OT - Mystery pain in right side at bottom of rib cage UPDATE

This is about my husband, so it's a little difficult for me to know exactly what he is experiencing.

He has been experiencing this mystery pain since at least June. It was very painful at first, and hard for him to breathe deeply. The pain is associated with breathing. At first it was even when he was just sitting around breathing. He would have to take shallow breaths. Vigorous exercise was not possible. We thought it was something like a strained muscle so he took time off from exercise and it did improve. Just sitting and breathing was fine. But vigorous exercise again made it recur.

Went to the doctor. Had x-rays which showed nothing wrong with lungs or ribs. Had CT scan recently which revealed nothing. Doctor is stumped. He has ultrasound scheduled next month.

At this point he only feels it when sneezing, coughing, or a really deep breath. He is only doing occasional light exercise.

To me, it seems like it has to involve the diaphragm.

Any ideas?? Anyone here ever experience such a thing??

you are joking, right gar ?

Actually, I'm not. Looks like a black and white issue to me. Vigorous exercising causes muscle pull which heals and then returning to vigorous exercising causes muscle pull again. The answer - don't do vigorous exercising, or at the very least, give it plenty of time to heal, slowly working your way back up to it. It's time to be a couch potato for a while. The baseball playoffs are on, football is in full swing, or you can watch Dancing with the Stars or a bevy of reality shows. There's also ME TV with reruns of all the good shows - M*A*S*H, Gilligan's Island, Hogan's Heroes, Love Boat, just to name a few. Get some movie theater butter microwave popcorn, some beer, and sit in the recliner with the magic wand to flip the channels. You don't even have to get up (unless you drop the remote)!

could be costochondritis? Or he could have pulled something in the diaphragm or in the tissue around the obliques in the abdominal muscles. You don't mention your husband's age, but sitting here with tennis elbow that has lasted since June I will tell you that getting old sucks, tendon injuries take FOREVER to heal and torn muscles can be a beyotch too.

Perhaps he should go see a physical rehab doctor, called a physiatrist or sports medicine doctor. They seem much better at diagnosing soft tissue injuries than any ortho I've ever met.

A muscle pull is one thing (rest is bad) but a muscle tear is something else and requires rest. Some muscles can't really be rested - for example, your husband needs to breathe. That uses this muscle. Resting completely isn't probably going to happen.

I tore my hamstring at the origin almost 7 years ago. It still hurts if I take a long stride. It completely eliminated running as an exercise option for me. I am still not over it. It is impossible to totally rest this part of the muscle since anything I do with my legs or butt, including sitting, loads the hamstring.

I have never heard of viral costochondritis. I thought costochondritis was just a weird idiopathic thing!

As soon as you hit 50 AARP is after you so he has probably already got the mail. While I was only half serious with my posts I hope you realized I was exaggerating a little. Maybe he can make lower fat microwave popcorn and drink light beer instead. Ha Ha. Dr. Gary does diagnose a muscle pull over the internet and he needs to adequately let it heal before vigorous exercise again. It's quite common (especially in men) to feel better and overdo it, causing re-injury. Hopefully he won't get addicted to Love Boat reruns and will be back to speed soon.

Thanks for the suggestion Poppie, but it is not a continuous pain, it is only when he breathes deep or sneezes and coughs. I will keep it in mind if all else fails though. I will certainly do some reading at the GERD forum.

Update: The results of the ultrasound are in. No big surprise, they revealed Nothing. I still say it is some kind of injury to the diaphragm muscle.

But the reason I am posting the update --- guess where he is being referred to next... a GI!!! How ironic. And insane (in my opinion).

After your suggestion I mentioned GERD to him and I read up about it at the GERD forum, but it really doesn't sound like it. But like you say, he'd need to be seeing a GI anyway, so let the expert decide.

I was absolutely convinced my girlfriend had GERD and even sent her the link to the forum, and kept telling to read up on it... then it turned out to be her gallbadder!! So I should really quit trying to diagnose people. LOL.

Hey that's what happened to my friend, the one I thought had GERD. Even to the point where she went to the ER thinking she had a heart attack! But as for hubby, they already checked out his gallbladder.