I made an appointment with a new Chiropractor and, on Friday, October 6, I went to see him. I remember sitting in the waiting room, scared and anxious; if this doesn’t work, what do I do? When he called for me, I gave the same synopsis/story to him as all the other doctors, only he reacted differently — much differently. I asked him if he’d ever heard of Slipping Rib Syndrome and he said that he had. He then physically examined me and, when I directed him to the tender spot on my rib, confirmed that I have costovertebral syndrome, which is basically the same thing as Slipping Rib Syndrome (also called Floating Rib Syndrome, Tietze’s Syndrome and Rib Dysfunction Syndrome). He said that my 12th (last) rib had popped out of it’s facet joint, where it meets the spine and was causing referred pain to my left flank and upper abdomen.
He then took an X-Ray and, I’ll be damned, he showed me on the x-ray, how my 12th rib appeared higher and slightly behind the facet joint, as opposed to the others…How had all these other “doctors” missed this? He then said that because I’ve had this ailment for so long, I was developing additional complications, e.g. scoliosis, scar tissue, etc.
So, he put muscle stimulators on my upper and lower back (along with heat) and then ultrasound (to break up the scar tissue and the calcium deposits that have formed) on the tender spot. He then had me lay down on my stomach and proceeded to manually put my rib back in it’s spot. It didn’t hurt, put when he put it back, I felt an immediate sense of relief — in more ways than I can explain. It seemed my nightmarish journey was coming to an end, all thanks to my Chiropractor. He explained the condition, therapy and what we were looking at time-wise, and said he had his work cut out for him, as the Chiropractor I had been seeing (ironically) only made my condition worse.
So, I’m currently going to my new DC three times a week, and I feel better and better after each session. I know when my rib slips back out, as the pain comes back, and this happens often, but my DC said it will take some time before the rib stays where it’s supposed to. As the days go on, I can feel my rib slowly healing…This is by no means a quick process, but the faster you get started, the faster you can heal.
I urge everyone who has any questions about my ordeal, or theirs, to email me! I want to educate the masses on this issue, so no one has to spend the time and money I did before I was properly diagnosed!
Hi,
I have recently been having problems with my ribs. The first incident happened when i was sitting on the floor with my legs crossed folding clothes. I sat in a very uncomfortable fashion, leaning and stretching folding clothes went a felt a somewhat painful, but very uncomfortable sensation in my left side. I did not think much of it, until the next morning I awoke and was in excrutiating pain. I could not breathe, raise my arm above my head, and was plagues with stabbing pains when i moved. I went to a chiropractor who diagnosed me with having three displaced ribs. The chiropractor, after more than an hour of extremely painful treatment, was unable to bring me any relief. I went the next day to my MD, who diagnosed me with scoliosis, and after giving me a steriod shot, refered my to another chiropractor. The shot helped tremedously, and the new chiropractor was able to bring me some relief. However, the chiropractor, after popping my neck, caused a pinched nerve in my neck. This caused severe pain, and tingling sensation in my left arm. After multiple visists, my neck and ribs continued to hurt, so i decided to give my body a rest from the adjustments. After about 2 weeks of no treatments, I was seeing improvement. The neck pain, and resulting muscle spasms were completely gone. However, there was still slight rib pain. After taking a road trip on extremely rough terrain, i believe i have displaced another rib. I feel like it is one of the very top ones in my rib cage. There is a visible “muslve knont” on the painful rib, that i cannot get to reolve. I am also having painful stabbing into my lungs. At this point, I do not know what to do, see my MD, or the chirpractor he suggested last time. Can you offer any suggestions/advice? Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Hi,
