To anyone who knows me or reads this blog, I’m pretty sure most of you would look at this and just KNOW something isn’t right.
Unfortunately, you would be right. Fortunately, it’s nothing serious. You may remember last Thursday and the pain I had in both my chest and upper spine. You may remember I didn’t know what was causing the pain when I left the ER. Well I saw my doctor the next day and with the severe headache I had that day, all signs pointed to tension headache. I was told I needed to do more yoga and stretch (and take ibuprofen and muscle relaxers) – easy enough right? So that’s what I did.
That was until Monday night. I was sitting on my bed trying to manage the pain but I couldn’t get it under control. Not with pain meds, muscle relaxers, ice or heat therapy. I was just sitting and crying in pain. I was debating returning to the ER, despite knowing they wouldn’t be able to do anything to help me.
When I woke up Tuesday morning, I called the doctor and was told I could come in that day instead of my originally scheduled Thursday follow-up. Since I hadn’t had a headache since Friday but my pain was still unbearable, they did a few more tests, I pointed out where my pain was originating, where it was going and described it as best I could. My doctor poked and proded and then looked at me and said “you’re pretty active right?” to which I said “yeah…” He looks me dead in the face and says “I know what you have. It’s called Costochondritis.” I looked at him like he had four heads and made him explain what that meant.
Turns out Costochondritis is basically “the inflammation of the junctions where the upper ribs join with the cartilage that holds them to the breastbone or sternum.” As my doctor told me, it’s common with young adults who are really active and unfortunately there is no way to prevent it. He told me to keep taking the anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxer, refrain from exercise for the time being and be patient.
Clearly he doesn’t realize WHO he’s talking to! But I’m trying my best to listen and I can tell I’m getting better. Each day the pain gets easier to manage and my range of motion gets better. Progress. I’ll take it. And I’ll do my best to listen but I’m definitely itching to return to the gym for a run or one of my missed FitMixer BootCamp workouts. But for now, I wait.
When my body needs rest it lets me know – usually by completely shutting itself down in some way or another. But rest is good and necessary. So for now, I enjoy my rest and know that when my body is ready and able, I will be able to return to my workouts.
How have your workouts been this week?
Did you make sure to give your body rest when it needed it?
