Bone Pain and Rib #10

By the end of 2009 I had seen a series of chiropractors for intense rib and thoraccic pain. In December these doctors had started commenting on my odd rib movement, because more and more ribs were moving. So in February 2010 when I was forced to wear a rib belt (and then later, two belts) to prevent rib movement of right rib #10, I went back to the hospital (I had boycotted going since finding out about the steroid) for x-rays of the lower cartilage that I said was breaking. [In fact, tearing. Bones break and cartilage tear, and rib #10 was in fact moving a lot and as a result causing myofascial pain in the right lingual area, the pain of which I was still attributing to the steriod and subsequent inflamed lymph nodes of months before.] Of course cartilage hardly shows up on x-ray so of course nothing to make a diagnosis on could be seen - waste of time, waste of money, what were the doctors thinking? I demanded a CT scan of the rib cage, and then had to go in again for re-taking it (and get loads of extra radiation) because the technicians didn't scan the lower cartilage area, the affected area - what were the technicians thinking? The technical report of the scan was "tortuous change to rib #10" but not one of several bone specialists I then went to acknowledged that this was a problem! WHAT WERE THE DOCTORS DOING? NOTHING!

This is my March 12, 2010 copy of my chest CT. By the time I had this CT scan, my rib cartilage was hurting badly in a number of areas. The areas I had complained about for the longest was right rib #4 where it meets the sternum but by this time my chiropracter acknowledged that three of the right ribs and two of the left off the sternum were slightly dislocated (soon afterwards, another left rib off the sternum also slightly popped up). Also, rib cartilage felt crunchy under the right breast so much that I stopped twisting in any way, and when the right rib #10 got so bad that I had to even stop wearing the two rib belts (damn, it was bad) I didn't dare move even a millimeter to the left or the right. Rib pain was on the left too, but that pain was manageable. Because the body has more lymph fluid than blood and both fluids need to be circulated so a person can recover more easily, I did make myself walk outside in the cold every day that I had energy. Exercise is important and walking without swinging the arms in the cold, cold weather seemed to ease some of the pain. [In hindsight, I realize this was what was boosting my vitamin D. Getting the regular doses on my face for 2 or so hours a day is probably what slowly eased the pain and was probably the best thing I could do for myself.]

I've finally decided to go ahead and post my personal information. Maybe someone, a medical student perhaps, will benefit from this. Anyway, note the pieces of something that very much look like cartilage fragments falling under the right rib cage. That was where I hurt, hurt, hurt, and when the doctor (the one who prescribed Xanax for me and told me to see a psychiatrist) didn't address this and it's in the area of my complaint, I asked him what that was. He said, "Artifacts." I asked, "Artifacts from what?" He looked at me like I was stupid and never said anything. He did read the analyst's comment to the CT scan, "Tortuous change to rib #10." That was all. Neither he nor any subsequent doctor ever addressed this as a problem!



I was starting to get more and more aggressive about finding my problem, so early in March 2010 I had already gone to a private clinic and had ordered a hair analysis, a complete nutritional analysis as well as blood work on 6 vitamins: B1, B6, B12, A, D, and E. [This was the first step in me becoming my own doctor.]