From summer 2019….

I woke up stuck today.  Inflammation within the joints of my rib cage woke me up from my sleep.  Costochondritis has been with me for a while and I’m proud to say that I’ve got it very under control.  In fact, I went to bed last night excited about how I would spend the next day reaching out to others to help them stop suffering.

I know this happened for a reason.  I believe that I know exactly why it happened.  It is a formula that I have been working on for years.  I will tell it to you here so that maybe you can avoid flareups.  Honestly, I don’t consider myself a victim at all or even a sufferer (not anymore anyway).  This is because I can count on one hand the number of flareups I have had over the last 10 years (2 out of the 3 of them have been within the last 2 years and were a direct result of my daily habits before, during, and after work.  Cubicle job pay is a helluva drug).

This was neither fate nor some sort of reckoning.  But I do think that my body was telling me it had had enough.  So, what’s the formula?  What’s the pathway to this pain?  So far, it seems to be this:

Multiple days of low-quality diet + hours of bad sitting posture + some amount of stress = costochondritis flare up

You can use your imagination on what each of these means but if you want specific evidence, I can go into more detail later.  You aren’t reading this to hear about problems.  You want solutions. 

So, what did I do?  I went back to my tried and true methods: 

• Concentrated awareness of thoracic stability
• Testing movement in different directions with no attempt to push past pain points
• Using relaxed slow movements instead of power and muscle flexing
• Withdraw the sternum backwards as opposed to pushing it forward, upwards, or laterally
• Target horizontal extension and mobility of the spine

I’d love to say I’m fixed and there’s zero pain.  That’s just not true.  I can say that what would have been an 88 out of 100 in pain many years ago is right now about a 7 out of a 100 (with 20 out of 100 in some specific spots around the sternum).  Of course, I just woke up and it has only been about 30 minutes since I first felt anything.

Today is a normal day – go to work and come back home.  So, I should be good.  Still, I will fix this today by doing the following:

• Yoga
• Eat right (smoothie, low glycemic carbs, vegetables)
• Sit and stand better (actual kinesiology, not number of repetitions)
• Go for a walk

It is always the things you know you should do but, for whatever reason, you don’t do them.

If I had practice today, I would consider taking NSAIDs.  But I don’t, so I won’t.  Part of me considers this a failure.  But only part of me.  I heard a saying from Mick Ebeling on a podcast just yesterday:

“Failures are never total failures.  It shows you what you shouldn’t do, and it shows you what you should do better.”

Sometimes, things happen for a reason.

Update:  I was pain free by the end of the day.  I did end up going to practice that day.  It was a tough practice and I even hit the gym the day after.  I had a moment in practice when a rough tumble twisted up my sternum – definitely felt that.  Still, no lingering issues and no continued pain.

My takeaway:  diet is important and so is knowing how to halt a flare-up as it is beginning.  Acting when inflammation is low means less inflammation to deal with and reduce later.