Has anyone experienced swollen costal cartilage (cartilage running below neck bone on chest)? I'm having severe upper thoracic back pain on the right side only and now im having painful and swollen cartilage on my chest on the right side as well.
Do you mean the intercostal area? This would be the cartilage between your ribs. I have inflammation, swelling, and severe pain in the intercostal area that radiates from the thorasic spine area. There is also pain in the back, but not so much swelling. So far I have no diagnosis except inflamed intercostal nerves with no known cause. I've had both cervical and thorasic MRI's, I do have some unrelated cervical issues but they found nothing on the thorasic except a small amount of osteoarthitis T7/T8.
Did you fall or have any other type of trauma to that area? If you can take them an antinflammatory ibuprofen/naproxen etc. would be helpful (lucy me I'm allergic). I ususally use ice for both pain relief and to help reduce the swelling. I've tried heat off and on too, but the past few days it's been really hot so I've stuck to the ice.
