Help identifying chronic worsening thoracic + rib discomfort?

[verenth]

I am a 24 year old female with chronic, unrelenting, worsening back discomfort over the past 4 years.

My discomfort is in the thoracic spine, primarily on the right side between my spine and scapula, and spreading in a band around my ribcage to the front. It feels like a constant pressure that needs to be released, but can’t be. It is not at all dependent on position or what I am doing, time of day, etc. My upper torso feels very weak sometimes, like it is hard to hold myself up anymore, hard to even lift my fork to eat. Laying down is when I am most able to ignore this.

I feel as though my ribs are being crushed sometimes and that the only way I would feel relief is if the right side of my body finally caved and collapsed in on itself.  Sometimes it makes me feel nuts, like I just want to rip off my right side because I am so uncomfortable and can’t get relief. This happens around the entire ribcage on the right side. Even my bra band line irritates this feeling of tightness.

My shoulder blades on both sides are also extremely hypersensitive and tender feeling. If they touch anything - even something as subtle as my clothing brushing there, it sends me into a fit of twisting to try to relieve the extreme discomfort and pressure it triggers in my back.

All of these feelings give me to have an urge to crack my back, but this doesn’t ever actually relieve this pressure. My back frequently cracks on its own (even when breathing) in very unsettling, painful ways where it feels like something in me might break, like I am going to just shift something out of place and be in a lot of pain. I can’t even count the number of times my back cracks a day (must be well over 200x) without my control even, producing anything from grinding, crunchy feelings to huge audible snappy cracks. This cracking would not worry me so much if it were not painful and out of my control. Sometimes I also get a shocking pain up my spine on my left side if I try to adjust in certain ways to get away from this pressure.

I NEVER feel this go away - but I would say at random times it gets much worse at times for a couple of days in a row, for seemingly no reason at all. It feels like a flare up, but not caused by anything. While usually I face mostly discomfort, it becomes painful during these times.

Tests I have had done:

- X-rays throughout life: reveal an unchanging, 13 degree scoliosis curve towards the right side of my back, starting around the T5 vertebrae.

- MRI: Showed nothing unusual besides a 1.2 cm likely nerve related cyst paraspinal to the T5 vertebrae, no spinal cord involvement. This is the exact vertebrae I feel my problem stemming from, however, it is on the OPPOSITE side that I have discomfort. It seemed like a huge revelation this might be the cause of my problem because it honestly looks like something directly butting up against that vertebrae could cause some indirect issues on the other side, especially given that there’s not a lot of space in my back to accommodate something that shouldn’t be there, even at that size. I have seen a neurosurgeon and a thoracic surgeon for this and both were completely convinced that there is NO WAY this could cause issues on my right side, being on the left. However, I am not convinced because I do not feel they understood my problem as not a direct pain, but an indirect pressure and discomfort. Even if this is not the only reason for my problems, I’m not sure why this is being forcefully ignored by doctors as even a factor given the proximity to my problem.

- CRP, ESR, + ANA blood tests: Tests for inflammation came back completely fine, well within ranges, ANA was negative. Seemed to rule out RA as a possible cause, along with other autoimmune issues.

- EMG: Came up completely fine, and so I was told this is not a neurological issue on the basis that there is no nerve damage. I have a hard time believing that one test rules out any neuropathy as a possible cause for this, since it does not seem that EMG is the end all be all of neuropathic issues.

Things I have tried for relief:

-Physical therapy. This was supposed to be for muscle strengthening for posture to oppose my scoliosis curve, which they thought to be the cause of my discomfort. My discomfort was strongly exacerbated by an 8 week course of physical therapy, and despite my posture and muscle strengthening improving greatly, I felt so much worse. Doctors have ignored my ineffective experience with physical therapy and blamed it on me, and re-prescribed it over and over again.
-Chiropractors - made painful cracking much more frequent and discomfort worsened.
-Advil, Aspirin - absolutely no relief for discomfort.
-Hot baths - sometimes is a nice break, but only while I am in the bath. Other times, it seems to do nothing for me, especially when back pain is at its worst.
-Salonpas, Icy Hot, epsom salts: increase irritation and discomfort greatly for some reason.
-Heating pads - no improvement, sometimes increase discomfort because of something touching my back.
-Massage - Feels good on muscles as it would for anyone, but my problem does not feel like it is in my muscles at all. Additionally, pressing on sensitive spots on my back makes me feel more uncomfortable.
-Gabapentin - was prescribed, only tried once at an extremely low dose of 15mg - actually relieved back discomfort almost completely, but could not tolerate other mental effects which were much stronger than the therapeutic effects.

Additional notes:

I have had some other strange symptoms I feel are related but doctors do not, such as a 3 day bout of pins and needles spreading across my body - starting in the hands along with an extreme “heaviness” feeling, and then spreading up the arms, then a couple hours later starting in the feet and spreading ALL the way up the legs, past the knees. This was alongside my back flaring up a couple days beforehand.

I have also had other strange symptoms when my back has been at its worst, like extreme joint(?) stiffness in my hands on both sides for a couple days. This made it very hard to manipulate things in my hands, like holding up a mug or using a computer.

I was told these bouts of strange symptoms don’t matter because they only happened once and things like that “just happen” and aren’t related to my chronic discomfort. I won’t say I’m sure they are related, but I think it would be foolish to not mention things as worrying as that, even if they only happened one time.

Any ideas or thoughts on what this could be, if it sounds familiar to anyone or if anyone has had a similar experience to share would be just great to hear. I am desperate to find that someone even understands what I am experiencing. Thanks in advance for any ideas or anecdotes anyone can share.

[fred694]

MS hug. The MS hug is a symptom of multiple sclerosis where you feel as if you have a tight band around your chest or ribs or it can be pressure on just one side of your torso. Some people find that it is painful to breathe. ... For others, the tight feeling is around the head.

[verenth]

Hey, thanks for the suggestion. I agree,  I relate a lot to descriptions of the MS hug. It's something I am going to look into more, since MS has been in my family and this hasn't been ruled out yet and I know it is difficult to diagnose.

I don't have any lesions showing in the spinal cord, but I have never had a brain MRI. Not sure if spinal cord lesions are a "requirement" for causing MS hug symptoms? If so, maybe something else could be causing MS hug like symptoms.

I have also been concerned about the pins and needles sensations I've been getting all over my body. I thought this had gone away but it is more just fluctuating throughout the past couple weeks.