I doubt anyone will read this, but I just need to vent it out. I have had these pains, lost my gallbadder over it, and am fed up with it. Its been 18 months, and people look at me like I must be making this up. No one expects a doctor visiting patient to not be cured... so other parents/ people within our community have started talking less and less with me over the last 6 months. I'm even getting the feeling from my doctor and her office that their patience is being tried.
I'm depressed, and am not sure how much more of this I can endure.
I'm depressed, and am not sure how much more of this I can endure.
I had Trigger point injections to my xiphoid and it has helped my pain. It felt like a spear was ran thru me. My doctor said pain pills I would not accept.Right after the injection I could not believe there was no pain.I have some discompfort but nothing like the pain I have been dealing with for years. I have been thru every test you could imagine and nothing could be found. If I get emails on this address the xiphoid or I will not open it.
I've been reading all of the postings. I had the same pain and nausea for sometime now and was just diagnosed with Xyphoid Process Syndrome, which basically means that I have either an inflammation or a tear in the cartiledge of the Xyphoid. Itis usally caused by heaving lifting, pulling, etc. The plan is to put an injection of Zylocaine into the chest wall. This is to give a temorary relief and if it works, then a long-term medicine injected into the area will be done.
Best of luck everyone. It took over a year and many, many test to come to this diagnosis.
June
hi june i dont know if mines the same as everyone elses but it seems so , ive had pain since december with the xyphoid , it is sharp and hurts continuously , it hurts in the cartilege area around it , it seems like its swollen , its a nightmare , im constantly waking at night as my ribs hurt in certain positions making the xyphoid worse , painkillers dont seem to help at all , an xray earlier in the year showed up nothing , please help
I have had trigger point injections in my xiphoid and after 3 injections I am free of pain so far. I have had every test you could think of and my pain management doctor found what my problem was. You can also have it removed if the injections don't work. Good luck I know haw you feel!!!!
raymonraymo wrote:
PLEASE talk to a chiropractor. I suffered the same symptoms. Nighttime was the worst as I would go to bed feeling fine but would then wake in the middle of the night in so much pain that I could not move. Sometimes the zyphoid area would be so sore I could hardly touch it.
Doctors wanted to prescribe pain medication even though they did not understand what caused the pain. Or they suggested surgery.
I talked to a Chiropractor who explained that there are lower ribs that connect to the zyphoid process, and when you get a vertebrae in your back out of place it pushes on the zyphoid via that lower rib. Have someone press on your vertebrae one at a time with there thumb. Have them start at the top and work their way down slowly . You should notice a sore spot on your spine at about the same height as the zyphoid. THAT is the SOURCE of your problem.
After my first adjustment the pain was gone! I go in every three to six months to keep my spine aligned. That’s cheaper and more natural than pain meds or surgery.
June Harper wrote:
I've been reading all of the postings. I had the same pain and nausea for sometime now and was just diagnosed with Xyphoid Process Syndrome, which basically means that I have either an inflammation or a tear in the cartiledge of the Xyphoid. Itis usally caused by heaving lifting, pulling, etc. The plan is to put an injection of Zylocaine into the chest wall. This is to give a temorary relief and if it works, then a long-term medicine injected into the area will be done.
Best of luck everyone. It took over a year and many, many test to come to this diagnosis.
June
hi june i dont know if mines the same as everyone elses but it seems so , ive had pain since december with the xyphoid , it is sharp and hurts continuously , it hurts in the cartilege area around it , it seems like its swollen , its a nightmare , im constantly waking at night as my ribs hurt in certain positions making the xyphoid worse , painkillers dont seem to help at all , an xray earlier in the year showed up nothing , please help
PLEASE talk to a chiropractor. I suffered the same symptoms. Nighttime was the worst as I would go to bed feeling fine but would then wake in the middle of the night in so much pain that I could not move. Sometimes the zyphoid area would be so sore I could hardly touch it.
Doctors wanted to prescribe pain medication even though they did not understand what caused the pain. Or they suggested surgery.
I talked to a Chiropractor who explained that there are lower ribs that connect to the zyphoid process, and when you get a vertebrae in your back out of place it pushes on the zyphoid via that lower rib. Have someone press on your vertebrae one at a time with there thumb. Have them start at the top and work their way down slowly . You should notice a sore spot on your spine at about the same height as the zyphoid. THAT is the SOURCE of your problem.
After my first adjustment the pain was gone! I go in every three to six months to keep my spine aligned. That’s cheaper and more natural than pain meds or surgery.
