Re: Anyone out there with pain in rib cage?
Hello. I just came upon your post as I was Googling "pain over the ribcage." I have Lyme Disease (have had it for 14+years) and after times of severe or long-term stress I typically have a flare up of symptoms. I recently began another course of
Antibiotic therapy for my most recent flare up and I have started having pains in my chest/stomach area that I don't recall every having with the Lyme Disease, however, I do recall having something similar as a child. The pain I am having is definitely exterior (not internal like as with an organ problem) - over the ribcage - and it is sort of like "fingers" of pain reaching across my chest and upper abdomen. It has not been constant, but it comes on out of nowhere and lasts for maybe a few hours and then goes away. Is this similar to the pain that you have? I have not noticed any swelling or redness or anything other than the pains. I am thinking that it is a die-off of Lyme bacteria only in an area that I have never experienced it before. I have a wide range of pains all over my body when I am having a Herxheimer reaction (as
Antibiotics kill off the Lyme bacteria, the bacteria spews its toxins into my system causing my symptoms to get worse before they get better) to the
Antibiotics , so although it is pretty uncomfortable, I was not too worried about it. My husband, however, was concerned - hence my Googling on the topic. I had never heard of this Costochondritis before...I have just looked it up and I see that it is another one of those things that "they" can't quite explain the cause of... I just wanted to thank you for your post(s) on this thread because I am now confident that the pains I am having are nothing to be worried about at this point. The Herxheimer reactions usually only last several days to a couple of weeks for me when I start up a course of
Antibiotics , so I don't think this pain I am experiencing will necessitate a special visit to the doctor unless it continues even after my other symptoms have abated. As for your pains, because they have been around the gallbladder area, I'm just wondering if you've ever tried taking digestive enzymes or Tourine? I have had a couple of different gallbladder attacks in the past (from feelings of fullness like a balloon inflated in my stomach to extreme nausea to sharp pain under right ribcage, through to the back, and even up into the right shoulder - totally different from the pain I am having now) and I also was told my gallbladder was fine - however, Lyme my doctor told me that sometimes the gallbladder will get clogged up or whatever with "sludge" and doesn't function as well as it could. Taking the digestive enzymes and the Tourine (as well as avoiding tomatoes for some reason) really helped to stop the problems I was having with my gallbladder. For what it's worth, I hope someone finds that helpful. Thanks again for your post.