tldr; do you or someone you know have fused ribs and can help me figure out where to go / what to do? are you into medicine and want a bizarre case to puzzle on this Saturday afternoon? because oh boy doctors haven given up on helping me and I hurt so so much
hi! back in febuary after years and years of pain I was diagnosed with "congenital fusing of the fifth and sixth ribs" when I asked the rheumatologist who ordered the xray what caused it he messaged back "you have no symptoms of arthritis so I cannot help you". took me from then until last week to meet with my PCP who answered the question with "idk bodies are weird sometimes, want me to prescribe pain meds?". I haven't the PTO nor the fortitude to go to many other specialists, and they all have year long wait lists anyways.
it hurts a lot. sometimes not so much, today immensely so, and I'm getting desperate. So I would really really really fucking like to know jsut what could possibly be causing this so I can pick who to go to carefully, and what I can do for the likely year that I have to wait to get told they can't help me
does anyone have any clue what this could be? the only thing google shows is this like,, degenerative autoimmune condition that's called like AS or something which the rheumo absolutely would've caught had that been it. I had lung surgery as a kid so maybe that's part of it?? idk??
this doesn't help the "it's not AS" case, but this comment on the AS subreddit is the only time I've ever seen someone accurately describe my pain. that's it, that's exactly where and how it hurts. I refuse to believe I have AS but it feels so good to know that other people Get It. maybe it's just that my rib is fused from some other cause and the pain manifests the same as when their ribs fuse
just including that so that anyone who wants to help has a better idea of what this is like
