Painful ribs

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amy1021

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Hey

I went to my family doctor about a month ago because I've been having tenderness/pain/discomfort in my ribs area for quite some time. It comes off and on, sometimes it hurts when I breathe, sometimes out of nowhere for no reason. It's almost like a tender-like pain...the best way I can describe it, is like having a bruise and someone pressing in on it. My doctor had me get get a blood test to rule out gallbladder, liver, or spleen problems, and I also had a chest x-ray (it's been a long time and haven't gotten the results back yet). I've been thinking, and can't seem to figure out what it could be. Then I wondered about my asthma.

I've had asthma my entire life, and for the most part, as an adult, it's been under control. However, lately, maybe in the past year or so, it's been getting worse. I've had to use my inhaler a lot more (at least twice a day) and it's the most bad at night. So, I'm wondering if the tender ribs are due to a strain maybe on my lungs from working extra hard to breathe lately..does that make sense? Has this happened to anyone else?
 
Yes, asthma could be doing that. If you're feeling this badly, perhaps you need to be on a stronger asthma control medicine, or else look for the causes of your frequent attacks.
 
I have been told it doesn't show up on the XRAY b/c it is an inflammation of cartilage and that doesn't show on XRAY's.
 
Hey HRBCA!

Thank you for the information. I'm leaning more toward the possibility that it's my asthma causing the pain. Turns out we have mold growing Everywhere in our apartment - pretty much in every corner. We're most concerned about the mold we found in our bedroom. It was right in the corner where our bed was..more specifically, right where my head is on the bed..and there was A Lot of it. Our landlord is coming over to take a look at it to see what neeRAB to be done, but meanwhile we're looking for another apartment (which is hard considering we have a dog..there aren't many apartments here that allow pets :S ). Along with my quick acting inhaler (the one I was using at least twice a day) I now have a preventer inhaler (Fluticasone) that I use everyday. Since we have been keeping up on cleaning every corner and we purchased an air purifier, my asthma has been a little better (I do not use the quick acting inhaler as much as I did).

There have been over things happening to me, some of which have been going on for awhile, but I'm unsure if it is because of the mold or other underlying health related problems I've been having in the past 5 or 6 months. Back in March I had a seizure, and then diagnosed with temporal lobe epilespy. I have been taking Tegretol since then, so many of my head/mental related symptoms are likely due to that (headaches, dizziness, irritability, etc..), but I've also been having throat problems as well, and it now makes me wonder if these were caused by the mold. I guess that doesn't matter right now, and our main concern is getting the mold problem fixed or finding another apartment.

Thank you for all the insight though! I really appreciate it.
 
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