Slipping Rib Syndrome .org
SLIPPING RIB SYNDROME SUCCESS STORIES
LOGAN ALUCCI, PENNSYLVANIA, USA
I want to raise awareness for Slipping Rib Syndrome after an almost 6 year journey searching for answers.
When I was in college I randomly began having horrible back pain near my left scapula.
The pain was so bad that I felt as though I couldn't walk. Prior to that first day, I was walking 2 to 5 miles per day since I lived in New York City, but after that day everything changed.
Since my pain began with severe back pain my journey led me to dozens of shoulder and spine specialists. I was given multiple misdiagnoses. I had dozens of MRI's, CT scans, X-Rays, bone spec scans, cortisone injections, intercostal nerve blocks... you name it. The list goes on and on. I saw the "best" doctors at the "best" hospitals. Nobody knew what was wrong for years. I was told it was just poor posture, or bad anxiety, or that I was simply exaggerating when I said I had 10/10 deep, shredding, debilitating pain in the left side of my back that, by now had begun radiating around to my ribcage.
Eventually I found a new chiropractor and on my first visit, she told me I had Slipping Rib Syndrome. Since she was the only person who was able to give me any relief whatsoever I took her word for it, and then I told a dozen more doctors that I had SRS. Not a single one believed it existed. They told me "Ribs can't slip".
Fast forward 2 years, I finally found Dr. Adam Hansen in West Virginia and had surgery that I can honestly say saved my life.
Slipping Rib Syndrome can not only cause debilitating physical agony, but also major mental distress after years of suffering and being told it's all in your head. At the time of writing this I am 4.5 months post op and I feel about 80% better than I did before my surgery and I believe i'll continue to improve. My body and mind still have a long way to go in order to fully heal but i'm thankful to finally be in the right place.
Never give up on your journey. Never take no for an answer. Trust your instincts and your body. I hope that this can help someone else out there to find the answers and validation that we all deserve.
To see Logan's videos documenting here SRS journey click here.
JOSEPHINE LJUNGKVIST, NORWAY
For as long as I can remember, I've experienced both sharp and dull pain caused by my ribs. As an early teenager I went to see all kinds of doctors, neurologists, orthopedists, physical therapists, and so on. I had X-rays done, and I was first told to exercise more, and then to stop exercising. Nobody could or would solve the question of the mysterious pain I was experiencing.
Some even told me it was all in my head.
After a few years I gave up seeking a diagnosis and finding a way out of the pain, I simply learned to live with it.
When I was 25 I randomly met a naprapath at a party, who knew about SRS, and there started the actual journey to me being diagnosed. It's now about 2 years and one surgery later. I had surgery at Ullevål Sykehus in Oslo, Norway. At the time of writing I am waiting to have surgery on the other side, to remove the slipping cartilages.
You can watch Josefine's videos, documenting her journey on her youtube channel here.
I've had backpain since I was 13 years old.
I fell from 3 meters high when I was 8, and got some small cracks in 2 vertebrae in my spine. I am a horse rider and did fall of them sometimes.
In 2018 my liver got badly inflamed because of an allergic reaction. I lost a lot of weight because I was sick and in that period I felt the urge to stretch my upper body and felt a hard click at my lower ribs, it didn't hurt at the time, but after a while my rib started slipping, it became annoying and started hurting a little. For the past 3 years I had to pop my rib back in place many times in a day and the pain has been progressive. I have seen a lot of medical specialists, and they all had a strange look on their faces when I told them and let them feel what was happening. I was told it was nothing, it would go away.
I had searched a lot on Google and YouTube, after a while in the beginning of 2021 I found some vlogs on YouTube and one vlog told about the Slipping Rib Syndrome group on Facebook. I was so lucky and relieved to find this new caring family. Trough this group I found a doctor in The Netherlands who was able to officially diagnose me with SRS. This doctor wasn't able to help me in the way I wanted, but towards the end of 2021 I found another surgeon and had my surgery on 20th December 2021.
I had the "Rib Plating Surgery". At first we thought there was only one rib loose, but I knew there was more going on, and during the surgery they found out there we 3 ribs affected.
At the moment of writing I am 4 weeks post op, I still have surgery pain and have to take it slow, but I can tell there is improvement and there is a light at the end of the tunnel!
NICOLE VISSER, THE NETHERLANDS
My symptoms included intense pain in my ribs, in my left breast, and around the back. Sitting or standing for any length of time had me in terrible pain and nothing helped. On 28th April 2019 I tripped in church and landed on the end of a wooden pew which made contact with my left rib cage.
