I have experienced symptoms of this syndrome for sometime, but have only recently received a diagnosis.
As well as symptoms of pain in the chest, neck and arms I have also been experiencing an irregular heartbeat and abdominal discomfort.
Has anyone else experienced these symptoms?
Hi there,
sorry to hear that your suffering,i get the same symtoms as you and there really nasty,i also feel down when i get bouts of it,i just dont know what to do for the best,the docs dont seems to know much about it,they just say go to bed and take co codamol and they dont even touch the pain,i feel for you,how long have you been suffering from this?im into my 2nd year now,,do you ever get dizzy spells?.
take it easy.
regards
Andy 
Just come back from the docs with exactly the symptons you mention i.e. tightness of the chest, palpitations and light headedness. I have had Tietze now for 10 years and it comes and goes in severity. It is in a bad phase at the moment where even picking up a cup of tea is painful. I go to the docs merely to find out if they have found out more about it and if there are any better pain killers but not much is known about the condition and there doesn't seem to be very much new happening on the research side. Here's hoping it goes away soon.
Hello kate,
well ive only had this condition now for 2 years,is it the same as bornholms do you know,im getting frustrated cause the docs dont know much about it,,i feel very down and the pain just wont go away,i was so fit and active and i have a hard job and when i get bouts of this they think im making it up at work,,grrrrrrrrrrrr, anyway sorry to hear that you have had tietzes for ten years,,does it get any easier?it sounds like you get bad pain.
wild1
has anyone ever experinced a tingly feeling in the side of your face you this is happening??
hello there her3kidz.,
i personally havent had the tingling feeling in the side of my face but i get all sorts of different feeling,pains.
i hope your not suffering to much,do you get any of the other pains?
regards
andy
keep
Andy,
My experience with this started out with me thinking I was having heart problems. Seen heart doctor 2 times, did the whole stress test, pictures done. All normal. Nothing wrong with my heart. My doc finally told me this is what I have.
It scared the heck out of me. this has been going on for about 3 years now. I can actually tell now when I am starting to have a flare up. my pain starts in the side of my breast, at least that's where it feels like it's at. I get lightheaded. Sometimes feel like I am going to pass out. My face feeling tingly doesn't always happen but it does quite a bit. My left arm starts to feel like I have been holding it up for days and I finally got to put it down. It gets a bit tingly and just feels like I have no strength at all in it. My heart also feels like it wants to beat out of my chest. This happens a lot that's why I went to the heart doctor. I feel like I have to take a real deep breath to slow it down from beating so fast. (I have taken my blood pressure after this happens to my heart and it is normal.) After I have one of these episodes when my arm starts to feel so tired and I have to breath cause my heart I get soooooo exhausted. I could just fall asleep.
There have been nights when I am afraid to fall asleep cause I am always afraid that I might have an episode and not be able to breath to slow down my heart. Always think I am going to have a heart attack or something and not wake up.
Has anyone else felt like this? the heart thing I mean?
I am glad I have someone I can share this with who is has it as well and knows what I am talking about.
Thanks
her3kdz
hello her4kidz,
i get nasty pains in my left arm and my heart beats like crazy sometimes,i also get pains in my chest and when they come i think the worst,its a horrible thing,im now into my second year of this and it has got slighty easier after the inicial period of six months which were terrible,i was so sick so even when i get pain now i just grin and bear it,i find that its worse in winter for some reason and i get so tired so i can do is rest rest rest.
regards
Andy
Hi my stomach feels uncomfy too when l ahve the costo going on the sternum area 
l also have palpatations but l have thyroid probs too so dont know if its connected x
I too have had this syndrome for over 3 years. This latest bout I am suffering from at the moment is one of the worst I've had. The pain is usually confined to the front of my body, on the left, and going down my arm but with this latest bout it seems to also be affecting my back. I have tried reflexology, physio and take painkillers. I have read that steroid injection may help. Has anyone had this? I have appointment with my doctor today to enquire about the validity of this method of treatment. I too become very down about this and there also seems to be no trigger for it. I also have a problem, like Wild1, when I am unable to work and my colleagues are not too sympathetic.
