Monday 3 November 2008

Post #2 when it started and what I've had done

So here's a little about when i first got Tietze's , would be cool if other people commented with their stories!

In March 2007, I started having this weird sensation in my chest, it felt like when I was breathing in, my breathe was catching in my chest, kind of like as if my ribcage wasn't expanding and contracting like it should.

After a few days of that it suddenly changed into a very concentrated pain, on the right side of my chest, across the top few ribs. It was pretty scary, so I went ot the doctors. They said it was probably costochondritis, that it would not last long, and gave me some Ibuprofen and sent me away.

About a week after I woke up on a saturday in lots of pain, at first there were no lumps on my chest but after about an hour or two, 2 of my ribs got really swollen, and very painful.

Back to the docs! And he said with the swelling it was probably Tietze's Syndrome, he gave me some stronger anti inflam pain killers to try for 10 days, and said if that didn't work, steroid injections would be the next option.

Well the pain killers did very little and they made me feel pretty dizzy and nasty. So steroid injection in the chest it was!

I knew it wouldn't be very fun, and I'm not going to lie and say it was ok because the pain was awful. The injection and subsequent 10 minutes were absolutely fine, it didn't feel like I'd had anything done. But as we were in the car on the way home I suddenly got hit with this massive wave of pain, (the injection taking affect I'm told) it was all across my chest, in my neck and pretty much all down my right side. For a few days I couldn't really move, it was really painful. After a few days the added pain went away and I was just left with my normal tietze's pain.

So back to the docs, the steroid injection didn't work. He referred me to a Pain and Anaesthesia specialist. This new Doctor had dealt with the condition before and had lots of ideas, he sent me for a bone scan (they inject you with radiation and then scan to see the where you are radiating!) which just confirmed my Tietze's but it was nice to rule out anything else.

He then suggested some botox trigger point injections, (queue lots of jokes about having botox!). I had a general anaesthetic for this, so they can be really precise, they use some imaging equipment to get the injections in the right place. These didn't hurt nearly as bad as the steroid injection, but still made me pretty uncomfortably for a few days.

I had a second round of these a few months later and they didn't do very much to help me. So the doc sent me to go see the pain management people, who referred me to Physio.

From May- September I went to physio weekly or fortnightly, whilst my back and shoulders felt a bit better, my ribs were just as sore.

I had to go back through my GP to get re-referred to the specialist, my GP had changed since I had last been to the docs about this and he took some persuading to get my referral! The doctor tried to give me Amitryptyline 10mg which did nothing so I got my referral.

Back to the specialist and December 2008, over a year and a half since I first got this. He sent me for an MRI just to double check there was nothing else other than Tietze's going on in my body, which there wasnt. The MRI wasn't too bad, it took an hour, and i had quite a stiff neck afterwards!

So after my results came back ok I saw him again on the 8th January, he suggested another try with the botox injections. So on wednesday this week I'm getting another round of injections, whilst I'm not very confident that they will work, it's worth a try!

And that ladies and gentlemen is the story so far! Hope it wasn't too boring a read!

Post #1

Welcome to my Tietzes blog,

So first a little about me, I'm 18 and from England, I work in film and tv, I love theatre, film, comedy, photography and travelling. I'm not particularly athletic, I play guitar and I sing. I drive, don't smoke, drink a little and have never taken drugs (other than prescribed, of which i've taken rather a lot). I've had Tietzes Syndrome since March 2007, and it's a right pain! ( sorry for the bad joke)

I'm doing this blog because I'm fed up with not being able to find info about Tietzes and Costochondritis on the internet, and I really, really hope I can help others who are suffering!

I'm going to try to post as much as possible as often as possible and I'd love to hear people's thoughts/ experiences/ questions. Please feel free to link to me anywhere you want. I hope this blog is informative, helpful and entertaining!

Charlie :)