knows and can share, please do. And any words of encouragement would be a huge help. I’m scared to death this doctor visit will flop and I’ll have to start over.

I have some constant low level activation/discomfort constant awareness/dull presence in my left intercostal space without pain. I can deform my left rib cage a bit i can shift around the ribs and it also makes a clicking sound. when i push in my eleventh rib, there is some pain/tender reaction to it. There is no tumor/cyst or anything. Has anyone encountered something comparable before and can share some insights?

Essentially was in a car accident in June of 2024, everything seemed fine at first but a few days after I was in severe pain that got worse and worse in my thoracic until I was bed-bound for about a month. Prior to the car accident, running 20-25 miles a week and lifting weights for about 10 hours a week. Was in absolute peak-shape. I'm 25 years old, male.

After that month I was recovered enough then to resume work still in massive pain. Then reinjured moving a kitchen chair at a weird angle. Another month bed-bound.

Went back to work. Healed up quite a bit - was even able to move heavy furniture although I was still in latent pain and couldn't twist to a bunch of angles. Woke up one day and it injured again after a particularly heavy day of playing with my kids the day before. Another month bed-bound. That time I found a much better research rabbit hole - found this subreddit, then found the costochondritis subreddit. Costochondritis seemed to match better to my symptoms so treated as if it was costochondritis and that helped a lot - although I was missing major symptoms - never had sternum pain ever, always thoracic pain.

Essentially my area near my thoracic is always cracking, and sometimes my top area (near my 2nd/3rd rib) feels stuck and I can feel my muscles slowly move over the area. Other times it feels perfect, and I have absolutely no issues. When it's stuck I'm at like a 5-6 pain level, and I can't bend much at all or pick anything up over 10 pounds. When the issue isn't there I'm at about a 2 on my pain and my muscles nearby my thoracic are very sore, along with all my serratus anterior muscles constantly being sore all around my ribs whether or not it's "stuck" up there.

I'm coming back here after getting into an osteopath which brought the pain down to a 2 for a long time, and kept that piece in place for a long time - but it's clear to me that isn't a permanent fix now. I have to keep going back to have them fix whatever is not working right. I have not been able to lift weights or run again even with going to the osteopath, which indicates to me that this is likely fixing a symptom not a cause.

I believe slipping rib syndrome is a worthwhile rabbit hole to explore at this point. After going to the osteopath I've noticed my ribs used to look perfectly symmetrical around the front - now rib #7 is just... not there anymore on the left side. That seems related to me at this point. Along with on my right side - my bottom two ribs click around the front when I laugh or reach my arms above my head at a certain angle.

I have recently gone in for physical therapy again (I've been in and out of PT for this whole two years now), with a different physical therapist who is trying really hard. Got a bunch of MRIs and I have some shoulder tears on both sides (not full tears, partials) with exactly matching tears - but my physical therapist is stumped and says that they should have healed up on their own by now and that's likely indicative of a deeper problem - so I'm here now.

One last piece of information - I likely have some sort of hypermobility disorder. I have four siblings, and they all have signs of hypermobility (they can invert all sorts of joints), I'm the one that doesn't have any telltale signs. But this whole journey has me suspicious that I have something too and mine just hides a bit better.

Anyways - how do I go down the path of diagnosing or ruling out slipping rib syndrome? This seems complex, can't find any easy "just do this at home!" method.

Money is luckily not an issue, although I have no insurance (self pay may be preferable regardless - and if it comes to surgery I can likely afford out of pocket or at least a payment plan). I'm in Arizona in the United States.

Have had subluxating/partially dislocating ribs constantly for 9 months… bad pain and completely reduced my life to barely leaving the house.

I just met a specialist who said I don’t have the typical slipping rib syndrome because typic slipping rib is where they slip in the front where it meeets the cartilage, and my situation is that thconnecrion to the spine is the back is where the issue is.

Has anyone else had this and how was it treated?

Anyone ever tried prolotherapy?

Any advice appreciated even if you haven’t had this exact situation. Thanks and I hope you all get better ❤️

Hi, I really don’t want to go into pain symptoms, areas of pain, how many years I’ve suffered or any kind of backstory unless it is necessary for finding support. It’s too painful to replay these stories every time I try to explain my condition. What this has taken from me, the joy, the activities, the opportunities…

ANYWAY, I had a dynamic ultrasound yesterday afternoon and it did not go well. Right from the start.

The radiologist’s first question was, “which rib is it?” and that’s when I knew it wasn’t going to go well, because he wanted to reproduce the rib moving and clicking off or onto another. It’s not something that happens on command or a particular movement reproduces.

When I politely tried to steer the conversation to the spinal vertebrae, where the joints meet the spine, he said in a dismissive tone, “Well, that’s the spine, we’re not checking the spine we’re here for the ribs…”

And then it just continued to get worse once I tried explaining that the slightly hypermobile ribcage itself was unstable and causing the pain AT the spine. That did not go well either.

Long story short…since I can’t MAKE my ribs sublux on command my dynamic ultrasound got me nowhere. I know what I have, I’m not incorrect and I can’t give up.

So…do I ask for another one? With a different radiologist? Has anyone ever received a successful diagnosis via ultrasound WITHOUT being able to make ribs click and pop on command? Need any advice please on where to go next. I refuse to continue living this way.

I have lower rib pain that radiates to the stomach. When I push on the back of the lower ribs there’s a click sometimes.

Background

- Male 29 UK
- Diagnosed after 6 months of lower rib pain out of nowhere
- Saw Dr Ali Abbas about a month ago confirmed bilateral SRS
- No previous issues and reason for SRS very unclear
- mild case stated by Dr Ali and referral for physical therapy with Ciaran Keen (UK)

Questions

- have other people found success from non surgical treatments?
- does this just “go away” with the correct treatments or do you manage it throughout your life?
- anything else I can be doing in the meantime?
- anyone else had SRS without a trigger?

Trying to gather as much information as possible to help myself - thanks

Hi y'all!

I am getting a cartilage/rib resection of my 9-10th ribs on my right side next week and I was wondering if any of you would be willing to share your experiences with me. I cannot find any official recovery resources online and this surgery is so rarely done that even my large, university-affiliated hospital doesn't have any handouts about it. I am not getting any stabilization done, just the resections.

A few questions I have in particular:

• I am a nanny for a living. How long were y'all out of work?
• Were there any items that were particularly helpful in recovery?
• I have had almost 10 other surgeries in the past but this one has me particularly nervous for some reason. For others who have had other surgeries, how bad did this one compare pain/recovery-wise?
• Did you have any post-surgery PT?

Thank you all in advance!

Hey everyone, hope all is well!!

Can anyone who’s had the Hansen 2.0 share what their recovery timeline was like please? I’m just over 5 weeks out (UK based) and having a bit of a tough time so would love to know when I’m expected to really feel the benefits. Is it still early days?

For over a year or two now my lower ribs have felt like they're poking me. When I'm up right I feel fine. As soon as I lie down to try and go to sleep I feel like I have a giant claw clip is around my abdomen with the "teeth" pressing/softly pushing the skin together at the front. A weird way to put it I know, but that part is the hardest to explain.

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My lower ribs on the right ache when I lie on my left. If I use my phone in bed my elbow sometimes nudges me. It doesn't hurt, but it's extremely uncomfortable. I feel like my ribs are bendy and being pushed in. Like in wearing my pants a little too high.

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I've had xrays on my chest for unrelated reasons and nobody has ever seen anything that would explain the discomfort. So I'm curious if this could he slipping rib.