Hi all doctors, amateur and otherwise,
Has anyone heard of this injury or experienced it themselves?
My upper right chest started hurting 6 months ago and got gradually worse. It would hurt when I started my swim warmup, but would not hurt after I warmed up. It got worse through the year and would hurt just by taking a deep breath. I stopped swimming 3 weeks ago and it is very slowly getting better, but not much.
I went to a sports medicine doc and he diagnosed it as an inflammation of the junction between the bony part of the ribs and the cartilaginous part. There is apparently some flexion at this point normally. His guess is that the repeated swimming motion has irritated it. He said to just rest and take ibuprofen.
Any better suggestions to speed up recover?
thanks,
Mark
Former Member
i used to get a similar pain i'm not sure if the same,but i didn't rest or take any medicine,mines gone with continuing as normal and taking vitamins(cod liver multi,chromium..etc)i dont seem to get it anymore for last 4 months or so since my last twinge...so my suggestion is ride it out but take advantage of vitamins in case of some sort of deficiency..hope this helps cos i know the kind of pain..
Yep, I have something very similar that has come and gone for 16 or 17 years, ever since a particularly rigorous fight during a karate promotion bruised the crap out of my ribs and sternum. To this day I can sometimes press on my chest and get a good crack out of it. The irritation flares up sometimes if I overtrain and can make simple breathing an annoyance. I usually just try to ignore it.
Then again, before you take medical advice from me you should know that something usually has to be hanging off before I see a doctor. You've done the right thing by seeing one; now follow his advice.
After 2 months of no swimming or any upper body exercise I had some improvement, but it still hurt a lot. The doctor decided to do an MRI. He confirmed his original diagnosis. The joint between the bony and cartilaginous part of my first rib is very inflamed. On the MRI the area of injury appears light in color. Normal bone appears gray. He offered me the option of a cortisone shot or physical therapy and oral celebrex pills. I am doing the latter.
It looks like it's going to take another 2 months before I swim again. Oh well, I am learning to enjoy the stairmaster.
Mark
