Manubrium

[tagger]

4 months ago I did a workout consisting of squats, deadlifts, benching, rear delt raises and dips. About 20 seconds after my last set of dips I started feeling a soreness in my chest, like something had hit me really hard and knocked the wind out of me. That feeling lasted for about an hour, and I went on with my normal activities.

That night the pain came back 100 times greater. It kept me up most of the night and it was almost impossible to move enough to get out of bed in the morning. I had to take quick, small breaths because it was excruciating to have my lungs too full or too empty. I figured I must have fractured my sternum to be in this much pain.

I got my dad to examine me. He's a thoracic surgeon, but he's usually better with organs and blood vessels, and not so much with bones, muscles and joints. After poking around, his diagnosis was that the injury was at the joint between the manubrium and the rest of the sternum. He told me to take advil around the clock and that after a few weeks I could resume normal activities as long as they weren't causing pain.

Occasionally something inside my chest felt like it would slip into place, which would hurt a lot for a second, but afterwards the usual dull ache would go away for a few hours. After about 3 weeks I was able to put on a backpack again without pain. After 4 weeks I resumed squatting and deadlifting. It took 7-8 weeks before I could bench again. Then in mid-Feb I had unrelated surgery and took 6 weeks off lifting, 7 off for bench.

Since I've starting lifting again, I get a very faint dull pain in that part of my chest when I bench. Sometimes when I squat, the joint will "pop" a little bit as I'm coming up, which doesn't hurt but still worries me. When doing certain twisting motions it feels like something slips out of place, then back into place. Going from a laying down position to sitting up with my feet hanging off the edge of the bed does this a lot.

What bothers me about this whole situation:
- I wasn't aware of the injury as it was occuring
- After a month, and then almost immediately another 1.5 months of rest, my body still hasn't healed itself fully

Anyone had this problem? know what caused it or how to fix it?

advice/comments

[tagger]

anyone?

[scrawnylongarms]

Hello, I just stumbled across this as I was doing a routine search on my godforsaken misery. I UNDERSTAND YOUR PAIN.

Quick synopsis: I'm 34, been weight training since 17, injured my manubrium/sternum area when I was 26. (was doing tricep extensions on a pulley machine, the lean forward on one leg and push out with a hammer motion method). Well, I felt something pop and immediately the pain set in. Thought it would go away, but it didn't...it hasn't. That was on August 3rd 1999. Everyday since it's been a constant and alternating series of stabbing, burning, soreness/tender radiating in type of pain that has yes...completely screwed with my life.

Like you, at that time I presented this predicament to my father (MD himself) (after about 4-6 weeks of having the pain) and he recommended the typical ice/heat therapy figuring it woud remedy itself - one year and zero weight training days later, the pain was still there. After that first year I finally managed to annoy him enough to go ahead and order up a compound mixture (pharmacy made topical ointment) and a corticosteroid shot. Well, neither worked and the shot just burned my skin from the inside out leaving a cigarette like burn at the top of my sternum. (complications of using a fast acting steroid). Another 3 year layoff after that still didn't bring about a remedy. I forced myself back into training doing what little I could in July of '03 - have been struggling at it since.

Anyway, the point is I've had the full workup..CT, MRI, X-Ray, 4 different chiropractors (mainly idiots and 1 condescending one - so watch for that!), 4 different pain clinics, about 30 corticosteriod/trigger point injections in total (slow acting ones manage to give about 2 weeks 50-60% relief), aspirin, ibuprofen/NSAIDS (which I now can't take due to allergic reactions and of course don't want to due to the disasterous side effects), prolotherapy, natural COX-2 inhibitors (from NOW foods which don't do diddly), stretching, rest, deep heat, you name it...all except accupuncture which I probably won't do simply because I'm tired of wasting hundreds and I mean HUNDREDS of dollars on experimental or short lived therapies.

So, if you find something that does work - take advantage of it. I of course can't give any advice other than experiment with differnet therapies when one fails. The life altering aspects of my pain have been worse than the pain itself. It's not the worse thing a human can experience to be sure, but still, it's been horrible.

**Actually, if you are experiencing a "slipping sensation" in the manubrium/sternum area than it could be something like "slipping rib syndrome" - even though it's the manubrium it does articulate a lilttle with the sternum**

Good Luck to You,

Scrawnylongarms

[kddmrd]

tagger,

Did you ever get a positive resolution to this issue. I am much older and experiencing the same for the past year +. Any info is much appreciated.

kddmrd

4 months ago I did a workout consisting of squats, deadlifts, benching, rear delt raises and dips. About 20 seconds after my last set of dips I started feeling a soreness in my chest, like something had hit me really hard and knocked the wind out of me. That feeling lasted for about an hour, and I went on with my normal activities.

