hey, amateur doctors of nt . . .

[leah]

so yesterday out of nowhere i started having pain whenever i breathe in deeply. it's not in my lungs necessarily; more like along my sternum, maybe? just kind of in the middle of my chest rather than one side or the other (or both). it's not a big deal, i guess, but i'd really like to breathe more than stupid shallow wussy breaths hehe . . . any suggestions as to what's up?

[Gypsiyee]

as silly as it sounds... it could easily just be gas.

[ClakarEQ]

Did you bruise yourself, coughing, sneezing, working out, etc?

[leah]

fun as it would be, i do not think it's gas. :P

i had a couple of pretty intense workouts this week (monday's was upper body-focused and wednesday's was all core/abs), so maybe that had an effect, although yesterday's workout was just spinning, so i don't think that would've done much. i haven't been coughing or sneezing at all, though. my mom suggested pleurisy but it's more in my sternum than my lungs and it really only hurts when i breathe in rather than all the time . . . ? i took aspiring a while ago, but it hasn't seemed to have had any effect.

[Jay]

Costochondritis is an inflammation of the cartilage that connects a rib to the breastbone (sternum). It causes sharp pain in the costosternal joint — where your ribs and breastbone are joined by rubbery cartilage. Pain caused by costochondritis may mimic that of a heart attack or other heart conditions.

Your doctor might refer to costochondritis by other names, including chest wall pain, costosternal syndrome and costosternal chondrodynia. When the pain of costochondritis is accompanied by swelling, it's referred to as Tietze syndrome.

Most cases of costochondritis have no apparent cause. In these cases, treatment focuses on easing your pain while you wait for costochondritis to resolve on its own.

From my experiences working out, when you work out your chest then abs after and you haven't kept up a consistent routine this tends to happen. It's just your body getting used to some abuse and it'll go away on it's own. Breathing pushes your chest out and applies pressure to your sternum and ribs at their connecting point so that would explain your pain and how it happened shortly after a chest and ab workout. In other words, just walk it off OR you can attend my clinic and I can give you a massage of the area that's bothering you

[ClakarEQ]

It's funny how that works, I mean you actually cause massive damage to your body when you workout and this is what results in extra muscle getting created. There was a show on Discovery about it and they were showing the amount for muscle strands that tear apart, etc and how they grow.

I'm with Jay on this one :p

[leah]

hmm, that analysis makes perfect sense to me. i can't remember ever having an upper body-focused class followed by an abs-focused class, so i guess that would explain why this has never happened before. aspirin is helping now so i guess all is well!

[Tuggan]

swine flu.

[Dylan]

You should post a picture of your bare chest for analysis.

[Jay]

You should post a picture of your bare chest for analysis.

I'm going to Dylan for medical consults from now on.