Have you ever had an illness that most people don't understand?

rip_art_bell@lemmy.world to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 126 points –
155

You are viewing a single comment

I used to have costochondritis which was an inflammation of the cartilage in my sternum. It would feel like a pressure on my chest that wouldn’t be relieved until I bent backwards to stretch and “pop” my chest. So occasionally friends and family would see me stretching and wonder wtf I was doing

I had that for a few years. Scary at first, then mostly just annoying to explain: yes I'm having chest pain, yes I'm sure it's not a heart attack, yes my chest is going to make a noise.

I've had this too. Sometimes when I would stretch to crack my sternum, I would get this wave of heat and eventual pain in my chest. So it was a gamble every time I felt that I had to crack it. It's been a lot better in recent years but it never really went away completely.

Yes, same thing would happen to me! It was a risk trying to stretch it out because if it works the pain would go away but if it didn’t pop, then the pain would be worse than when I started. Sorry you’re still going through it. My doctor recommended NSAIDs for the pain but they didn’t help me too much. Eventually the problem went away and I luckily haven’t had it come back