So my doctor has told me I have costochondritis.

It started 5 years ago, had a series of 4 or 5 attacks whereby I would suddenly get such horrific pain in my chest that I simply couldn't move, sometimes couldn't get my breath as this would cause the pain to strike so sharply. Unlike any pain I have known, hard to describe, but very very frightening.

Over the next 4 years it was gone. I completely forgot about it. Until a year ago. I was in the shower and that same pain "threatened" again in my chest. I remembered it instantly and immediately got out the shower whereby an attack happened in the bedroom and I just had to keep really still. Again, 4 or 5 more attacks occurred over the next 6 weeks and they really took it out of me. One time I went to the hospital because the pain just wouldnt subside and the the attack went on for 8 hours on and off, striking as I moved or breathed too deeply.
Again, it went away, but this time, not for 4 years, but for just 1 year, and now it has come back again, my worry is that this time it seems more persistant.

this time my doctor has given me a very strong anti inflammatory which I take daily and I think I am supposed to do so for a few weeks. I thought it had things in hand but I have just returned from a walk in the park because an attack happened while I was there. not a full blown "knock me sideways" attack, but a painful one nevertheless that nearly stopped me being able to make it home.

I don't know what I will do if its here to stay. I am due a chest x ray next week although I dont know what this is to look for??? this time I have had blood tests but not the trace on my heart as i presume the doctor just thinks i had that a year ago with the last attacks. I was told it was likely i had a virus this time which has triggered it, but this was 3 weeks ago and i no longer have a fever so i am rather down about the fact i am still getting attacks. If anyone can tell me how to beat this i would be so grateful, or even how to manage it, because its the kind of thing that stops you leading your life how you want for fear of an attack. Like i said, i wasnt even sure i was going to be able to get home a few hundred yards from the park and that was only a minor attack.

I read a couple of threads and a lady was recommending cleansing and so I wondered if I should start that, I also read somewhere about certain massage....but to be honest, this is all so new to me that I'm a bit lost really.

I understand that doctors diagnose costo when other things are ruled out, so i was wondering, Do I actually have costo?" And is it possible for something that cant actually be confirmed by way of testing, to hurt sooooo intensely? No one else I know has this and they really dont understand.

If anyone thinks I should ask for any other testing before going down the route of self help for costo then please could you let me know what tests i should ask for or if you think this does in fact sound like costo then I would be grateful for any advice you have as I just dont know what to do.

Many thanks x