costo advice

Hi,

I was diagnosed with costo about a year ago.
Since then, I've seen three family doctors, two of which decided that I should be taking nothing stronger than advil (of which I've been on for basically 9 months). The first, who turned out to be the most useful, had me looped on pain meds, and then told me i was depressed.

I've got an old prescription of tramadol that i'm carefully trying to use only when the pain is at it's worst, since no doctor seems to think that i should have pain meds.

My chest x-rays have come back negative, and i've had a CT scan, but no MRI's. However, i have the very classic - it hurts when you push on my sternum symptom, as well as noticeable swelling around my rib cage (although, when i keep telling the doctors this, they have said that i've been over eating and my stomach is distended, or just write down the info and look at me like i'm crazy. )

I tested positive for some initial blood tests for lupis, but further tests came back negative and the rheumatologist basically diagnosed the whole problem as being a semataform disorder, that she suspected would go away on its own in 2-3 weeks as soon as i realized that i was "creating" the pain, and told me if the pain didn't go away in a year to make another appointment. That was 2-3 months ago.

I'm thinking of going to Hopkin's (it's about an hour and a half to two hours from where I live).

Anyway, sorry to ramble, but does anyone have any advice on handling doctors, or perhaps next steps? I was sent to a gastro-entronolegist at one point, who has recommended pain management, but no one has actually sent me there.

Thanks,
Denise