I have often described myself as an old car.  You fix one thing on me and another thing breaks down. And so it goes.  My first couple of sessions with my new physical therapist have gone well. But due to situations beyond my control it has been necessary for me to do more inside and outside the home and this has exacerbated my Costochondritis, which was started now a month ago when I attempted to play with my son in the pool.

At present, at 2:30 a.m., I am sitting with a heating pad wrapped around my boobs.  If you have never suffered from Costo, it is a delightful, unique experience in whatever group of ribs it happens to be in.  If it is in the lower ribs you may feel like you have stomach problems, closer to your lungs and you have trouble breathing, and if it’s by your heart, you feel like you are having a heart attack. It is often misdiagnosed as bronchitis or muscle strain.  Some only have it once in their lives, others never get rid of it.

The fact that I am on pain meds for my legs and I can still feel it flaring through is worrisome to me.  Ideally, the best thing for Costo would be to rest the ribs, but since breathing is necessary, and so is having to move about in life,  it can be a long healing process.  I have had it for about 15 years and have gone in and out of flares.

It’s one of those conditions that really freak you out because of the breathing and heart thing. It’s not so great if you have an active toddler that still wants to be picked up.

Here we are, about to go into another weekend and I feel like this!  I am going to ask my PT what he thinks.  Could the therapy possibly be making this worse?  If so, I think I am going to have to put it on hold.

Usually caffeine has been known to be a trigger for me.  I have been off my lifeblood coffee for two weeks and it is still getting worse.  I miss my coffee.  I miss any sense of feeling decent.  I have long since forgotten what it is like to have “a good day”.  I’ll stop the pity party now.