Suspecting RA guilty and not gallbladder.

[RosieA]

Sounds ridiculous but whilst being scanned for gallbladder stones I was astounded at how tender my ribs were. Prior to this have questioned GPs about the possibility that the pain I had between shoulder blades, stomach and generally on R side was mucles / skeleton, they thought sounded more like gallbladder. Gallbladder surgeon, said (not in so many words) not their area of expertise (fair enough) I'm just not so sure. Have just read about costochondritis and certainly, some of my ribs are incredibly painful if poked, but mainly down the side and back of the rib cage, not from the breast bone. Has anyone else had this? Puzzled and frustrated. Will be calling specialist nurse on Monday but any thoughts you have would be appreciated.

[Brushwork]

Interesting I am having similar problems. Though for me my breastbone is quite sore too. But, I also feel like I have back ache around rear rib cage area and also frequently get very achey down one side of my rib cage area... I’m going to speak to my GP first because I’m not sure if it’s RA linked - it could be another secondary condition 🤔

[RosieA in reply to Brushwork]

Bingo. Sounds just the same. Am increasingly frustrated by the lack of holistic care. I mentioned possibility of it being more skeletal but was dismissed, but have since discovered that I can replicate stomach pain by pressing (gently) between a few of my ribs. Ain't it great. Thank you for your response. Was beginning to feel that I was tittering onto hypochondria!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mmrr]

Yes, I had awful rib and upper abdominal pain around 18 months ago. The GP initially dismissed the pain outright, then said it was indigestion.

After an upper abdominal ultrasound, I was given a diagnosis of costochondritis, it was very painful.

The pain seemed to settle when I started benepali and remains all but gone on baricitinib.

It was mainly my left lower rib cage, at times it felt like I had a cricket ball or something hard under my left ribs.

I found sitting made the pain worse, gentle mobilisation helped.

In my experience there seems to be poor understanding of how painful costochondritis can be. Hopefully the nurse can offer some advice on Monday.

[RosieA in reply to Mmrr]

Yep! It sure is painful. I can think of two things I did which may have triggered this, one of which was prunning apples trees with extending lopper. Able to do it happily before RA but obviously may need to think twice). My back felt like the equivalent of the Princess and the pea - three soft cushions against the sofa but I still couldn't tolerate the pressure. The dilema for me is GP vs Specialist nurse - think I'll head for the the latter. Thank you for your response I was getting anxious that my post was wasy off line.

[JulieMBrown]

Hi I have had the same and have a diagnosis of Costichondritis. It comes and goes in the same way as my RA flares and I use Naproxen and other painkillers when it’s bad.

[RosieA]

Thank you. Gave in yesterday and took a Naproxen. Had so much contraditory advice about taking anti-inflamatory but needed something to take the edge off. Do you have a particular trigger? Do you know if it's common? Sorry for the questions but not a great deal about it on line when linked with RA.