has anyone had pain around the back and front in the rib area, i can not tell if it is muscular or not, i think the lungs are some where in that area also, hurts a lot, started yesterday and is worse now, took pain pill but did not do to much for it, on a scale of 1 to 10 it is about a 5, have to stay still or it hurts to move.
Any ideas? Georgiana
Hi Georgiana, I dont have PMR but I get the rib pain with psoriatic arthritis. The doctor said it is costochondritis and prescribed anti-imflamatories.Georgiana, yes I get it, not as bad as you I don't think, but sometimes the fast sudden fleeting pains are very high on the scale, but don't hang around, thank goodness. So yes, I get achy pain around the ribs, sometimes on both sides at once, as though I am being squeezed! Fortunately that doesn't get too bad or last too long. I get the costo thing allycat mentioned and also a spasmodic sudden stabbing pain high up in my ribs high under the breast below the armpit on the L side. No idea what all these pains are, but I assume they are muscular/connective tissue origin, as they come and go along with all the other PMR pain.
Sometimes I wonder if something is festering away inside, but I figure that if anything sinister was going on with lungs, liver etc it would not be a come and go thing, and I'd have other symptoms.
I dunno, seems PMR goes wherever it wants and does whatever it wants! Many articles on PMR include "torso" in the area affected. If you google "polymyalgia rheumatica torso" you will see many references to this. PMR is definitely not just shoulders and hips!
Hope you're feeling better soon.
thank you so much i knew i could count on you guys.
feel much better knowing what is going on, i could not imagine what it was for a while
thanks again chico and alleycat.
Georgiana
I hurt most of the times when I breathe deep or cough or sneeze.
When we have a lot of all sorts of pains, I guess it is possible that one day we might get a pain that is not PMR and do nothing about it cos we assume it's PMR! I think that it is sensible that we have regular doctor visits for routine checks, especially as we have PMR. I go for a routine visit every 3 months which includes listening to heart and lungs, abdominal check for lumps and bumps and a routine blood test ie full blood count, liver/kidney function, ESR, iron, B12, thyroid function. As well as that I have my routine bi-annual breast and cervical screenings (which are free in NZ to all women).
I also have an annual "mole map" to keep an eye on my spots etc. NZ has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world - something to do with UV rays. I figure that's the best I can do for myself and if any horrible disease gets me in spite of this, it's just bad luck!
The trouble with PMR is that it does cause all sorts of unusual and horrible aches and pains, and just when we think we have it worked out, it strikes in some other body area with yet another new and scary pain. No wonder we end up with health anxiety! (speaking for myself, of course!)
pain across the middle of my back is still there, don't know if i should call the dr. and just tell him over the phone and see what he says
i will see how it feels tomorrow and make a decision then, it is quite painful and the darvocet does not seem to take the pain away.
Georgiana
Georgiana, if you are worried about the middle back pain, do call the doc and tell him, just so you know you have followed it thru. How long have you had the pain? Does it come and go or is it there all the time?
In NZ all women of all ages are enocuraged to be registered with the cervical cancer national screening programme. They call you in every 2 years for a free smear test. The national breast screening programme where they give you a free mammogram is the same, except it is available only to women over 45 yrs. A big mobile unit travels to all the little towns and parks up for a couple of weeks till everyone in the area has been done. I think without these programmes a lot of women wouldn't get the tests, either they could afford it or wouldn't bother.
The mole mapping is interesting - not free though! Cosst about 0 a year to have your whole body photographed with a special camera, and any lesions are photographed with a camera that goes down into several skin layers. Then you go back every year to have the same spots checked again to see if they have changed. I figure it is worth while for me, as a member of my family had a malignant melanoma. But yes, a lot of the spots that look so ghastly are "old age". Charming, eh!
Hi Chico,
I have had the pain in my back now for 2 days, it is mostly there all the time, hurts more when i move, or i noticed this afternoon i tried to lay down and it hurt. have to be careful how i move. i will probably end up calling the dr. it does not seem to be going away,
that is a great program that allows women in NZ to have those tests, wish we had something here in the US, but that is not even the reason that i am so lax about those tests. I have great medical coverage, i am on social security, which has medical benefits and two years ago our president signed into law that elderly should get prescription drugs at a low cost, so for about 20 dollars a month i get allmost all my prescriptions for free.
How are you feeling? Are you still off the pred?
I was tapering but i put it off for a few days with the pain in my back, so i am still on th 15 mg.
Hope you are doing well. Georgiana
hi
I also am having the same pain, middle of my back and around the right ribs. I had it before but it would go away this time I had it for three days and was starting to worry I had cancer. I felt good when I read what it was. My pain pills won't touch the pain.
Thnx Gayle
if you have access to a chiropractor try ultrasound. I have had horrible back pain and back spasms during this ordeal. Whenever my massage therapist used the ultrasound it was much relieved.hi all, i have a call in to the dr. just to be sure and cover all the bases. pain got a lot worse last night then seemed to let up a bit.I had this problem in October while on vacation in Mexico. I went into the ocean, came out and layed on my lounge, when I got this pain on my left rear rib area. The pain got progressively worse...to the point that I had to return to my room. This happened right after lunch and I suffered terribly until 5pm when I finally went to the local hospital. I saw an Orthopedic and he gave me some pain pills, muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories. Nothing worked. I was up all night in horrific pain. Most of my problems with PMR was in my shoulders, hips and legs.....never in my back or ribs. The only thing that brought me relief was heating towels in the mircowave oven.
This pain was terrible....it would come in waves about 4 minutes apart.....If I didn't know better I would have thought I was having a baby in my ribs. Sometimes the pain was so terrible I would run from room to room.....and had to remind myself not to jump off the balcony.
The following morning I went back to the hospital and told them that my flight was later in the day, that I was returning to CA and I needed something to get me home. I knew that they would never allow me on the plane like this. They prescribed codein and gave me a shot for the pain. The shot didn't work, but the codein sure did. I left Mexico that afternoon, arriving home around 7:30pm, took two codein pills before going to bed and the next morning the pain was gone.....and has not returned except for this nagging discomfort in the same area. I have thought about cancer and have thought about seeing my Internist and having a workup regarding this problem. My Rhumey said that it wasn't PMR....but what the hell does he know......he doesn't have this dreaded disease.
At present I'm on 4mg daily and am supposed to reduce it to 3mg on Friday for one month. I'm thinking of going down to 3 1/2 instead of 3mg. So far I feel pretty good. I've been on 4mg for two weeks and prior to that I was on 5mg for two months.
wow - let us know what was wrong. The worst pain i have had with pmr is back spasms. I have not had them for awhile but it was paralyzing. I would be screaming in the house. Could you have gotten stung by a jellyfish or something like that in the ocean?
No, don't think I was bitten by anything. There were no marks on my back.....nothing. Just this terrible pain that wouldn't let up. Like I said, I still have this ongoing nagging discomfort, but nothing like what I experienced in Mexico.
I had been on an alternate program with predisone during this time and perhaps when I went from alternating 10mg to 5mg and then switching completely to 5mg, that this caused the horrific pain. I made the switch while on vacation.
Tomorrow I drop down to 3mg from my present 4mg that I've been on for two weeks and am thinking that I should play it safe and go to 3 1/2mg for a couple of weeks and then 3mg for the remainder of the month. My doctor wants to see my again the end of Feburary at which time his schedule is for me to be on 2mg. Like I said, he doesn't suffer from this disease!