Sharp rib pains

Disclaimer: See a doctor for chest pain.

I had bouts of something similar when I was a teenager and I eventually outgrew it. It recurred after I cracked some ribs and persisted intermittantly for a few years. What you may be experiencing is called pleuritic chest pain. Visceral pleura lines organs, parietal pleura lines body cavities (like the chest cavity). Sometimes when they rub together there is friction that causes pain. It can be due to inflammation secondary to illness/infection or injury, or just occur without any real known cause. Over the counter anti-inflammatorties (ibuprophen, naproxen, etc...) may help.

Here's a link with more details:

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Pleuritic+chest+pain

Hope that helps.

Oh yeah, see a doctor for chest pain.

WELCOME to my hell!!!  Please feel free to read any of my past years race reports/workout logs and see what absolute hell I have been through with this over the years.

I am on my SIXTH physical therapist/sports medicine place because the previous 5 never could find a permenent solution...it would work for a little while, and so I would stop going and sure as heck, it would come back.

In a nutshell, I had injured my oblique muscle (that's what they told me) in a cross country race in 1988 (yes, that long ago).  Around September, 2003, I started training for my first 1/2 marathon (Phoenix RNR 1/2 in Jan. 2004), and before this, I had really only done 5/10ks, so I wasn't really running long distances nor was I running any of them at fast speeds.  While training for this, the pain first reared it's ugly head again, and did so during the race...after the 2nd mile...so I still had 11 more to run while being in pain...and same as yours Kickback, it usually did this, came on after about a mile and a half....

Since then, I've been doing everything known to man to try to get this to go away, and to figure out why it was happening!

I only have mine on that right side, the same side as the original injury, so, I assumed it was re-injured or some scar tissue had built up around it?

I had both a CT scan and an MRI of the area in 2007....but not before I was put through a wild goose chase of possible explanations from Physical Therapists, Chiropractors, Sports Medicine Heads at a University....you get the point....I heard it was my Oblique, my Illiopsoas was strained, my Psoas was weak/strained, my gluteal minimus was weak, my right hip flexor was too tight, it was because my legs are quite a bit different in length combined with the minor scoliosis I have in my upper back, it was throwing my pelvis/hips out of whack, it was nutritional, it was my breathing....

You get the point...with all of these different "gueses"...I couldn't really settle on a treatment plan that would get rid of it...

I am meeting with my new Doc on Monday, but the new exercises/stretching his fellow doc gave me to do on Monday (only went to this NEW place because the consultation was free) seems to have made it feel better....and I am getting good massage therapy on the area since there is scar tissue, which may have happened in your case as well since there was an injury...

My advice to you....wherever you go....have them watch you run....If they have "testing" facilities...try to get that pain so they can look at you right there and try to determine what is causing it...I would hate for you to go throught the merry - go- round I had to!

Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions...

Are your pains more chest or ab located?  I just started a post where I explain that I get upper ab pain, about right below my rib cage, where it feels like I've done 1000 situps and yesterday it got the best of me and reduced my to run/walk my 6 miler.  Mine seems to really come on when it gets really hot outside which makes me think it is effort related but I don't know.  I'm trying to figure out what the heck causes it.  Frustrating as all get out.