Costochondritis?
- Thread starter HydroChronix
- Start date
mysunnyboy
Well-Known Member
Good idea
I’ve got it from RA. It’s sent me to the ER before because my wife thinks it’s a heart attack.
Damn sorry to hear I also went to the ER when I first got the pain I kept thinking it was my heart
too. Hope you feel better
Did you ever get any answers for your condition???
Has any doctor recommended potassium concentrate?
Hello I believe I have Chostocondritis. I think I cause this by holding in smoke one day. I was low on smoke so I tried to get the most out of my last hit. I choked very hard. the next day my chest felt bad. Weeks later I had this problem. Its been 10 years now. I rarely smoke now. I've been checked for many ailments. Gall Bladder,Hernia,Acid Refux,and many others. Now I really think its this chest inflamation issue. Im screwed. I have had shots of steroids to my chest but I still suffer. Good luck on your deal. Later.Costochondritis is an inflammation of the cartilage that attaches the ribs to the breastbone.. Is there anyone else with this?? From what I have found on the net it can last 6 months to a year.. and for some ppl it can become a chronic condition..I've had chest pains for a few yrs now causing my to give up good ol mary janeI always feel like im having a heart attack. Recently the pains and pressure on my chst have gotten worse..so much so I thought I was nearly about to die of a heart attack on the way to the hospital.. After a few hours in the cardiac ward I was told my heart and cardiovascular system was fine and was sent on my way with some non-steriod anit inflammatory drugs.. Now I'm trying to see the family doc to get tested for other related conditions...
Just woundering if anyone out there has had this.. did the drugs work?? can ya still blaze and not think your haveing a heart attack??
thanks for takin the time to read.
Rogue influence
New Member
This is crazy reading about everyone experiencing the SAME chest pain?! I was just in the er and they checked out everything gave me chest xrays ekg almost catscan but everything was fine they told me im perfectly fine and told me to take ibuprofen lmaooo, ive been taking ibuprofen and that shit does everything but help, its the most annoying chest pain in the world its located a few inches down from the center of my collar bone but a little on the right side its literally right where my ribs connect to my "breastbone" and after the drs telling me im fine im self diagnosing myself with this because its the only explainable thing out there. Its just this pain that makes me want to roll my shoulders backwards in a way that opens my chest i feel like its from my posture always sitting hunched forward but im no dr I have no idea why this shit happens I just want it to stop but im an everyday weed smoker and stopping would be like taking candy from a baby its not good for any one involved. Looks like i gotta just suck it up seeing as its one of those unhelpable illnesses i just gotta hope this shit goes away on its own I guess
Dawgfunk
Well-Known Member
I feel you, the best thing I’ve found has been eating a more alkaline diet and drinking a lot more water/less coffee(the coffee/dehydration can definitely set it off). I’ll also find myself slouching in to say hello to the plants when I do, and that has never helped anything. Breathwork has helped as well, got into some Wim Hof breathing and along with the cold showers, it has actually helped a bunch with the inflammation. Hope you guys find something that works. Cheers. Blaze on!
Smoking on some wonderful keif rosin from duck tape right now! Wonderful head meds, super strong and a bit paranoid but that racecar that the gg4 brings,kinda euphoric. Mmm! 
newguy41410
Well-Known Member
okay you guys are lucky i just happened to catch the thread title COSTOCHONDRITIS and thought to myself wtf is this doing on this forum??
I had costochondritis last year and fully healed from it in about two to three months I think. I believe I got it from coughing so much and so hard when I had a bad case of bronchitis. I'm sure it didn't help that I was smoking so much too. I did lots of research on the pains I was having and self-diagnosed myself with costochondritis. I also never once came to the growers' forums to ask about it lol. I see this thread is 4 pages long with some lengthy descriptions that i didn't bother reading. Just know that I had it and with some home physical therapy, was able to heal from it. Here is the solution to your problems:
First things first YOU GUYS NEED TO BUY A BACKPOD... it was designed by chiropractors for people with costochondritis IIRC. Buy here:
pretty expensive for something I don't even use anymore now that my problem has gone away but this thing works wonders. Almost instant relief for me, I knew it was going to work after a session or two.
