Chest Injury Question/Advice Needed

[J Berger]

Sometime in late December, I injured my chest lifting. When it happened I wasn't really sure if I just strained myself or what. I tried to take it easy afterwards but the pain eventually got much worse.

Basically I feel pain in the sternum area and slightly off to the right. After dealing with my primary care doctor, getting a MRI, and eventually seeing a Thoracic specialist, I was diagnosed with costal chondralitis, specifically in the 3rd and 4th rib area.

According to the Thoracic doctor, all I can do is not lift, take anti-inflamatory pills, and apply heat to the area. And this takes 2-3 months to heal....So far I have been treating this for a little over a month and there is really no improvement. I have not lifted since February.

Has anyone on here had this, and if so how long and what did you do to get rid of it?

[chris mason]

Never had it, but when inflammation becomes chronic like that very bad things can happen, so I would go with the doc's advice.

[J Berger]

Well I have been and will continue to follow my doctor's orders. But I wanted to know if anyone had any advice on how to help this heal and did it completely go away eventually? At the rate things are going now, it seems this thing will never heal.

[chris mason]

If it was ME, and I am not saying you should do this, but relaying to you what I would do, I would directly train the area daily, or every other day with 1 set of 100+ reps doing what I could to get as much blood in the area as possible. I have used this technique to rehab several injuries.