Chronic Thoracic Pain

Is the pain in the center of your back, the spine? My pain is all in the side of my back, the whole right side starting from just under the shoulder blade to below my ribcage. This also wraps around to the front. There are times I've wondered is it something abdominal radiating up and around to the back OR is it stemming from my back and radiating to the front. CT scans, a thoracic MRI, ultrasounds, and xrays all show nothing wrong anywhere. If I take my left hand and wrap it around under my armpit to my back and press, I can feel the pain more. There are other times that I am 100% certain it's coming from an organ because it's just that kind of pain. But no tests have shown a thing even during the pain. The pain can come and go at the drop of a hat all day long or be steady for hours on end. I can have it for days, weeks or I can go months and months with nothing. It's been bad enough and scary enough to go to the ER, I don't do hospitals. They can't find a thing and I get that look. LOL. It's been a lot of years and I still don't know what it is. Five doctors have told me different things and they all disagree with each other. Thoracic pain outlet, vagus nerve, adhesions from gallbladder surgery, musculoskeletal issues, and costochondritis. It is what they consider chronic pain now but no other answers or help. It's now affecting my life in that I'm afraid to make plans because I never know when this is going to strike. I can put up with a lot but sometimes it's really bad. I don't know if I should try a pain managment dr, a neurologist, or some other field. I don't like meds so that's probably out unless it's a last resort.

I too have chronic thoracic pain. I have degenerative disc disease and have had a cervical fusion and lumbar fusion which have helped. My chronic pain doctor has given me multiple injections of steroids and pain medication. He has done ablations on various areas of my back. This consists of burning the ends of nerves that are irritating my back. It is a simple procedure done in the OR under very mild sedation, just enough to relax the muscles. I am discharged to home shortly after that. This procedure has allowed me to decrease or sometimes eliminate the need for options. I just take arthritis strength Tylenol and occasional muscle relaxer. I cannot take nsaids due to chronic kidney disease stage 3. I still occasionally have some pain in the thoracic area but much less in intensity and frequency.

I meant opiods in the statement. Please excuse the error.

I feel your pain, I too have gone to the er w pain, they always say that I have a stable dissection. (Ascending, decending 2012). They always want to blame it on that. They never look for anything else. Then I get the look like I'm drug seeking!!!! I have an incredibly slow gut and that causes a lot of pain. But no one wants to address it. Your gut can spasm terribly. I also had redundant colon for which I had surgery. Just keep pushing these doctors to find out what's wrong.
They like to dismiss people. Good luck

I was born and raised in California northern california, when I was young, I went to the dock. They did house calls back then, that tells you how old I am, the doctor examined me and told me. I had a pinched nerve which is exactly across the back where the bra line is and I was told to stretch. If you have a doorway, and if you have a hanging or you can just hang with those hands, your whole body, it'll stretch your spine and that rib cage. That has helped me a lot all these years. I am also on gabapentin 800 mg. 3 times a day which probably also helps this issue. I deal with neuropathy, but God has blessed me with reversing it to the point that I only have to deal with circulation problems in my feet. So I'm very blessed and I'm a Christian. And I hope this will help someone who doesn't understand any of what they're going through. Make God bless you all have a blessed Thanksgiving.

The green area is the thoracic area.

Gosh what an ordeal!

So you have a thoracic level radiculopathy documented with imaging and there’s not a surgeon- orthopedic or neuro - who will intervene? Did they say why?

I just caught up your comments. I'm considering nerve ablation. I've been having shots that don't do much and the pain doc is saying because I reacted well to the numbing shots before the cortisone, I'm a good candidate for the ablation. Has the ablation been good? Anything you can say what makes a good candidate? I'm going on four years post spine surgery with rods and instrumentation halfway up my back. Pain is worse than before the surgery. Taking 20 to 40 mg's Oxycodone a day and sitting with heating pad a lot. Thank you

I have no idea, insurance maybe? They always want to go the physical therapy route which just makes things worse for me as I have Fibromyalgia and Ehlers Danlos syndrome.
I have noticed after I turned 60, that doctors don’t seem to care. They chalk everything up to getting old. Unless you are dying, their attitude is to deal with it.

Oh darling it is terrible. If you think it’s bad now wait until you are over 70. I feel as if I need to hang noisemakers off my waist so they will know I’m there. I think they use seniors to increase their overall “efficiency score” - like a gold star for reducing cost for the insurance companies.

I spent a fair portion of my career in board rooms and just use the skills I developed there. And on a couple of occasions I had to cut my losses and find another doc in that specialty.