The next morning, I had X-Rays which didn't show any broken ribs. I spent months in Chiropractic and Physical Therapy. I have 2 bulging disks in my upper spine from a 2006 car accident, so my Physical Therapist thought perhaps my relentless pain was caused by damage to those from my fall. We finally convinced my workers comp insurance that an MRI was necessary but all it revealed was "arthritic changes" which wouldn't have been caused by the trauma of the fall, so we were at another dead end.
My doctor then referred me to a specialist and I saw him in January 2020. He took one look at my initial X-Rays and said my problem was at the bottom of my rib cage. He told me that there was a thoracic surgeon down the hall from him who had pioneered a new rib repair technique, and referred me to Dr. Adam Hansen.
A month later I was diagnosed by Dr. Hansen with SRS. A simple 5 minute examination revealed that ribs 8, 9 and 10 were involved and he could fix it with his ground-breaking suturing technique. On 11th March 2020 I had my first surgery. Whilst the pre-surgical pain was gone immediately, soon after the surgery I started experiencing sharp jabs in my stomach. Dr. Hansen concluded that the sutures were too tight and were impinging on the intercostal nerve. On 10th August 2020 I had Dr. Hansen's first revision. After the revision those jabbing pains disappeared immediately.
Dr. Hansen revised his procedure so that others won't need to have a revision for sutures being too tight. I'm grateful to be at about 85-90% normal again. This is a difficult road, no doubt, and recovery has been challenging.
I don't expect to ever feel 100%, but without this repair option, I know I would be far worse off and hopeless. I've made friends in my fellow SRS warriors and I am committed to helping others find their way through this. Keep advocating for yourself and don't take no for an answer. It really isn't just in your head.
TINA VIAL, WEST VIRGINIA, USA
My problems began when I was in 7th grade. I had popping in my ribs and it was uncomfortable to breathe, then after a few weeks it went away but every once in a while it would come back. When I was in 9th grade my ribs began to come out to the point where you could see them through my shirt.
I was running on a 5 mile run and one of my ribs popped right out and I was struggling to breathe and about to pass out. I had to run back to school and I called my Mom, then we went to urgent care.
It took about 6 months after that to get a diagnosis and then surgery but in that time I saw 2 dozen doctors. I was diagnosed with pneumonia, bronchitis, arthropothy, bone marrow edema, costochondritis, intercostal neuritis and dislocated rib heads, then finally slipping rib syndrome.
By now my symptoms were constant stabbing pains, constant burning, tenderness, severe difficulty breathing, pins and needles pain, passing out, and throwing up. My SRS was bilateral and It is now 14 months after my first surgery and and 7 months after my second surgery, both with Dr Adam Hansen in West Virginia. Both sides are now doing absolutely amazing.
My words of encouragement would be to keep fighting for answers because they're out there. It isn't a mental thing when ribs pop out, so keep going and keep pushing for answers.
LINDSEY DARNELL, MICHIGAN, USA
My main SRS symptom was rib popping and stabbing pain in my abdomen and in my back near my shoulder blades.
I have hEDS, which was diagnosed after my 3rd hip surgery at the age of 23. I developed complex regional pain syndrome from my hip surgeries, and this led me to get a nerve stimulator in my back, with the battery located in my booty. After 2 back surgeries, as the first one failed, I developed horrible back and rib pain.
After multiple attempts to fix the back pain with injections, transfusions, Physical Therapy, I found the SRS Facebook group which led me to Dr. Hansen. I Had my first surgery to correct ribs 7-10 on my right side on 10th March 2021. Sadly on 27th July 2021 I loosened a stitch at work (I am a nurse) moving X-Ray machinery. I had a revision of my right side and they fixed my left side at the same time on 22nd September 2021 and I am taking it day by day now as I heal.
Trust your body, rest even when you want to be active, and advocate for yourself always.
JESSICA TUCKER, WASHINGTON, USA
In February 2016 when I was four months pregnant with my first child, I began to have severe pain in my lower ribcage. Despite it sending me to the emergency room on several occasions, and preventing regular activities and sleep, the pain was dismissed as “normal pregnancy pain” and “just muscular”. After giving birth, the pain was reduced but lingered. I was reassured that with a bit of osteopathy, I would cope with another pregnancy fairly well. In late 2017/early 2018, I had my second pregnancy. The pain came back with a vengeance and was far worse this time around. By the third trimester, I was in absolute agony, unable to sleep, barely able to walk or drive, and required full time help to care for my toddler. Again, no one provided any answers.
When my daughter was four months old, the lactation consultant I was seeing, who also happened to be a GP, said “we need to do something about your ribs”. It was the first time in two years someone had actually heard me. She sent me to a pain specialist, who just happened to be one of the few doctors in Australia who had heard of SRS. He diagnosed me immediately and sent me off to an orthopaedic surgeon who performed two cartilage excision surgeries (one each side). I recovered well and, thinking that that chapter was over, I moved on with my life. We began to plan a third baby, and I was so excited to experience what I hoped would be a pain free pregnancy. Before that could happen however, one year after my surgeries, I felt a familiar jolt of pain in my lower ribcage. Within days I was transported back to the agony of SRS. At least this time, I thought, I knew how to fix it.