If you have costochondritis you should know that your ribs feel the way they do because its like the ribs themselves are super tense and need to be stretched or relaxed or something. The best description is to imagine your ribs are like the handle on a bucket. The bucket handle should be able to swing back and forth. Your ribs expand with your diaphragm/lungs or something like that (akin to swinging). When you have costochondritis its like the handle/ribs don't want to even budge and when you try to move it it hurts. That's why it hurts so much especially when you cough. What you need to do is basically stretch your ribs out. The backpod will help you achieve this. You lay on your back on top of the backpod and it basically pushes your rib from behind toward the front of your body. I used it to stretch my ribs from all kinds of angles.. i think you'll see what I mean once you lay on it and feel those ribs being stretched. I think it helps the affected ribs mobility a lot. How else are you going to get those ribs to swing back and forth like they are intended to? I would use the backpod every night for 10 minutes or so before I go to bed.. After getting off the backpod it felt like my ribs were more mobile every day. Eventually, I no longer have those uncomfortable pains. Hence, no more costochondritis..
I would also do door jamb stretches where i would block the path of a doorway and grab each side of the doorway high above my head. and then i would lean forward while grabbing onto the doorway. this would stretch out the muscles in my rib area that felt so tense. I'm sure these stretches helped my ribs get their mobility back also.
Video of door jamb stretch:
To target the ribs more when doing door jamb stretch your arms should be elevated like in figure C of this photo (A and B are incorrect):
One thing i also did was get a month membership at "the joint". Its a franchised chriopractor business and i would go in and they would take like two to three minutes to basically crack a bunch of bones and that was it.. I'm not sure if these chiropractor sessions were even necessary i was just in so much pain that i was willing to exercise all options possible, as chiropractor was one of the suggestions i had read about. But one thing the chiropractor did that I liked was he would have me lay on my back on top of his hand and he would push down on my body to crack my ribs. This might've helped.
But if anything helped the most it was definitely the backpod. If you are suffering from costochondritis and it doesn't seem to be getting better you NEED to get a backpod. or figure out some other way to stretch those problematic ribs!! Do yourself a favor and get the backpod. I'd sell you mine for cheap but I had a snowboarding accident a month ago and it felt like the pains returned for a couple days so I actually put it to use. I'd rather keep it just in case
I had costochondritis last year and fully healed from it in about two to three months I think. I believe I got it from coughing so much and so hard when I had a bad case of bronchitis. I'm sure it didn't help that I was smoking so much too. I did lots of research on the pains I was having and self-diagnosed myself with costochondritis. I also never once came to the growers' forums to ask about it lol. I see this thread is 4 pages long with some lengthy descriptions that i didn't bother reading. Just know that I had it and with some home physical therapy, was able to heal from it. Here is the solution to your problems:
First things first YOU GUYS NEED TO BUY A BACKPOD... it was designed by chiropractors for people with costochondritis IIRC. Buy here:
pretty expensive for something I don't even use anymore now that my problem has gone away but this thing works wonders. Almost instant relief for me, I knew it was going to work after a session or two.
If you have costochondritis you should know that your ribs feel the way they do because its like the ribs themselves are super tense and need to be stretched or relaxed or something. The best description is to imagine your ribs are like the handle on a bucket. The bucket handle should be able to swing back and forth. Your ribs expand with your diaphragm/lungs or something like that (akin to swinging). When you have costochondritis its like the handle/ribs don't want to even budge and when you try to move it it hurts. That's why it hurts so much especially when you cough. What you need to do is basically stretch your ribs out. The backpod will help you achieve this. You lay on your back on top of the backpod and it basically pushes your rib from behind toward the front of your body. I used it to stretch my ribs from all kinds of angles.. i think you'll see what I mean once you lay on it and feel those ribs being stretched. I think it helps the affected ribs mobility a lot. How else are you going to get those ribs to swing back and forth like they are intended to? I would use the backpod every night for 10 minutes or so before I go to bed.. After getting off the backpod it felt like my ribs were more mobile every day. Eventually, I no longer have those uncomfortable pains. Hence, no more costochondritis..
