Chest Injury - clues and referrals?

Hey Guys,

I've been nursing a chest injury since early Feb, it's preventing me from doing any form of pressing.

Not sure how it happened, do lots of varied training so can;t pin point it. The pain is located on the sternum and on the insertion of the sternum of the right pec and under the bottom of the right pec. It did feel like my sternum needed to crack one time and randomly did and a lot of pressure released. That pressure is still gone but the pain is dull most of the time, sharp when i flat bench or medicine ball chest press, and can be painful when I sleep on my front.

I left all pressing movements for 4 weeks and it got better but never fully healed. I started pressing again and found that incline press and military press didn't hurt at all but now that is also starting to hurt again.

I had a physio take a look but she couldnt find anything, xrays showed nothing but its now getting bloody painful again and so am having to stop all pressing movements.

I'm in CT, is there anyone here who has a suggestion? someone they can recommend to sort this? or even the right kind of professional to sort this?

Sounds like it may be a subluxed rib head... Basically a dysfunction of the joint between the rib and sternum. This is fairly common and would not be picked up on xray, only on manual palpation. Go see a buddy of mine in Pinelands, he's a Chiropractor there

spike wrote: Sounds like it may be a subluxed rib head... Basically a dysfunction of the joint between the rib and sternum. This is fairly common and would not be picked up on xray, only on manual palpation. Go see a buddy of mine in Pinelands, he's a Chiropractor there

Thanks Spike - was hoping you would chirp in on this one.

I actually have a good chiro very near to me in Meadowridge, just wasn't sure who the best kind of person would be to see.

Will get it checked out and re-evaluate from there.

Cheers

Hi Spike - i have quite an enlarged muscle there - could this be the same cause?

Jack are you sure its an enlarged muscle? Maybe a anteriorly displaced rib head causing a protrusion beneath the medial attachment of the pec? A subluxed or displaced rib head can cause a slight lump.

If it is more than just a lump it can be a complete rotation of the strenum, ribcage and spine causing an apparent pec imbalance/deformity. I had a patient and friend of mine who was complaining of assymetry in his chest, with one side (the non-dominant side in fact) getting better pumps and developing faster than the other. After exhaustive investigation we found that his thoracic spine was rotated slightly thus causing a rib bulge on one side and a consequent rotation of his sternum. This in turn affected all the surrounding musculature, pecs included, giving him somewhat of an imbalance. It was a nightmare to attempt to rectify, and we never succeeded due to the chronicity of it

spike wrote: Sounds like it may be a subluxed rib head... Basically a dysfunction of the joint between the rib and sternum. This is fairly common and would not be picked up on xray, only on manual palpation. Go see a buddy of mine in Pinelands, he's a Chiropractor there

Thanks for the help Spike - my chiro confirmed your diagnosis.

He thinks that taking that initial 4 weeks off has saved me a lot of problems and that now I just need to rest it for another 10 days or so with some stretching, anti-inflams, ice and another treatment with him for some more manipulation and I should be a lot better.

Thanks again!

@Spike - enlarged muscle is what the Doc told me. Its like a lump or mass rext to the sternum or slightly below. MRI shows its muscle-like. Got told i probably injured the ribs/sternum at some stage.

Great DC, glad its getting sorted.

Jack, hmm. If it is confirmed to be muscle then the theory of t-spine, rib and sternal rotation can still stand. A slight rotation can result in stretching of one side and bunching/shortening of the muscle on the other. Just a possibility. Any xrays of the back/chest?

Other options are some sort of displacement or hypertrophic scarring... Tough one to call