Hi, I have recently been diagnosed with Tietze's after 2 years of pain.It first started in my back after having Pleurosy, i tried everything for this pain-Ten's machine, anti-depressants,massage, chiropractic treatment and finally a steroid injection, which REALLY hurt and did nothing for the pain in the long term.I got Pleurosy again just before Xmas and now I have such severe pain in my chest and back, I can barely breath and talk let alone move.They just keep telling me to rest and that there is no cure.I am now going to try acupuncture so we'll see how that goes.I really don't know what to do with myself at the moment and no-one is much help.I also have an under active thyroid and cannot tell if the symptons are from the Tietzes or the thyroid.I have headaches, nausea, am really lethargic,get heart plapitations,dizziness, bad haemorroids and an upset stomach.Also my left arm gets very numb and achy and sometimes my leg aswell.
I know how everyone is feeling and hope that we can find something to make life normal again!
Hi everyone I am 47 male and haven't been diagnosed yet, although have a lot of the symptoms I have read on here. My chest pain is not too bad but effects my left arm more sometimes restricting movement. I also get slight pain up the front of my neck and the top of my chest. I don't really experience any breathlessness but have had palpitations and dizziness and sometimes feels like a bit of a flutter. Does anyone else experience this ?. My breast bone can be sore if pressed and I seem to have a swelling at the end of the breast bone.
Hi Warby,
It does sound like Tietzes but its worth checking all other options aswell.Tietzes is the inflammation and swelling of the joints where the lung and ribs meet the breast bone and also the spine.The docs told me that it mostly occurs in the higher ribs but i also am quite swelled and sore around the bottom of my breast bone and my last rib so you are not alone with this.
Hope u get to the bottom of it soon
[quote:a724100e7b=\"maur \"]I have experienced symptoms of this syndrome for sometime, but have only recently received a diagnosis.
As well as symptoms of pain in the chest, neck and arms I have also been experiencing an irregular heartbeat and abdominal discomfort.
Has anyone else experienced these symptoms?
I'm not sure about \"irregular\", but I would say that I experience a faster, more noticeable heartbeat.
The only problem is that it is not usually over 100, so would be considered \"normal\" anyway. But I don't think that it's that normal to be 80-90 at rest, when at other times I can be 65!
My fear is that this is a thing in the mind - I am always aware of it. I don't want it to get the better of me, so I try as best I can to ignore and fight it.
Good luck.
I get pain down the arm into the palms, up the neck, under the armpits and upper chest (mainly on the left side)..sometimes it refers to the right side.
It has affected me badly in the past 4 months and has been painful at work.
I have posted a seperate post on Traditional Chinese Medicine which may be of interest.
I think a lot of the symptoms posted on here are also symptoms caused by anxiety form the pain we are getting (which I find makes it worse!) or any kind of stress for that matter.
By the way before I got this condition I lost a lot of weight purposly on an atkins style diet...anyone else lost some weight, then contracted this condtion?
Anyway must get on!
Miles
Hi miles, ive been suffering since the end of august 08, i dont get too many pains in my chest, but my chest constantly feels strange, like theres pressure on it, i get back pain too, and sometimes get abit breathless, i have better days than others, however i constantly worry about what is wrong with me. Ive had chest xray and blood tests and it stops me doing normal everyday things. Also my job is stressful and im not sure if sometimes it is anxiety aswell. Im only 20 aswell! Anyway i did lose quite abit of weight in a short amount of time in summer 06 to about december 06 i lost about just over 2 stone, however i have put some of that back on now. I have also wondered if that had anything to do with it
cheers.
Nikki
Yes...I had wondered whether my body had \"burnt away\" some cartlidge or fat around the muscles during my weight loss period....or whether this was a coincidence.
Could possibly that my body had used the cartlidge as well as the fat during the weight loss process...but then again many people lose weight with out any problems!
Just wish we knew the answer!...then we could find a solution!
Yeah....i wish we could find the answer, gets so depressing after this long! I was told at first i just had some virus in my chest, im not sure, i got it after id done alot of overtime in the summer, and the place i work(in a shop) upstairs has very poor air conditioning and no windows so was very hot in the summer, with only 1 or 2 air vents with air coming in from outside, so i kind of thing i may have picked up something to cause a bit of a virus then causing this. Just want to know what it is!
Has anyone visited an oteopath or chiropracter recently..I recently posted an extract from a chiropracter (see NECK PAIN)..on how he thought he caused it.
Just a thought......
I have had Tietze for 10yrs now. My worst bout was when I was diagnosed. They have now discovered that it is affecting my hands as well. Most days are good days, but when the bad days hit it is sooooo painful, I get pain in my back as well was my chest and hands. I have been told there is a treatment but they will not try my on it at my age (33yrs old) as the side effect are not good and one lady has just come off it because of the side effects. I use Diclofenic when it kicks off, still really painful at time.