I would also do door jamb stretches where i would block the path of a doorway and grab each side of the doorway high above my head. and then i would lean forward while grabbing onto the doorway. this would stretch out the muscles in my rib area that felt so tense. I'm sure these stretches helped my ribs get their mobility back also.
Video of door jamb stretch:
To target the ribs more when doing door jamb stretch your arms should be elevated like in figure C of this photo (A and B are incorrect):
One thing i also did was get a month membership at "the joint". Its a franchised chriopractor business and i would go in and they would take like two to three minutes to basically crack a bunch of bones and that was it.. I'm not sure if these chiropractor sessions were even necessary i was just in so much pain that i was willing to exercise all options possible, as chiropractor was one of the suggestions i had read about. But one thing the chiropractor did that I liked was he would have me lay on my back on top of his hand and he would push down on my body to crack my ribs. This might've helped.
But if anything helped the most it was definitely the backpod. If you are suffering from costochondritis and it doesn't seem to be getting better you NEED to get a backpod. or figure out some other way to stretch those problematic ribs!! Do yourself a favor and get the backpod. I'd sell you mine for cheap but I had a snowboarding accident a month ago and it felt like the pains returned for a couple days so I actually put it to use. I'd rather keep it just in case
Last edited:
FurorLunae
New Member
Hello anyone who comes across this! So about 4 days ago after taking a dab I noticed a weird feeling in my chest. Just below my collarbone and slightly to the left of my sternum. Didn’t exactly hurt, just a little annoying.
I put this off by saying “well it’s been a good bit since I’ve hit a dab” and I trust my guy. So I went to sleep with a little resistance. But the next day I didn’t have very much fun. I noticed it tremendously at work and me focusing on it only made my heartbeat faster and it more freaky.
Sitting at home I could feel it going to both sides of my chest. I called up my doctor and told him what I was feeling. They told me they didn’t think it was heart related and was mostly anxiety. So I set an appointment first thing in the morning. That was still a good 12 hours away and I needed to distract myself or something.
Then I got a thought to myself along the lines of “wait, if it was heart related I’d be feeling it everywhere right?”. Which helped tremendously! I was able to calm down some and be able to pinpoint the pain more. Which made the research much less scary.
So I end up getting like 3 hours of sleep. But after resting I actually feel a lot better when I wake up and get ready. But can still notice it a little bit. So I go to my doctors and get a checkup, EKG and an X-ray and they showed me that my heart was fine. My blood pressure (128/60), oxygen levels, and resting pulse were all good. So hearing this made me feel a lot better.
But today I tried to go hit my bong since it’s been a few days. And I notice that it has come back pretty hard. Basically right in the same spot. Currently here with a heat pad hoping to make it less tense. I’m really happy to hear I’m also not alone with this problem. This truly sucks and I feel like I can’t do anything I once did. I’m sorry if this seems all over the place, I’m a bit high with some chest pain lmao. I’m very happy I got to read other similar issues and that i can work to be better. I hope whoever reads this finds comfort.
I put this off by saying “well it’s been a good bit since I’ve hit a dab” and I trust my guy. So I went to sleep with a little resistance. But the next day I didn’t have very much fun. I noticed it tremendously at work and me focusing on it only made my heartbeat faster and it more freaky.
Sitting at home I could feel it going to both sides of my chest. I called up my doctor and told him what I was feeling. They told me they didn’t think it was heart related and was mostly anxiety. So I set an appointment first thing in the morning. That was still a good 12 hours away and I needed to distract myself or something.
Then I got a thought to myself along the lines of “wait, if it was heart related I’d be feeling it everywhere right?”. Which helped tremendously! I was able to calm down some and be able to pinpoint the pain more. Which made the research much less scary.