I sought help from a thoracic surgeon who had treated SRS before. Two more surgeries later, plus removal of a dislocated xiphoid process, I wasn’t improving as expected. I was in worse pain than ever before, and deteriorating day by day. The ribs still felt unstable. I was told this wasn’t possible, that it was all just nerve pain. I knew it wasn’t, but didn’t feel I had much choice but to follow along with my doctors. After a nerve pain procedure left me with zero improvement and a punctured lung, I decided I needed to fight more. I discovered Dr Hansen in the US and his rib suturing technique. His understanding that excisions can cause further instability, rang completely true for me.
Unfortunately the surgery was unheard of here. Feeling stuck in a corner, I decided to take the leap and booked post-excision reconstruction surgery with Dr Hansen in West Virginia for June 2020. Well, we all know what happened in 2020, and I was unable to leave Australia for the surgery. Now almost completely bedridden and unable to care for my two small children, I desperately turned to my thoracic surgeon, armed with plenty of information. He consulted Dr Hansen and agreed to perform the surgeries. Obviously, this brought great relief, but lockdowns and issues with getting access to the required plates meant I had to wait in debilitating pain until November 2020 to receive the first surgery, and March 2021 for the second. Recovery was tough. The surgeries were more complex than Dr Hansen’s regular suture surgeries due to my prior excisions.
I suffered extreme nerve pain following both surgeries and spent two weeks in hospital both times. I knew due to the excisions that my ribs would never be the perfect. I had a spinal cord stimulator implanted in July 2021 to aid with continued nerve pain. I cannot run or jump, and there’s definitely no skydiving in my future, but I can walk, I don’t spend my days in bed, I can care for my children, and even take them on simple outings. It looks a little different to before, but I have my life back. And, perhaps the greatest blessing of all, I have the beautiful third child we have dreamed of for years finally growing safely in my belly.
I fought for six years, was ignored, had doctors say “well, my ribs hurt too if I poke them”, and told that what I was feeling “wasn’t possible”. I have been forced to advocate fiercely for myself and have experienced pain beyond anything I could have previously imagined, but somehow I made it through. I am beyond grateful for to Dr Hansen for giving me his time and sharing his knowledge, and for my surgeon who listened and was open to learning new techniques.
I know the journey to bring this baby into the world will not be the pain free experience I had once hoped for, but to be well enough to carry another child is enough. This baby, and my older two children, were my reason to fight.
AMANDA BERMAND, AUSTRALIA
I had my accident doing a volleyball roll at a school where I worked back in Aug 2019. I've played high level sport all my life but at 54 and post breast cancer the body decided not to play the game anymore. I pretty much sucked it up and got on with things but when symptoms progressively got worse after a few months I went to the doctor.
After 18months I was still searching for a diagnosis. As with many of us, I had gone through the multitude of tests, got told it was in my head and started on the anxiety/depression roller coaster as a result.
Fortunately I found the Slipping Rib Syndrome Facebook Group thanks to a fellow SRS sufferer and made an appointment with Dr Conaglen who was the only surgeon who operated using the Hansen technique in New Zealand.
Despite the 6 hour drive each way he diagnosed me within 5-10 minutes. I was unable to work and had to eat into my life’s savings to survive.
Fortunately I had kept my private medical insurance so went ahead with my 1st surgery back in January 2021, suturing the 9th and 10th ribs on the right side.
I am an ex Police Officer of 21 years with depression and PTSD so things compounded during my journey to find answers to my pain. I now have a very fine balance to my life.
I believe my SRS was always bilateral but we did one side at a time. Also, not realising just how delicate things really were I stupidly overdid things at 4 weeks post surgery and I believe I did damage to my new repair.
I am doing core exercises to try and strengthen what I can before a tentative date for my 2nd surgery on March 7th 2022.
I am also having a 3D CT scan to see if that will assist in my right sided revision planning. My surgeon will be revising the right sided surgery and suturing the left 9-10th ribs as well.
Dr. Conaglen is amazing and very supportive of Dr Hansen's method.
Here are some lessons that I learned :
1. DO NOT underestimate this condition… We are in for the long race. Don’t do anything that may cause further problems for at least 6-8weeks after surgery, even if you feel good. (I'm still beating myself up about doing exactly that)
2. DON'T give up. You are your own best advocate so trust your body and your own instincts.
3. Do accept help. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Some of us have very dark days (I still do) but the more we share and talk about things the more we can help others (and possibly ourselves).The groups are amazing for that.
