Yesterday evening, I was sitting reading, and I suddenly became aware that inhaling caused a pain on my left side. Further examination tells me that the pain is not in my lung, but is focused around a flat spot in my ribs just below my breast. The flat spot is something that appears to be normal, as there is one on both sides.
Stretching my left arm up and over my head seems to alleviate both the baseline pain and the pain when I inhale, temporarily. Oddly enough, the pain seems to extend up into my left clavicle, along with a sort of deep muscular itch.
Although I’ve been physically active lately, there was nothing I can recall that was a strain, and no kind of impact. The only thing that preceded my becoming aware of the pain was maybe sitting kinda slouched over a book for a couple of hours. (and I do that all the time.)
Oh, one more thing: when the pain was the worst last night, it hurt to sniff, but not to cough.
I know YANAD (unless you are), but could this be some kind of pulled muscle? Do ribs ever get, like, displaced or anything?
I get this occasionally.
Was the pain very sharp, and pretty clearly rib-motion related?
Because, I’ve always assumed that it’s caused by a rib getting slightly out of place. I usually find that stretching or bending will fix it. Whatever it’s caused by, it goes away pretty fast.
Yes, very sharb. Clearly related to rib motion. That’s what it feels like, like a rib slightly out of place. Never really thought about it, I guess I always thought ribs were fixed in place, but maybe not.
Anyway, it’s a relief to hear that it’s not unheard of. Thanks.
That happens to me occasionally when twisting while showering or some similar activity. It feels like a muscle strain to me but it goes away quickly enough that I assume it’s not muscular.
I had something similar but under a shoulder blade. Talked to my doc about it and she said it was a muscle strain and just take it easy for a couple days. There is a latticework of very thin fibrous muscles all around the rib cage that are used while breathing, but we are very much unaware of them even when focusing on breathing exercises. I was a barista at the time and must have pulled it while slinging 3 gallons of milk in each hand, restocking the refrigerators. It didn’t hurt until later that night and I was at home.
Over the past few years, I’ve experienced similar pain intermittently under my right shoulder blade. My doctor thought it was most likely a pulled muscle, but because of my age, he wanted to check me for gallstones. I consented, and turned out not to have them and he was right.
Full disclosure…The following is purely anecdotal. Another possibility, possibly remote, is an inflammation of the sac (pleura) that encloses each lung. I drove myself to the ER a couple of years ago. Thought I was having a heart attack. After ruling that out I was given some antiinflammatories which eventually resolved the issue. As I learned, the pleura is very sensitive and when it becomes inflamed it will come in contact with the rib cage. Very painful.
I cracked a rib a few years ago, leaning over the edge of a boat to pull up buoys. I had a buckle from the life vest under me and didn’t realize it as I yanked up on the rope. an X-ray was inconclusive (hard to see a hairline fracture) so was also told it might be a muscle tear between ribs. But later told my MD about it who said “if it took 2-3 months to go away it was probably a fractured rib.”
My immediate thought was a gall bladder attack. The pain is sharpest in the band wrapping just under the breast bone (on a woman this would be the bottom band of a brassiere.) You might also have nausea with that, though. Did you have any nausea? I had intermittent pain like that for a few years, which ended in a hellish trip to the emergency room, an emergency surgery and almost dying. I’d suggest you rule that out if the pain returns.