Muscle spasm

I'm sorry to hear your wife is suffering. I can only tell you from my experience of something that happened to me. What is going on with your wife may not be the same as what I went through.

At the time I decided to add a 3 lb. weight exercise to my routine. Unfortunately the new exercise caused a sharp pain on my R side below my chest and also brought on breathing difficulties. I was concerned it had to do with my heart. So the doctor performed an EKG on me, told me I was fine, and recommended that I take pain pills and use an inhaler.

I used both for a few days and they did not help. Then I went to my chiropractor and he said I probably had a rib out of adjustment. He adjusted the area for me, and the pain immediately went away.

Good luck to you and your wife.

Has she been to see her regular doctor? The reason I ask is that in my experience, ER doctors' goal is to rule out anything life threatening. After that, they don't necessarily do the work-up necessary to accurately or definitively diagnosis something that is non life threatening or chronic.

In addition to the possibility of it being a muscle spasm, there is something called costochondritis that is an inflammation of the rib cartilage. It can hurt like the dickens and feel similar to a muscle spasm and is found more often on the left side. It's often treated with an anti-inflammatory. The ER docs may have ruled that out, but if not, it wouldn't hurt to pay a visit to her regular doctor. Regardless, if it truly is a muscle spasm, I agree with Sherrine and am surprised that a muscle relaxant wasn't prescribed. Again, that is something her regular doctor could do.

In the interim, a hot shower or heating pad may help relax the muscles.

I hope she feels better soon.

Sherrine gave very good advice as always...

As well as muscle spasm pain, many of us have trigger point pain.

First a muscle relaxer sounds like a good idea to try short term, but also a physical therapist could also help whether it is a muscular or trigger point issue..

You can check google for trigger points in the specific area.

I am so glad they could rule out life threatening things, but she needs help beyond that to discover the cause.

Personally i use some topical pain relievers that help as much as pain meds..but she could use a competent physical therapist to understand why the muscle is in spasm. .

I hope you will let us know how she does, and maybe she could join this forum

Love and prayers, Lj

Hi All, I too have Fibromyalgia , I had to go to the ER, as I was burning , all across the top of my stomach, they ran a Ct scan on me and all kinds of blood work , and nothing showed up !! which that was no big surprise ! as I have had this now for well over 20 years . my rib cage is so sore that when the doctor pushed on it I thought I was going to die . he said there was nothing he could do since nothing showed up. I can't take over the counter pain meds as I have acid reflux, and that gets it all up and going . I just wanted to know if anyone had this kind of burning ? as it worries me . I'm not a big baby, but this hurts like crazy.

Penny, it could be from the Vegus nerve spasms. People with gerd will have spasms of their Vegus nerve at times.

almost medfree: I was diagnosed (upper endoscopy) with gastritis in 2011, following surgery for a ruptured appendix. The pain was terrible.

The first time the pain hit, I thought it must be a heart attack. I went to my clinic and thankfully, the surgeon who performed my surgery was there to see me. She sent me to a gastro doctor, who later found the gastritis.

I was put on a low-spice, low-roughage, very bland diet, told to drink lots of plain water, and prescribed Anaspaz. I took licorice root, aloe gel (caution: can burn; not for everyone!), and slippery elm (anyone interested in these, please check with your doctor first, of course).

The pain would rise in my stomach to my chest--it was terrible. One important thing: Make sure you don't eat anything for at least 2 hours before bedtime. I once ate just a couple of crackers, then went to bed about a half hour or so later, and had another attack 2 hours later. I got up and walked around until the pain left.

I think the gastritis was caused by my having to take NSAIDs in the hospital and following days. I now only take acetaminophen for pain, instead.

I had to avoid many foods for months. There isn't a gastritis forum here, but I think Daily Strength has one, and I found that like this forum, their gastritis forum had many helpful people.

csmams: I don't know if this helps or not, but I hope your wife is feeling much better. This was just my experience.