Thread: Sternum pain?

Anyone ever experienced this? For the past week or so, I've had a tight sore feeling in my sternum. At first I thought it was from sleeping in a tense position, but it's persisted. Last night, it worsened, and still feels really bad - inhaling is what hurts most. It feels musculo-skeletal (sp?). I certainly don't have any cardiac issues, I doubt it's anything more serious than some kind of inflammation...but I don't know anything about it, or how to treat it. Any advice?

thanks.

- Leela

Hiya!
I have sternum issues.
It started after an almost car accident,
where the seatbelt caught me hard.

The next day, while lying on my back
I couldn't even lift my head off the ground.
It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest.

Since then, I still feel the pressure....
and my sternum pops.
I have googled this before & it is not uncommon for the 'popping'.
The docs said now arthritis has set into my sternum.

But of course, check with your doctor because you never know....
Good Luck!

I had it once after a particularly chest-intense yoga class. I went to the doctor after about a week, and he told me to take a lot of Advil. I can't remember the mg or the duration, but it did ease the inflammation. I was pretty sure mine was muscular because when I would keep it in the hot water in the shower it felt better. Have you done anything to strain these muscles lately?

Well, I could have strained it easily. I regularly lift weights, and I've been trying to increase the amount of weight recently, slowly. But the pain started before the day last week that I lifted more. I also take a lot of dance classes, and do yoga, so there are any number of ways I could have strained something. It's just that it's never happened before. Maybe I should try advil and see if it helps.

- Leela

My sympathies to you! I ended up with severe sternum pain 20 years ago.....I did it shoveling snow (Moved to Virginia from South Texas). I was told it was costochondritis (not sure of the spelling!) It is an inflammation of the lining of the chest wall...that might be what you have as well. If the pain lasts more than a few days, you might want to have your doctor check you out.

In my case, I could barely breathe because of the pain, and they gave me prescription advil for the inflammation...it took two days before I could take a normal breath and months before I could breathe deep or stretch without pain.

To this day, I have to be very careful not to "over-stretch" or I will be in mild pain for several days.

I'm not a doctor or a nurse, but I have a tendency to hurt myself (because I don't know when to stop!!!) I've found that ice and advil will take care of most mild inflammation.