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My journey began in 2018 with a burning sensation between my right shoulder blade and my spine, and sometimes a numb, cold feeling that progressed over time to a sharp, long lasting pain that was worsened with physical activity.

Over the next few years the amount of time I could be physically active before the onset of this pain lessened, and I began to get a crippling, crushing pain in my spine.

 

Initially, I didn’t go to my doctor, as I had had an unrelated misdiagnosis in 2016 which led to peritonitis, being on the brink of death, and an abdominal surgery that had complications. At this time, my trust in medicine already wasn’t great. In early 2019 things started to get so bad that I had to seek help and visit my GP, who suspected I might have Ankylosing Spondylitis and sent me for an X-Ray. The X-Ray didn’t show any obvious damage or abnormality in my spine other than a slight curvature. My doctor referred me to a physiotherapist, who told me that I just needed to strengthen the muscles in my back and gave me some exercises to do at home.

 

I did these exercises daily for a while, but they made no difference to my pain, and I felt like they were making it worse.

I started going to a chiropractor in April 2019. I explained my symptoms to her and she couldn’t see anything obvious by looking at my spine but I found that the adjustments she did would help to reduce the pain a little for up to 2 days. I continued to go to the chiropractor, but was so desperate for relief that I tried everything else I could think of to ease the ever increasing pain. I tried painkillers, heat gel, ice, yoga, acupuncture, homeopathy, massage, a back stretcher, but nothing I tried gave me any relief. I just had to learn to live with it and told myself that maybe it was just part of getting older, but I was only 30, and nobody else seemed to have this crippling pain that I had. I told myself that maybe I just had a low tolerance to pain, but having been though kidney stones, appendicitis, peritonitis, and various other painful conditions in the past, I knew pain, and I knew that wasn’t the case. I had a very public facing life and became adept at hiding my pain.

 

By June 2019 I started getting gastrointestinal problems. I had diarrhoea most days, along with bloating, and severe abdominal pain. Again, I tried to avoid the doctor, and told myself it would go away, but after around a month, I felt I had to go. The doctor did some tests. I had endoscopies, which revealed nothing other than a hiatus hernia, which I was told we would keep an eye on and may need to be operated on later in my life. To explain my other symptoms my doctor told me I had Irritable Bowel Syndrome and gave me Loperamide and Mebeverine to slow down my contractions and help to prevent loose stools.

Most days I had to go to work on an empty stomach, because I was afraid of repercussions after eating anything, and this made me feel very weak. I began getting migraines and vertigo regularly, which I am now on medication (Propranolol) for, and it is working well.

 

A combination of the weakness, the headaches, the dizziness, diarrhoea, and the agonising pain in my spine and scapula meant that I started to struggle in my very physical, 50 hour a week job. I reduced my hours for 50 to 40 in the hope that that might make a difference, but the physical activity and long days meant that I had to try to cope, and continue to hide everything away as much as I could, but some days as soon as I got home I would have to lie down on the floor for hours. This was consuming my life. What could I tell someone if I was honest about what I was feeling? I didn’t know what it was.

 

I bought my first house in 2020 and moved in 1 week before the first lockdown started in the UK. I spent my days decorating, gardening, and working on the house, and noticed that the amount of time I could stand, and do physical activity before the onset of the pain was getting shorter and shorter. By now I also started getting pain in my mid back too, which as lower. The area that the pain was affecting seemed to be getting bigger. The worsening continued slowly over time.

Fast forward to July 2021. Things started to progress very quickly. I began getting very sharp internal pains in my lower back on the right side. It was intense, and it felt very much like the pain from kidney stones, which I’ve had several times before.

I went to my doctor, who sent me for an ultrasound scan of my kidneys and urinary tract. We were both expecting to find stones, and were surprised when the test came back negative. I told myself that maybe I had passed the stone and that things might start to improve, but they didn’t.

 

I then began to get horrendous abdominal pains, especially after eating, and my gastrointestinal issues started to worsen. As soon as I ate anything, it would just come straight through. I also had severe bloating and gas, even if I only drank water.

I went back to the doctor to explain my worsening symptoms and they did some blood tests. They checked for inflammation, infection, checked my kidney and liver function, my pancreas, and we did a CT scan on my abdomen, which also came back as normal.

 

My pains were worsening and becoming more frequent, and I noticed that my stools were black, so my doctor ordered a FIT test to check for bowel cancer.

