[pipitous]

I've lived for a quite a few years with constant pain from my ribs and its all to do with the muscles in between my ribs contracting.

The first time it ever happened, was when I'd just gone to bed and as I rolled onto my left side to go to sleep, I felt an enormous pain in my chest, My first thought, obviously , was "I'm having a heart attack",
But having that thought made it worse and I started to get panicky, which made me hyperventilate and made things much, much worse.

Eventually the pain was so severe, my wife phoned for an ambulance and 15 minutes later I was on my way to A & E.

Fortunately, I was soon diagnosed with the muscle spasm thing and prescribed a long term course of anti inflammatory drugs, The tablet I took every day for about 6 months was called "diclofenac" , Funny enough its apparently used in some countries to treat cattle for muscle inflammation.

In this story below, Vultures died as a direct result of eating cattle who had been dosed with diclofenac.

http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/20...re_update.html

Anyway, (touch wood) I haven't had any pain for several years now, But I know it could probably return at any time.

So good luck with your recovery Chris, might take a while until you make a full recovery though, cos ribs can be funny things to heal.