So I end up getting like 3 hours of sleep. But after resting I actually feel a lot better when I wake up and get ready. But can still notice it a little bit. So I go to my doctors and get a checkup, EKG and an X-ray and they showed me that my heart was fine. My blood pressure (128/60), oxygen levels, and resting pulse were all good. So hearing this made me feel a lot better.
But today I tried to go hit my bong since it’s been a few days. And I notice that it has come back pretty hard. Basically right in the same spot. Currently here with a heat pad hoping to make it less tense. I’m really happy to hear I’m also not alone with this problem. This truly sucks and I feel like I can’t do anything I once did. I’m sorry if this seems all over the place, I’m a bit high with some chest pain lmao. I’m very happy I got to read other similar issues and that i can work to be better. I hope whoever reads this finds comfort.
Cheeseball95
New Member
This is basically the same thing that I've been experiencing. I am recovering from COVID (STILL after 3 weeks). I tried to smoke weed after over a month of not smoking at all. I literally took 3 hits from a bowl and my rib cage felt like it was being stabbed. I also got super nauseous (probably from the pain). So, now I haven't been smoking which sucks because I was looking forward to smoking again only to have that happen. Now I just am experiencing dull chest/heart pain. I know it isn't actually my heart, but the cartilage around ribs and heart that are inflammed. Will this ever go away?? Will I ever be able to smoke again?? UGH.Hello everyone,
I have a bit of a story to tell.I have been in so much pain this past week. I have had pain in my chest and in my collarbone. I feel like there is something sharp in my collarbone area& it hurts when I move or talk . I am an asthmatic so it has made it difficult to breathe at night. I have hardly been sleeping & have been up crying & tossing & turning from the pain. I have been to the hospital twice this week & once to my doctors. All doctors took xrays of my chest, checked out my heart, and tested my blood.. Turns out the cartilage in my chest is inflammed, but they didnt tell me why or how it got that way & they didnt diagnose me with costochondritis. The hospital gave me anti-inflammitories& they didnt seem to help at all, also my doctor gave me some strong anti-inflammitories because I told her the ones that the doctor gave me didnt seem to be helping . I have been taking Robax for pain. I am a daily marijuana smoker & it has made it extremely difficult to smoke. I take tobacco with my weed when I smoke it, so I am questioning if the weed/tobacco could be whats inflamming the cartilage in my chest? Or if anyone has had a similar experience. It feels like when I breathe in the soft spot at the base of my throat sucks in too much, I know that sounds weird to explainOver my left side of my chest, my rib sticks out ever so slightly more then the other side& its sore to the touch. have tried showering, bathing, ice packs, and alcohol.. nothing seems to help. Its making me want to quit smoking & I really dont want to but if its whats causing this pain then I will. Sorry for spelling errors :s
Rurumo
Well-Known Member
you should look into post covid myocarditis, just to rule it out.
Hey man sorry to hear you have it too. I’ve had it since I was around 10-11 and I’m 25 now. I was hospitalized with it the first time around. My doctors also said they couldn’t do anything but give me Aleve or ibuprofen. I find that CBD hemp cigarettes work since my costocondritis flares up when I’m stressed out and the smokes take most of my stress away. I agree it is the worst feeling, it feels like I got stabbed and someone is twisting the knife when I try to breathe. I have probably 5 total flare ups a year. Today I had my first really bad one in front of my wife and family in law and they were all terrified I was having a heart attack even though I’ve explained that this could happen. I was wondering if anyone thinks that maybe Valium or Xanax could help as they help with stress.Costochondritis is an inflammation of the cartilage that attaches the ribs to the breastbone.. Is there anyone else with this?? From what I have found on the net it can last 6 months to a year.. and for some ppl it can become a chronic condition..I've had chest pains for a few yrs now causing my to give up good ol mary jane
Just woundering if anyone out there has had this.. did the drugs work?? can ya still blaze and not think your haveing a heart attack??
thanks for takin the time to read.