 

It was now October 2021. Whilst waiting for the results of the FIT test I became a little anxious. What if it was cancer? How would my partner cope without me? What about the house? I even started thinking about what music I wanted at my funeral. I know it might sound strange but part of me wanted the test to come back positive, because at least then I would finally know what was wrong with me and could be on my way to getting treatment. Whilst I was waiting for the results, my partner and I went on holiday to Scotland. We were doing a lot of walking and it was that this point things really started to get much worse.

 

I noticed on the first day that I was getting severe pain in my flank that worsened with walking, as well as my, now usual, spine and shoulder blade pain. I tried to carry on and ignore it but I had to find somewhere to sit down. Each day I was having to stop more and more and for longer periods, after shorter periods of walking, because my body was screaming at me that it just couldn’t do this anymore. There were some days when we had to go back to the hotel early so I could lie down, or not do all of the activities we had planned. I wanted to do them, but I physically couldn’t.

 

It was then, on 29th October, that I started to keep a diary of my symptoms on my phone. Looking back at it, I mentioned my ribs a lot, but at this point neither myself or my doctors had heard of SRS. You can read the diary by clicking here. I decided to include it in case it ever helps someone.

 

When we got home I went back to my doctor again. I would tell now that he was getting fed up of seeing me and probably thought I was a hypochondriac, or crazy, because every time I was going there I had new symptoms, and each time we did a test, there was nothing there.

 

I asked him to look at my side because it felt like something was protruding, but he took a quick glance at my ribs from the back, standing up, and told me that there was nothing wrong. He told me that he thought I was anxious, or depressed, and said to me “try mindfulness”. I told him that I was not anxious, and was certainly not depressed. I was in pain! And I needed some pain relief!

My doctor took a deep breath, and loudly sighed right in front of me. He then prescribed me with Amitriptyline, and it was suggested that I might have fibromyalgia.

 

I told him I was struggling to walk but he wasn’t interested. One day after seeing my doctor, 2 days after we had returned from Edinburgh, I went in to work. I knew I couldn’t walk far. I managed to cycle slowly to work, which I could manage at the time because my legs themselves were unaffected. I did an 11 hour shift. That day I had more pain than I had ever had at this point. It was all over my whole torso, front and back. An intense burning pain. It felt tender, and like my body was on fire.

I tried to push through it, but after a few hours it got so bad that I, a relatively stoic and unemotional 32 year old man, began to sob uncontrollably because of the excruciating pain all over my body. My body was screaming at me to stop, but I, perhaps stupidly, forced myself to try to carry on. I told myself that I should be able to do this!

 

I continued to work for a few days and pushed through the shorter shifts. After my next 10 hour shift, it happened again. I couldn’t walk. I struggled home in tears, it was after midnight, and dark. I collapsed on the floor in the kitchen and sobbed uncontrollably in a ball. My partner of 3 years had never seen me cry and didn’t know what to do.

The next morning I woke up and I couldn’t move. Not only was experiencing excruciating, torturous pain. I felt paralysed. I was scared. It took me 15 minutes to get out of bed. I called my boss and told him that I couldn’t come into work because I couldn’t move. I felt defeated.

 

I spoke to the doctor over the phone that day, and they increased the dosage of Amitriptyline. I hoped that a few weeks of resting and giving the Amitriptyline a chance to work would mean I could go back to work. Maybe this was fibromyalgia and this was just a ‘flare up’ that would calm down.

 

I tried to go back to work part time. I told myself that If I did 25 hours per week, 5 hours at a time with reduced duties, I would be able to cope, but I lasted just over an hour before the pain reduced me to a sobbing mess again. I wasn’t just in physical pain, this was now affecting me mentally and emotionally too. I was 32 and I should be able to do all of this!

My colleague had to help me up because I couldn’t stand, and I sat in the kitchen for an hour before my body would let me slowly shuffle away.

 

I spoke to the doctor again. I could barely walk at all now, and I had to find out what this was.

My doctor repeated that there was nothing wrong with me. I told him that very clearly, there was. I was not making this up! I remember his exact words. “If we send you for another ultrasound, will you finally accept that there is nothing medically wrong with you!?”

 

I just looked at him. I felt my eyes widen in desperation before I slowly stood up, and quietly shuffled away. This was not in my head and I knew it. But what could I do?

 

Over the next few weeks I read everything I could about fibromyalgia. On the internet, in books, and I joined a Facebook group. Some of it made sense but my pain was all above my waist and below my neck, and it got worse with movement. It couldn’t be. The pain had to be physical, and something, somewhere was being missed.