That night the pain came back 100 times greater. It kept me up most of the night and it was almost impossible to move enough to get out of bed in the morning. I had to take quick, small breaths because it was excruciating to have my lungs too full or too empty. I figured I must have fractured my sternum to be in this much pain.

I got my dad to examine me. He's a thoracic surgeon, but he's usually better with organs and blood vessels, and not so much with bones, muscles and joints. After poking around, his diagnosis was that the injury was at the joint between the manubrium and the rest of the sternum. He told me to take advil around the clock and that after a few weeks I could resume normal activities as long as they weren't causing pain.

Occasionally something inside my chest felt like it would slip into place, which would hurt a lot for a second, but afterwards the usual dull ache would go away for a few hours. After about 3 weeks I was able to put on a backpack again without pain. After 4 weeks I resumed squatting and deadlifting. It took 7-8 weeks before I could bench again. Then in mid-Feb I had unrelated surgery and took 6 weeks off lifting, 7 off for bench.

Since I've starting lifting again, I get a very faint dull pain in that part of my chest when I bench. Sometimes when I squat, the joint will "pop" a little bit as I'm coming up, which doesn't hurt but still worries me. When doing certain twisting motions it feels like something slips out of place, then back into place. Going from a laying down position to sitting up with my feet hanging off the edge of the bed does this a lot.

What bothers me about this whole situation:
- I wasn't aware of the injury as it was occuring
- After a month, and then almost immediately another 1.5 months of rest, my body still hasn't healed itself fully

Anyone had this problem? know what caused it or how to fix it?

advice/comments

[kddmrd]

scrawnylongarms<

Did you get a better solution to this manubrium problem. I am much older than you but have a similar story these past year plus.

kddmrd

Hello, I just stumbled across this as I was doing a routine search on my godforsaken misery. I UNDERSTAND YOUR PAIN.

Quick synopsis: I'm 34, been weight training since 17, injured my manubrium/sternum area when I was 26. (was doing tricep extensions on a pulley machine, the lean forward on one leg and push out with a hammer motion method). Well, I felt something pop and immediately the pain set in. Thought it would go away, but it didn't...it hasn't. That was on August 3rd 1999. Everyday since it's been a constant and alternating series of stabbing, burning, soreness/tender radiating in type of pain that has yes...completely screwed with my life.

Like you, at that time I presented this predicament to my father (MD himself) (after about 4-6 weeks of having the pain) and he recommended the typical ice/heat therapy figuring it woud remedy itself - one year and zero weight training days later, the pain was still there. After that first year I finally managed to annoy him enough to go ahead and order up a compound mixture (pharmacy made topical ointment) and a corticosteroid shot. Well, neither worked and the shot just burned my skin from the inside out leaving a cigarette like burn at the top of my sternum. (complications of using a fast acting steroid). Another 3 year layoff after that still didn't bring about a remedy. I forced myself back into training doing what little I could in July of '03 - have been struggling at it since.

Anyway, the point is I've had the full workup..CT, MRI, X-Ray, 4 different chiropractors (mainly idiots and 1 condescending one - so watch for that!), 4 different pain clinics, about 30 corticosteriod/trigger point injections in total (slow acting ones manage to give about 2 weeks 50-60% relief), aspirin, ibuprofen/NSAIDS (which I now can't take due to allergic reactions and of course don't want to due to the disasterous side effects), prolotherapy, natural COX-2 inhibitors (from NOW foods which don't do diddly), stretching, rest, deep heat, you name it...all except accupuncture which I probably won't do simply because I'm tired of wasting hundreds and I mean HUNDREDS of dollars on experimental or short lived therapies.

So, if you find something that does work - take advantage of it. I of course can't give any advice other than experiment with differnet therapies when one fails. The life altering aspects of my pain have been worse than the pain itself. It's not the worse thing a human can experience to be sure, but still, it's been horrible.

**Actually, if you are experiencing a "slipping sensation" in the manubrium/sternum area than it could be something like "slipping rib syndrome" - even though it's the manubrium it does articulate a lilttle with the sternum**

Good Luck to You,

Scrawnylongarms