I don’t have a catchy movie analog for this one (although any good scavenger hunt movie will do). But it’s worth mentioning because it’s a fairly common symptom in the world of autoimmune disorders, and it can closely resemble a heart attack, so awareness is key.

Inflammation can pretty much attack anything in the body. In the case of inflammatory arthritis (IA), inflammation seeks out and randomly attacks joints. Some parts of the body don’t seem very joint-like, but they are still targets. One of the areas that can be impacted is the area where the ribs attach to the breastbone, via cartilage. These connections are not what you would consider “joints” in the classic sense of the word, but they are still fair game for IA.

The pain can be reproduced by pressing down on the chest. My ENT doc did this, and looked at me with wonder in his shining young eyes, saying, “Wow, that is really weird!”

Which wasn’t exactly helpful to me, so, hoping for a better explanation, I moved on to a cardiologist.

The cardiologist then ordered a nuclear stress test, which came back showing no abnormalities, which, while nice, wasn’t exactly helpful to me either.

Eventually I sat down with my rheumatologist, who, barely looking up from his note-taking, said, “Oh yeah, that’s costochondritis.” (Once again proving the theory that “to a hammer, everything looks like a nail”.)

The scary thing about costochondritis is that it is enough of an attention-grabber to feel a lot like what most of us imagine a heart attack would feel like. And knowing what I know about RD (rheumatoid disease) and heart complications, I don’t really intend to take this one lightly. I want the benefit of discussing it with a cardiologist who understands RD and how it relates to the heart. Hopefully I will learn what to look for to help distinguish true cardiac issues from costochondritis.

I went over to RA Warrior to see what Kelly O’Neil had to say about this. Kelly has become my Yoda, or guide, as I go on this journey. She has traveled down the road and is sending reports back for the rest of us. Here’s Kelly’s story and description of the problem. As I’ve said before, while I don’t normally revel in other people’s misery, it was comforting to see that this is a “normal” problem with IA, and that although it’s uncomfortable, it’s not going to kill me.

You can also read about it on the Mayo Clinic website.

Oh, and if you’re having chest pain, get to the emergency room! Nothing to be ashamed of. I did.