Thank you everyone. I started having pain when I went on a little outdoor adventure where I was climbing and doing stuff I hadn't done in awhile. A day later I started noticing a odd pain in my chest so I decided to smoke some reefs, this made the pain 10x worse and I began having a panic attack cause j thought I was having a heart attack, for the next 4 months I experienced this pain that radiated from my chest and would make my neck and my shoulders and my back tense, this caused me to have severe anxiety, I began working out and this helped somewhat but I always had this dull ache in my chest that would move to my lower ribs or into my back, after several doctor visits and tests I felt like I was going to have to live with this chronic pain the rest of my life. I watched the video about the back pod and found a different video about costo by Bob and Brad. They demonstrated the backpod and other ways that helped. I went and grabbed a kids size football cause it was the closest to the shape and did the excercise with it. I immediately felt a difference and gasped when I felt my ribs pop. I stood up and cried. This excercise almost immediately alleviated my pain. Tonight is the first time I've felt like myself in almost 6 months and I have to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. I can still feel some parts of my ribs have a small ache. But most of pain has dissipated. After I have done more of this excercise I will make another post.
I LOVE ALL OF YOU. I’m on the same page here. And like someone else said there is a lot more at play than anything physical. First thing off rip that I get from this page is that we all smoke marijuana, at the very least. Keep that in mind. Now, on to my story. I’ve been smoking weed for 8 years since I was 14 years old and have been smoking every day for the past 4-5 years. Currently I hold a medical license but prior to the chest pain I did not. Mine all started after I took some Xanax with MDMA. Everything was fine until the next morning. I had the WORST chest pain on earth and my anxiety was SHOT through the rough. (I don’t know if this matters but I’m also a recovering heroin addict on methadone). Anyways it would not go away so I had to go to the hospital because I was convinced I was going to die. Long story short I went to the hospital, had all the normal tests done and nothing stood out. I even went to my family dr months later because it wouldn’t stop and he ran more blood tests and found nothing out of the ordinary. It has gotten a lot better since then but I still deal with it every day. It’s random. And I’ll feel it on either side of my chest and I’ll feel it in my arms and neck sometimes. So of course I thought I had angina. Been over a year now and here I am to tell the tale 
biancarosee0097
New Member
Hi everyone. It is so welcoming to know I’m not alone in this, even though I do still feel alone considering there’s NOTHING doctors can offer to really help me. This all started when (after 1 year of no smoking) I started smoking bongs again - hardcore with tobacco and green. I noticed what felt like a pulled muscle that was to the right hand side of my spine after a month of heavy smoking, so I decided to stop smoking entirely. I shrugged off the pulled muscle pain assuming it would go away - I didn’t realise the pulled muscle feeling would go away after a week or so and be replaced by the scariest breathlessness I’ve ever experienced in my life. The breathlessness was very intense and extremely frightening. After around 2 weeks of the persistent breathlessness that was replaced by a horrific stabbing pain in my right breast/lung. It was so bad I took myself to hospital, they did scans of my heart, lungs, took x-rays. They did everything they could (including a good old Covid test to make sure it wasn’t that) then they tried to blame it on my anxiety mixed with me pulling a muscle and not giving it ample time to heal. They told me to go see my doctor if the pain didn’t leave in 3 days. Low and behold it got WORSE during those 3 days. Went to see my doctor, he did the same tests and said the same thing ‘anxiety combined with a pulled muscle’ (mind you I haven’t done ANY physical exercise at all to have pulled a muscle let alone not allow it to heal). He gave me some anti-inflammatories and sent me on my way saying I should be normal within a week. It’s been a fortnight since I started the anti-inflammatories and the pain is maybe 30%-50% better depending on the day but it gets worse at night. It’s so horrific. I guess I’m explaining this all cause I’m tired of feeling like no one actually listens to me, the timeline of what happened. The doctors shrug me off because they simply don’t know what it could be.
If anyone has come across absolutely ANYTHING that helps please let me know!
If anyone has come across absolutely ANYTHING that helps please let me know!