Monday, December 21, 2009

Rolfing Results

I decided to give Rolfing a try for my Costochondritis, and these are the results. The first session went very well. It was not more painful than any normal massage. I learned that Rolfing uses basically the same technique as Myofacial Release, but Rolfing systematically works the entire body in a specific order to produce more complete results. After the first session I felt pretty good and relaxed and made another appointment. It was hard to tell if there was any benefit to my chest though. The second session was less confortable, there were a few spots on my feet that were very painful and I came out of the session feeling a bit worse than going in. The third session, a few days later, was similar to the second and I didn't feel like I was really benefiting from this therapy. The therapist also said that there was some inflamation in different parts of my body and suggested that I "google 'inflamation'". I was a little annoyed by this because I had just spent the past 6 months using google to search for any information related to costochondritis and other problems related to inflamation. So I decided to stop the Rolfing sessions because I didn't feel like they were really helping.


Would I recommend Rolfing to other people suffering from Costochondritis or other similar problems? I don't really see much benefit to Rolfing over finding a decent massage therapist. But for me what works best is Yoga. It's like a massage where you can control the intensity and duration of each part and improves your fitness, flexibility, and coordination at the same time. After a session of yoga, I feel about as relaxed or maybe more relaxed than I do after massage. And with yoga, I don't feel the stress of losing money. But a massage is a nice for an occasional treat.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Rolfing and Skilled Relaxation

I came across Dr. Stoll's website while doing some Costochondritis information browsing. He seems very confident that Costo is caused by "bracing" which is basically accumulated tension over time caused by stress and other factors. The best way to relieve this bracing is with the practice of skilled relaxation. What is skilled relaxation? Basically anything that can get you into a very relaxed state for at least 20 minutes twice a day.

For more immediate relief of Costochondritis Dr. Stoll strongly recommends Rolfing. This is a series of deep tissue manipulations/massage that is supposed to re-align the body and relieve tension. Since reading the information on Dr. Stoll's website I've been trying to practice my own skilled relaxation, and I've been considering trying Rolfing. The drawbacks are that it's expensive, and it's supposed to be pretty painful according to several people I've talked to.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Update

After taking the Meloxicam for a little over a month, I decided that while it was helping some of the symptoms, the core problem didn't seem to be getting any better. So I decided to stop taking it and see how it goes. After the third day I think the medication completely wore off, and I was feeling a lot more pain and discomfort in my chest. But to my pleasant surprise the next day I felt a little better and the day after that a little better to the point where I basically felt the same as when I was on the medication. It was kind of like my body just had to adjust to find the right balance again after going off the medication.

I also decided to see a sport's medicine doctor to get some other ideas about what I should be doing. She believes that my Costochondritis is due to bad posture and poor ergonomics at work sitting at the computer all day. So tomorrow I start physical therapy to improve my posture and hopefully relieve some of the tension in my tight neck and shoulder muscles.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Back to the Doctor

So now I have taken my entire 30 day supply of the medication. I feel ok for normal daily activities but I still really can't do anything strenuous without some pain. Forturnately my job (software engineer) doesn't require anything strenuous, but it sucks not to be able to play tennis or do my normal activities with the kids.

Tomorrow I go back to the doctor to find out if she has other ideas and maybe do some x-rays or other tests. I want to make sure that what I have is Costochondritis or Tietze's and not something more serious with my heart.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Costochondritis 2

After doing a little more reading, I think I actually have Tietze syndrome and not costochondritis. The difference according to wikipedia and other sites seems to just be whether you have swelling, and I have some swelling that seems to be controlled by the Meloxicam that the doctor prescribed. Anyway, the difference doesn't matter too much because the treatment is the same: anti-imflammatory meds and rest.

I've been taking the meloxicam for a little over two weeks now. My doctor recommended I take it for 10 days, but felt I needed more so I checked and the doc said it was ok to keep taking it. There's no doubt it helps control the pain and swelling in my sternum area. I also seemed to be recovering until today. Our office had a boat party in the afternoon, so like an idiot I went there and jumped off the boat, swam in the lake, and pushed myself harder than I should have.

So now I'm back in pain and remember what my chest felt like a couple weeks ago. I'm a pretty active person, running, tennis, yoga, swimming with the kids, etc. And I'm finding it's difficult to resist the urge to push myself and do the stuff I like to do. Hopefully by writing this I will help to remind myself to be more careful. I keep reinjuring myself and as a result I'm not healing.

So my plan today is to really try to not do anything strenuous for at least one month. The first two weeks of which I will take the remaining medicine. I'm also going to keep a log so that I have a better idea of my improvement. Without a log it can be hard to remember how I felt 1 or 2 weeks ago, and then I get frustrated because I feel like I'm not getting any better.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Costochondritis

Last week I went to the doctor because I believe that I have Costochondritis. I had been taking ibuprofen in varying amounts for about a month and it helped a little, but I didn't feel like I was getting any better. The doctor basically agreed with my diagnosis and gave me a prescription for a stronger anti-inflammatory medication. It's been a week now, and the medication seems to be helping. I'm slowly regaining flexibility (without pain) in my chest. Hopefully one more week of the medicine and my sternum will be healthy enough to not need the medicine anymore.

My symptoms basically occurred like this: I was sitting at work on a Monday (maybe May 18th), I leaned back in my chair to stretch, and I felt this sharp pain in the middle of my chest. I almost thought I was having a heart attack! After a little bit of moving and relaxing the pain basically went away, but I could feel pain and tightness in my chest if I arched my back at all. Later in the day I had to sneeze and I felt my chest pop and a lot of pain again. That sucked.

Basically these symptoms continued for a couple of days so I did some research (i.e. google) and figured out that I probably hurt the cartilage in my sternum. I'm not sure exactly how I hurt it, but I have a suspicion that I hurt it when lifting some plywood the previous day. Anti-inflammatory medication seemed to be the recommended treatment so I started taking ibuprofin, but I wasn't taking it with any regularity and I wasn't really being careful to not reinjure myself, and I think that's why the problem persisted.

If this happended to someone else, I would recommend taking advil or other ibuprofin regularly for a couple of weeks even if it feels like you are ok, and trying to avoid any activities that irritate the area. If it's not improving after a couple of weeks then go to a doctor.