Hi Im having surgery to have the tip of my xiphoid, which sticks out of my chest, cut off soon, I'm keen to know how you recovered from this, was there any pain how big was the scar?
cheers
AG
cheers
AG
I have lived in chronic pain for 13 years. I fell on my head, neck, and right shoulder. Whenever I told a doc or RN starting in 2000 in California that the pain is radiating from my Xihphiod area, they would say it is not possible. However, I continue to seek someone to remove a nodule that is 6mm to 8mm and right next to the Xiphoid. Yet, the upper body pain is unbearable. I now live in Atlanta. The winter causes my pain to go to LEVEL 10 with acute pain shooting from the Xiphoid. I do not touch or push it, but movement seems to aggrivate it. If you can get an MRI of your chest, they might find a hairline fracture, or like me a nodule right next to your Xiphoid. This is finally getting attention, seach google for Xiphoid Pain Syndrom. It has been known as a source of pain since 1780's
I would be interested in knowing how things went with removing your xiphiod. I had three rounds of trigger point injections and the pain comes back within days. 1injection 4days, 2nd pain did not leave, 3rd pain came back in ten days. I am not sure if it is not my fault that the pain comes back. I was topping a tree with a 15 foot tree pruner and the next day I could tell the pain was coming back. I am not sure if I can find a surgeon where I live. Let me know your surgeons info.
Hi Kevin,I'm NOT a dr,nor do I report to be one,but I had a lump on my actualy xiphoid itself. They went in and removed the bone,and otherwise than a week to ten days of not-so-pleasent recovery time,I am now ,seemingly fine. Hope that helps you some. Perhaps you should just quit worrying about it,or pray and ask God to reveal what,if anything is the matter,and if there is,He will show you, God bless.
I like I said had different xiphoid pain and a lump removed. The scar is about 3-4 inches long,but my surgeon had HUGE hands,lol. FYI,look for a surgeon with SMALLER hands!! LOL, For me recovery was about 7-10 days,was rough,not gonna lie. You use those muscles alot more than you realize. Worst was getting up from a lying position,so,I sat sleeping up the first week or so,that helps alot. If you have someone to help you get up/down off of things that will help too. Since these articles aren't dated,am not certain how old it is.Will say a prayer for you, God Bless
Boy,wish I had read this BEFORE I had my xiphoid removed !! Of course I had a lump on mine,and rather than biopsy it,they opted just to remove the entire thing,but now I've got a nasty scar,and recovery wasn't pleasent either!!
Have your doctor refer you to a pain management doctor that can give you steroid shots close to you xiphoid. I had three and the first I went 4 days no pain, the second did very little and the third gave me 10 days pain free. The pain comes and goes but it had increased. I will see a Thorasic Surgeon and see about removal of my xiphiod. I can relate with your problem I've been fighting it for years and my doctor told me all I could do is pain pills. NO WAY
Wanted to contribute my experience for others. I had ongoing problems with my ribs -- costochondritis, constriction, old injury, etc.-- for years. I was put on an experimental drug treatment for fibromyalgia using high doses of probenecid. Later, this drug was replaced by guaifenesin (400-800 mg). The treatment's aim was a kind of excavation process in which crystal deposits that had formed would be broken down and extracted.
Initially, I'd had dramatic reactions that would produce " attacks". The most severe involved enlargement of a particular joint and then a release of what felt like liquid fire. The doctor said it was a release of crystals that had built up -- a type of calcium phosphate.
The first such involved the back of my skull around the occipital joint and it was very extreme, even causing temporary blindness. The first big attack, in which all the bones in that area were extremely sore, went on for several days. After that, I no longer had a puffy face and could think much more clearly. Since I saw very good results, I stayed on the treatment which involved cyclic but smaller attacks that cleared up other joint areas. It wasn't easy however and took patience.
However, the second major attack which came years later, involved my ribs and really focused on the xyphoid. It had become excruciating and was enlarged like some of my other ribs. My lower right back had also been nagging me with a flare up for some weeks before. At one point, after really rubbing the very sore xyphoid area as painful as that was, it felt like someone had suddenly placed a spout there. And as I'd experienced years before with the back of my skull, it felt like liquid fire. It felt like I was losing my bone marrow at 100 mph. All the rib area felt like it was just melting. The attack went on for well over a day. Urinating was sheer hell, because these crystals that are released are highly acidic and are extracted through the urine. After some days, things subsided, and the xyphoid was no longer sore. My lower back was cleared up, and The entire chest area felt much better. Some ribs seemed to enlarge somewhat, but that seemed to make my breathing easier from there on. From time to time, I'll get a flare up in the rib area, and it will eventually, if bad enough, involve the xyphoid which seems to act as a point of release for the deposits in that region. In the beginning of my health problems, I used to take pain killers. Over the years I've stayed on NSAIDS or a bit of flexeril for muscle involvement. However, such approaches of only masking pain, do not get at the underlying cause of inflammation involved in any arthritis. There are a number of conditions -- gout, pseudo gout and so on which involve a build up of crystals in the joints and muscle. It seems to be an inherited defect and sometimes made worse by injuries or some trauma.
The treatment is an ongoing process, cyclic in nature, as it targets various areas in the body. I had the same reactions by many doctors, and this goes back many years, who either dismissed my symptoms outright, or thought it was acid reflux, or allergies, or the chiropractors who thought it was misalignment and so on. Rheumatologists disagreed, proposing various diagnoses like relapsing polychondritis, or costochondritis, etc. etc. All of other drugs suggested such as cortisones or pain killers still only treated the symptoms. Plus, there were other areas of my body that responded to this other treatment over the years. For a defective xyphoid, I can see that surgery would be a good option, although there is always risk of creating other problems. For the more intense drugs, such as pain killers and cortisones, there are extensive new problems that they create. For me, taking the daily guaifenesin (used to be prescription, now it's just gotten through mail order) is a safer long term option. At least I remain on it until more research into joint and muscle disorders advances.
