The muscles in my chest and sides tend to be very painful at times. I searched on the web and came up with “Costochronditis / moving rib syndrome / Tietze’s syndrome”
My doctor told me those names are used when they really don’t know what’s wrong with you.
An excuse diagnosis.
Fine.
Where the heck does the pain come from then?
When you buy a new shirt, make sure you remove all the pins.
I have been diagnosed with costochondritis, and whatever it is, it sucks. It manifests as a cartiligenous bump on my sternum. I was in the doctor yesterday with it as every time I breathed it felt like I was being stabbed through the heart, and I was convinced I had angina. Dunno whether it’s a fake diagnosis or not, but it certainly hurts.
The medical profession has expressions for “mystery syndromes”, or “Things that we don’t know what causes them”, but that doesn’t necessarily make them “fake” or “excuse” diagnoses. The “FUO” is a standard one–the “Fever of Unknown Origin”. It’s not a “fob you off with BS” diagnosis, it just means “we don’t know what’s causing this fever, so we write it down on your chart as a ‘FUO’”.
Includes Page O’ Links.
http://www.healthubs.com/costochondritis/
http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic116.htm
So your ribs hurt and they don’t know why, but since patients tend to demand, if not an explanation, then at least a label for what hurts, the medicos dub it “costochondritis”, from “intercostal” meaning “the space between your ribs”, and “chondritis” meaning “an inflammation of cartilage”.
So all “costochondritis” means in plain English is, “the inflammation of the cartilage between your ribs”. It’s not a “diagnosis” as such (especially since the word “diagnosis” tends to imply a potential treatment)–it’s just a “label”.
DDG, the quotes you pulled makes it sound like a lot like arthritis of the rib-sternum joints. I wonder if it can be treated similarly?
As for “repetitive minor trauma”: laying down on my side for too long can give me some mild, temporary pain in my sternum. Käse, Jjimm – do you sleep on your sides? Also, have either of you participated in contact sports?
I do sleep on my side.
Contact sports? Not for 20 years.
I have this condition. I first got it about 10 years ago. It does indeed suck. I got chest pains and thought the worst. My doctor told me to take an inflammatory (like Advil) and just ride it out. Since then, I usually ignore it.
I sleep on my side too. Not exactly contact sports 
I did however, fell of my bike a couple of times.
Funny thing with that [whatever] pain; It comes and goes.
Rhythmdvl I’ll remember that. Thanks.
Thank you all for your input. Have some cheese.