 

I had the ultrasound. The radiologist was scanning my lower stomach where my bowels are. After a few minutes I said to her “ This is where most of my pain is. It’s here. Right here.” and pointed to my right flank. “The doctor asked for a scan of your lower abdomen” she said. Nothing abnormal was found.

 

In desperation I posted my symptom diary in a fibromyalgia group. A lady called Umme Yahya replied to me and said “take a look at this. I think you might have Slipping Rib Syndrome” with a link to Josefine Ljungkvist’s video on YouTube. My worst symptoms were in my abdomen, side, and back. And although looking back at my diary I mentioned my ribs so many times, consciously at the time I didn’t realise that they could be the source of my problems. I watched the video and over the next few days I began to read more about SRS.

 

I couldn’t find much on the internet itself, but this fitted everything I had been experiencing over the last 4 years. I looked again on YouTube, I saw videos from Dr. Adam Hansen, Dr. Joel Dunning, and another vlog from Logan Alucci. I knew in my heart that this was it. I had hope, and there was help.

 

The next day I called my doctor, who I could tell was really getting sick of hearing from me now. I said “Have you ever heard of Slipping Rib Syndrome?”. “No, I haven’t heard of it. Wait, and discuss it with the rheumatologist” was the reply. The more I found out about SRS, the more I realised how little known it was. I realised that even if I did wait, the rheumatologist probably wouldn’t know what it was either.

 

I had to do something. For 2 weeks I spent whole days scouring the internet for everything I could find.

I read papers and academic studies from the seemingly few doctors, surgeons, radiographers, and other medical professionals who did accept this condition. I examined my rib cage myself, lying down on my living room floor, and discovered that one of the ribs on the right side of my ribcage was not only poking out, but moving more than an inch. The more I studied, the more I realised what was happening inside my body. When I walked, my 11th rib was dropping and rubbing on my 12th rib below whenever I put my foot down, as well as rubbing the intercostal nerves, which run to the abdomen and spine. When I got into bed they would bump into each other, and I realised at this point that when I sat down, my 10th rib on either side was buried right under my 9th.

 

I had felt clicking and popping in my lower ribcage for as long as I can remember, but I honestly thought that was normal.

I knew this had been the source of all of my pain for years, but I began to wonder how I would get help with this.

I scoured the internet and although I knew what it was, the symptoms, and how it could be fixed, there was very little information about where to turn next. I didn’t know how or where to start.

 

It was 4am and I couldn’t sleep. I’m not sure where the idea came from, but I typed “Slipping Rib Syndrome” into Facebook to see what would come up, and I found a group. I had to wait until the next day to be accepted, but I spent the majority of that day reading all of the posts, right back, and for the first time, I felt like I wasn’t alone with this anymore. I made a post about my desperate situation, and somebody in the UK mentioned a radiologist, Dr. Ali Abbasi, in London, who had experience of finding, recording, and diagnosing SRS by way of dynamic ultrasound, and Dr. Joel Dunning, a cardiothoracic surgeon based in James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough who operated using the Hansen procedure. A fellow SRS warrior in the group put me in touch with Joel. On Christmas Eve, 2021, I e-mailed him. I didn’t expect to hear back for maybe a few weeks, but at 10.30pm I received a reply.

I go to London on 7th February 2022 to see Dr. Abbasi for a dynamic ultrasound to record exactly which ribs are coming into contact with what, and then I hope to have surgery to secure them. I know that it will be a hard recovery, and it will take a long time, but it will be worth it.

 

This journey has been very hard, mentally and emotionally as well as physically. As I write this, in January 2022, my mobility is very bad. I can’t walk more than 20 metres, even with a stick, and I'm pretty much housebound, but just finally knowing the source of my pain and that help is on the way has given me hope. SRS has robbed me of so many things, but I believe that I will recover. Maybe not 100%, but there are brighter days ahead and I will walk again, I will dance again, I will be able to cook, and garden, and travel again.

 

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When I was searching for information on the internet about Slipping Rib Syndrome, I found very little, scattered in all sorts of places, and it was like a giant puzzle that I had to spend weeks piecing together. I realised that there might be other people out there who are still suffering and in pain, and still searching for answers, who might not think to look on YouTube, or Facebook, and give up after a simple web search.

 

I kept coming back to the thought that there were people out there who were still suffering and that there was no single website dedicated to Slipping Rib Syndrome that had everything in one place and I wanted to change that so that in future, it would be easier for other people to find information, support, and hope, so I decided to create that place myself, and set to work on making slippingribsyndrome.org

 

This was written on 19th January 2022. You can read about the rest of my own journey, as it happens, on my blog.