I know this is long, but I wanted to put out another option based on my experience for others. The doctor I originally saw for this taught at UCLA and finally wrote a book or two on his theory. His last name is St. Amand and can be found online connected to the topic of guaifenesin. Not everyone in the world can see a specific doctor, so there is enough information to peruse and discuss with one's own practitioner. like Probenecid or Antirane, Guaifenesin is a drug that lowers uric acid in the body and seems to affect or work on the build up of calcium phosphate crystals. These can cause other problems including gastro intestinal ones or headaches or sinus problem,s, depending on what part od the body has the build up. Usually several areas are involved, but often only the worst area is the one a patient focuses on. Previous areas that may have "subsided" are often forgotten. Guaifenesin is sold in health food stores but in much lower doses. As it became an over the counter or OTC drug, other people on this treatment order it online. I would recommend people read up on the subject as another option.
Initially, I'd had dramatic reactions that would produce " attacks". The most severe involved enlargement of a particular joint and then a release of what felt like liquid fire. The doctor said it was a release of crystals that had built up -- a type of calcium phosphate.
The first such involved the back of my skull around the occipital joint and it was very extreme, even causing temporary blindness. The first big attack, in which all the bones in that area were extremely sore, went on for several days. After that, I no longer had a puffy face and could think much more clearly. Since I saw very good results, I stayed on the treatment which involved cyclic but smaller attacks that cleared up other joint areas. It wasn't easy however and took patience.
However, the second major attack which came years later, involved my ribs and really focused on the xyphoid. It had become excruciating and was enlarged like some of my other ribs. My lower right back had also been nagging me with a flare up for some weeks before. At one point, after really rubbing the very sore xyphoid area as painful as that was, it felt like someone had suddenly placed a spout there. And as I'd experienced years before with the back of my skull, it felt like liquid fire. It felt like I was losing my bone marrow at 100 mph. All the rib area felt like it was just melting. The attack went on for well over a day. Urinating was sheer hell, because these crystals that are released are highly acidic and are extracted through the urine. After some days, things subsided, and the xyphoid was no longer sore. My lower back was cleared up, and The entire chest area felt much better. Some ribs seemed to enlarge somewhat, but that seemed to make my breathing easier from there on. From time to time, I'll get a flare up in the rib area, and it will eventually, if bad enough, involve the xyphoid which seems to act as a point of release for the deposits in that region. In the beginning of my health problems, I used to take pain killers. Over the years I've stayed on NSAIDS or a bit of flexeril for muscle involvement. However, such approaches of only masking pain, do not get at the underlying cause of inflammation involved in any arthritis. There are a number of conditions -- gout, pseudo gout and so on which involve a build up of crystals in the joints and muscle. It seems to be an inherited defect and sometimes made worse by injuries or some trauma.
The treatment is an ongoing process, cyclic in nature, as it targets various areas in the body. I had the same reactions by many doctors, and this goes back many years, who either dismissed my symptoms outright, or thought it was acid reflux, or allergies, or the chiropractors who thought it was misalignment and so on. Rheumatologists disagreed, proposing various diagnoses like relapsing polychondritis, or costochondritis, etc. etc. All of other drugs suggested such as cortisones or pain killers still only treated the symptoms. Plus, there were other areas of my body that responded to this other treatment over the years. For a defective xyphoid, I can see that surgery would be a good option, although there is always risk of creating other problems. For the more intense drugs, such as pain killers and cortisones, there are extensive new problems that they create. For me, taking the daily guaifenesin (used to be prescription, now it's just gotten through mail order) is a safer long term option. At least I remain on it until more research into joint and muscle disorders advances.
I know this is long, but I wanted to put out another option based on my experience for others. The doctor I originally saw for this taught at UCLA and finally wrote a book or two on his theory. His last name is St. Amand and can be found online connected to the topic of guaifenesin. Not everyone in the world can see a specific doctor, so there is enough information to peruse and discuss with one's own practitioner. like Probenecid or Antirane, Guaifenesin is a drug that lowers uric acid in the body and seems to affect or work on the build up of calcium phosphate crystals. These can cause other problems including gastro intestinal ones or headaches or sinus problem,s, depending on what part od the body has the build up. Usually several areas are involved, but often only the worst area is the one a patient focuses on. Previous areas that may have "subsided" are often forgotten. Guaifenesin is sold in health food stores but in much lower doses. As it became an over the counter or OTC drug, other people on this treatment order it online. I would recommend people read up on the subject as another option.
I have much the same problem, accompanied by nausea, excess mucous, and back and chest pain to name a few, for over 15 years now. Had every test done u can imagine, been on every diet, now vegan. NOTHING helps. Pain meds wear off & are hard to function on. Family & "friends" have labeled me a hypochondriac. Anyone else ever wanted to die as a solution ? ? Help