I have recently been having problems with my ribs. The first incident happened when i was sitting on the floor with my legs crossed folding clothes. I sat in a very uncomfortable fashion, leaning and stretching folding clothes went a felt a somewhat painful, but very uncomfortable sensation in my left side. I did not think much of it, until the next morning I awoke and was in excrutiating pain. I could not breathe, raise my arm above my head, and was plagues with stabbing pains when i moved. I went to a chiropractor who diagnosed me with having three displaced ribs. The chiropractor, after more than an hour of extremely painful treatment, was unable to bring me any relief. I went the next day to my MD, who diagnosed me with scoliosis, and after giving me a steriod shot, refered my to another chiropractor. The shot helped tremedously, and the new chiropractor was able to bring me some relief. However, the chiropractor, after popping my neck, caused a pinched nerve in my neck. This caused severe pain, and tingling sensation in my left arm. After multiple visists, my neck and ribs continued to hurt, so i decided to give my body a rest from the adjustments. After about 2 weeks of no treatments, I was seeing improvement. The neck pain, and resulting muscle spasms were completely gone. However, there was still slight rib pain. After taking a road trip on extremely rough terrain, i believe i have displaced another rib. I feel like it is one of the very top ones in my rib cage. There is a visible “muslve knont” on the painful rib, that i cannot get to reolve. I am also having painful stabbing into my lungs. At this point, I do not know what to do, see my MD, or the chirpractor he suggested last time. Can you offer any suggestions/advice? Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Crystal
Crystal, you need to follow-up with your MD and your DC. If you do not feel comfortable with the DC you were seeing, you can find one that meets your standards. I would make an appointment with your MD first, then see your DC. If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that it takes a lot of time and effort to “train” the ribs to go back and stay where they “belong.” The most important thing here is to not get frustrated and don’t give up hope. There are a lot of us out here in the same boat as you! Let me know what you decide!
I’m a 37 year old woman that has been dealing with pains with my left flank and left lower quadrant for 2 years, I have been to numerous doctors, speciallest, surgeons, and pain clinics. I have had C.T.’s all sorts of blood work, ultrasounds, x-rays, M.R.I.’s, bone-scans. with no findings of any sorts. I was put on pain medications, that ended in abuse becuse of no relief. this resulted in street drug abuse, and now two drug rehabs latter I am recovering from the drug abuse and I’m still dealing with this pain and it seams to be getting worse, my last visit to the
ER last night resulting in the doctor giving me the same test and still with no finding. please let me know if there are any new finding on this problem, i have been reading alot of post from other people that have the same problems and i find it hard to beleve that there isn’t a group of specialst working on this.
Hello Crystal,
I am 60 years old and have had scoliosis since I was an adolescent. I read your comments on “The Beginning of the End”. I started having pain on the side where my rib cage tends to be compressed. I have no pain as long as I am lying down, but when I get up in the morning, the pain starts again after I have any kind of physical activity however light it may be. Last year, I went to a pain doctor who gave me cortisone shots in my spine. It did not relieve the pain. Recently, the pain has gotten worse so that I can be up only a few minutes. I have to lie down and use a heating pad on my side and take a pain reliever to ease the pain. I wondered if this is similar to the problem you had/have and if you think chiropractic treatments would help me. Also, since you wrote your comments, has your condition continued to improve and how should I go about finding a chiropractor that can help me (trial and error, etc) ?
Thanks so much for any help or suggestions you may have to offer.
Judy
Could you let me know what school of chiropractic medicine your new helpful DC went to? Or even his name and phone number? Anything would help and I desperatly need it.
Thank You
Kathy
i am only 23 and i have had flank pain on my left side for about 2 months now. I thought it was my kidney buy the doctor did a urine test for blood and bacteria and it came back negative. So he said I should be fine so then I went to the chiropracter for about 3 weeks with little relief. He never did any xrays but he thinks it my kidney. So I don’t know what to do. Its really like a dull achey pain that comes and goes. I can get in a position where I can get comfortable. But if i sleep wrong or something it will ache all morning. any ideas or help at all would be great thank you
I have had left flank pain for months now. In the past, the pain would be sudden and take my breath away–leaving my flank sore. Now, it’s painful ALL the time. I have had a series of Kidney tests (IVP, MRI, nuclear renal) everything came back fine. Now the Dr.s want to send me to a pain specialist. I don’t want to cover up the pain, I want to find out what it is!
It even hurts when I breathe. I also have a connective tissue disorder, multiple hernias, bicuspid aortic valve, reynaud’s syndrome, hyperextention of my joints–and lately a lot of gas and constipation…
anybody out there with the same symptoms. Dr.s are starting to think I am crazy.