Costochondritis

Hey guys, has anyone on the board had it? if so, what contributed to it, how did you get rid of it, if you have, and what do/did you do to get rid of it.

Here's my story, few years ago i was starting to get into working out. I worked out for about 8 months, I've seen some great results, and then i started training for a running competition. I stopped weight training all together and started doing a lot of running, after 6 months of work up, i finally completed the competition. After that I just couldn't get myself to go back to the gym, for either weight training or running. A year later i tried to get back into it, but got into it too fast and too heavy - so i crashed and couldn't carry on. At about same time (2 years ago) I started having chest pains. I went to ER - they did basically everything, from heart tests to blood tests, and everything came back as a norm, but chest pains didn't go away. I was referred to physio and they had no idea what to do - I went in for MRI and it came back as i had a little inflammation between 2-4th rib but nothing major - and everything else was like always NORM. One day my physio therapist even tried to tell me that there was nothing wrong with me at all and I was basically just making everything up in my mind - right then and there i said: put your hand on my chest - then i bent backwards to the right and there was 3 or 4 loud bangs in my chest. My physio therapist sat down and said that she had no idea how to treat it.

Here are some symptoms: I can crack it at any time, It hurts like a SOB when i apply any pressure to a sternum on right side. It also feels like there is pressure in the chest. It hurts and cracks the most when I tilt my head forward, or after a day of traps. So I am not rulling out some muscle problem.

As for lifestyle - at first i thought that was it for me as i am only 22 (20 at the time it started happening). But eventually (after more than a year of depression over it) I learned to live with it. It still cracks and hurts but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to, mentally that is. I am back to the Gym, weight lifting. I've been back to the gym for over a month now so I am back into routine.

Thats my story, feel free to comment.
Later Dudes & Dudets

it is a very tough condition to trat, the ribs and the cartilage do not have a great range of motion and is impossible to brace, when you crack the ribs does it make it feel better at all? if so you may conside chiro extremity manipulations regularly, i may subside the pain. give me sometime, i may find more for you, i am not inmy office now, but i will look in some treatment and differential diagnosis books and i may have some more info, do you use ice regualrly to help with the inflamation?

....

still looking for more info gents. hold up, i am on the case.