…otherwise known as Costochondritis, has been diagnosed as the reason for the chest pains that have had me wondering about my mortality lately.
Actually, I made the diagnosis, with a little research… I’ve had a gut feeling that my heart was fine, but why was my chest hurting? Here’s what I found:
Costochondritis (kos-toe-KHON-dri-tis) is an inflammation of the cartilage that connects a rib to the breastbone (sternum). It causes sharp pain in the costosternal joint — where your ribs and breastbone are joined by rubbery cartilage. Pain caused by costochondritis may mimic that of a heart attack or other heart conditions.
The prescribed treatment was Ibuprofen, so I took some today. The pain dropped by half within the hour. The articles I read mentioned it usually occurs on the left side of your chest. Yep! And a possible cause was repeated minor trauma to the chest wall.
Then I got it: seatbelt shoulder straps! I drive for a living and I have them on all the time, on bumpy roads, and they cross exactly over the location of pain. Damn!
Since I don’t have health insurance, I just saved myself a bunch of money :-)