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Chronic costochondritis post covid
Hello,
I had Covid two times, no hospitalization required, recovered within a week, each time, but did experience severe brain fog, lethargy, not much cough or fever though. Made a full recovery each time. However, since my last bout in 2023, I have had persistent costochondritis. I’ve had extensive cardiac, pulmonary, and G.I. testing all coming up negative, which has, through differential diagnosis, pointed to it being costochondritis. I am a very active 70 yr old female, workout 5x/week and eat a healthy, mainly organic diet. I’ve done physical therapy and acupuncture, also modified my exercising to limit stress on the pectoral muscles, to no avail. Sometimes the sensation is just mild pain, pressure in the chest, but sometimes it actually goes up into my sinuses and I feel a bit of brain fog and just general malaise. Has anyone else been been experiencing this, and is there anything I can do to relieve this?
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I had it. If it's an " itis " it's inflammation so you are looking at anti inflammatories from tart cherry and tumeric to cbd oil, to tylenol, to NIASDS, to pain killers.
Whatever works, least intrusive.
(not a doctor)
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1 ReactionI too had issues with costoconditus, had pulmonary embolism, chest pain, and spleen pain/pressure. I would go to physical therapist and have my ribs put back in place several times a week.
I spent 3 years on steroids about 5-7 mg a day, eventually my a1C was getting diabetic. I since have been on Low Dose Naltrexone and have got my life back. Still experiencing some nerve pain towards end of days. I would really recommend researching and talk to Dr. about LDN, Again it has been God send, been 6 months since I have had a rib out of place.
@teilts
Glad you were able to find a solution that works for yourself. Will discuss with my MD.
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1 ReactionI had costochondritis early in my Long Covid journey that was part of my chest pain issues. Voltaren Arthritis pain Topical Gel 1% applied to the entire junction of the ribs to the sternum AM and PM calmed the pain and it eventually resolved. Voltaren is a topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory. I continue to use it for any localized muscle pains too. Good stuff.
rs910 How's your immune system? I had every one of the symptoms you posted. Costochondritis was so bad my chest felt like it was being crushed. I also had a failing biome system so the chest pain was complicated due to a failing digestive system. Even my liver was impacted. At the same time I had headaches and a major drainage from my sphenoid sinus that was causing loss of taste, smell and an enlarged tongue that burned all the time. The T-Cell blood test revealed I had a failing immune system; specifically my body had not been making any CD8 cells and they are the 'debris' removers for dead cells. Since I had no CD8 cells, the spike protein fragments were not being removed from my body, but instead being deposited in locations throughout my body. I became a storage container for spike protein fragments and they were poisoning me. Micro surgery of the nasal passages (sphenoid and malefactors) found spike protein fragments had clogged up the passages and the yellow drainage was filled with spike fragments which were damaging my tongue and my intestines. The pain of costochondritis combined with loss of taste and smell and a 'yellow coated tongue' were the very first indicators of LC and they appeared within 1 month of contracting Covid D (March 2023). It wasn't until 2025 that the micro surgery was the first pain relief solution. Costochondritis stopped within 2 months of the surgery. In the end, all my LC symptoms were related to damaged and dysfunctional T-Cells from the spike proteins.
Germany has taken the lead on 2 blood tests resulting from studies in 2023-25 of individual Long Covid patients reported symptoms. Those results were placed on a graph. Here is the medical open access journal of record for this report. Numbers represent 'humans' in the study: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/12/7/790
This is another article on LC antibodies inducing persistent pain:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260324/Long-COVID-antibodies-induce-persistent-pain-like-symptoms-in-mice.aspx
@tkinder
Thanks, been using it with not much relief, but maybe not applying enough. I will apply it more liberally and maybe it will help.
@rs910
Yes, use it liberally. I used a heating pad some of the time to help it penetrate in after application mostly at bedtime.
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1 ReactionIm so glad to read this post as I couldn’t find any answers to my symptoms. I had Covid in 2023 followed by many symptoms of Long Covid. I finally ended up in complete heart block, congestive heart failure, activation of previously well controlled asthma, anxiety, GI problems, etc. I had pacemaker implanted followed with complication of pericardial effusion which was successfully drained. Since then, i’ve had constant chest tightness, and heaviness which was attributed to the asthma. The tightness would move from across the breasts to lower rib cage. Sometimes it would feel as if a heavy weight was pressing on my chest. Even with inhalers and clear respirations, the tightness remained. I guess time is the great healer. After 3 years, the tightness is not completely gone but substantially reduced. Sometimes i dont even notice it. Thank you all for sharing your experiences and solutions.
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1 Reaction@pattig09
Thank you so much! This is an interesting angle and possible approach that I didn’t even think of. I am in HCP myself so can review these articles with a “medical eye“ and will also of course pass this on to my MD. Glad you were able to find relief and perhaps this might be my path as well.
@tkinder
Is it ibuprophen?