The first few are from the “expert of experts” of Slipping Rib Syndrome and the surgeon I will be seeing on August 12th, Dr. Adam Hansen.
In this first video at 5:00 he talks about feeling like a spear going from the xiphoid to the mid-back – exactly as I describe it. Dr. Hansen’s videos leave little doubt that I have this condition. I see myself in almost all of them.
I think my case is very similar to the patient in this video. The entire video is fascinating to me but if you don’t have 12 minutes, watch just 45 seconds, starting at 3:00
Dr. Hansen Evaluation
I think my case is pretty similar to this patient’s. Watching this was my biggest “Ah-ha!” moment.
Dr. Hansen and Dr. Kim
Here is a great video that shows how problems in the thoracic area such as Slipping Rib Syndrome can affect the vascular, gastrointestinal and even immune system. It’s long but very informative. However around 50:30 Dr. Hansen talks about diagnosis and he talks about where the pain should be if it’s coming from SRS. He basically says that if there is no pain at the points of rib dislocation as well as somewhere else along the dermatome, there’s a big question mark in his mind. This is the same doubt I have. Why don’t I have more pain at the rib tips, where they are supposedly banging into the intercostal nerves? My nerve problem seems to be very close to the spine. Is it referred pain? Is it rib head pain? Pain in the mid-back near the spine seems to be a very common symptom of SRS. In my case, it’s 90% of my pain, or at least it’s the location of the pain that is most debilitating. I have pain along the entire 10th dermatome but I always blamed most of that on my mangled left ab muscle. That pain is much easier to ignore. The question is, is the knife in my back from SRS, the hernia, both or neither?
Curling Ribs
Here is a video that talks about the ribs “curling up”, something I’ve noticed from the beginning. My false ribs, 9 and 10, seem to curl or roll up, just as this guy describes. I think that even though the cartilage breaks off, the tendons remain, which is why they are pulled inward and up. Does this movement irritate the costovertebral and costotransverse joints? Is that the mid-back pain almost every SRS patient describes? Or is the back pain referred from somewhere else on the dermatome (e.g. the dislocation points), where the intercostal nerve is being irritated.
More Dr Hansen Videos
Here is a video that describes the “curling up” of the 9th and 10th ribs.
Here is a simple explanation of SRS and Dr. Hansen’s simplest (early?) technique The Hansen 1.0?