4. BE KIND TO YOURSELF
I've never been so excited for surgery and the ensuing pain. It will be pain for a purpose. I'm also very nervous. There are so many of us with similar issues so just know where ever you are, whether you are having a good day ,or a bad night in pain, "Kia Kaha, Kia manawanui" (Stay strong, never give up).
GINA SAMSON, NEW ZEALAND
My SRS journey began 17 years ago in 2004 in the UK. I’d had 4 kids, 3 of which were 10+lbs and after baby #4 I noticed one of my ribs clicked painlessly in and out on my right costal arch. It soon became an intermittent deep dull ache and felt like a baby’s foot was pushed up under my rib cage, but I wasn’t pregnant. Over the next few years I had colonoscopies, endoscopies and numerous upper abdominal ultrasounds. All came back normal. “It must be IBS” they said.
In 2009 we moved to Ontario in Canada where my symptoms continued on & off. My new GP (family Dr) sent me for more tests. Everything was normal, but my pain continued. I tried gall bladder flushes using Chinese medicine. Gall stones were passed, but gave no relief of symptoms. Numerous visits to the Osteopath, Naturopath, Homeopath, Nutritionalist, Chiropractor & Physiotherapist. Nothing helped.
Late 2018, after moving heavy boxes, my pain was much worse. Lots more diagnostic tests. Then I woke up one night with 10/10 pain feeling like I was being stabbed. It was the missing puzzle piece and at last my google search came up with Slipping Rib Syndrome. Hallelujah! Jubilantly I returned to my GP expecting him to know all about SRS. He just looked at me blankly and prescribed more pain relief. Thankfully, my Chiropractor listened to me, felt my rib clicking and agreed that SRS was quite likely.
Unfortunately in 2019 I had an accident when straddling the unsecured tow bar of a car trailer. I was thrown up into the air and it hurt me badly. Not good for my ribs either. “Physiotherapy will help” my GP said.
My Physio couldn’t work out why I wasn’t improving. I mentioned SRS, he felt my rib pop, agreed with me, and wrote to my GP, suggesting nerve blocks. My GP referred me to a Pain Clinic with “abdominal pain”?!! No mention of my ribs. The Pain Clinic Dr said “We don’t deal with abdominal pain”. I burst into tears on the video call, the Dr looked up SRS and offered me nerve blocks. Then the pandemic began and the nerve blocks never happened.
I requested a referral to a local Orthopaedic Surgeon. This was my worst experience by far. After telling me it was highly unlikely that I had “some rare internet condition” she said “I don’t do ribs” and dismissed me. By now I was getting desperate. I had constant severe dull aching pain both sides, flank pain, terrible back pain around my bra strap line, occasional sharp stabbing pains on both sides, and difficulty sleeping. My ribs would click in/out multiple times a day and car journeys were awful.
THEN I discovered Dr Adam Hansen in West Virginia. Hallelujah moment #2! I also discovered the SRS Facebook group. Suddenly I found a whole bunch of people with the same symptoms as me! I sent my GP a link to Dr Hansen’s webinar. After that the conversation was easy. “You might be right” he said! I made the call to Dr Hansen’s office.
Traveling from Canada to the USA and paying for the surgery myself, I had the option to have the diagnostic appointment one day, with surgery the next - very scary! What if I was wrong about SRS? We drove 8+ hours to West Virginia in early October 2021. It was nerve wracking as the pandemic meant the US/Canada land border was closed, but we made it. Dr Hansen was incredibly kind and gentle and within 5 minutes he diagnosed me with bilateral slipped ribs.
My surgery was longer and more complex than expected. I had bilateral 9th & 10th rib cartilage fractures with chest wall deformities, SRS & intercostal neuralgia. The tips of my 9’s could only sublux posteriorly and were very difficult to get to. The cartilage tips of all 4 ribs were excised by 2cms each as they were long and hooked, then 9’s & 10’s were sutured to 8’s to recreate a stable rib cage. I woke up in 10/10 pain and needed a lot of morphine & fentanyl in the recovery room, but was amazed that at last I could take a full deep breath. I hadn’t been able to do that for years. Dr Hansen said that the first 2 weeks would be very painful and he was absolutely right! Recovery’s a roller-coaster, that’s for sure.
Now, at the time of writing, I am 4 months post-surgery. I’m slowly improving and hope that by 6 months I will feel great. I’m so very grateful to Dr Hansen for his pioneering technique. He, his wife Lisa and their team at UHC in West Virginia are excellent, My photo was taken with the Hansens 1 week after my surgery. My pin is in the map behind me, along with hundreds of others who’ve all had SRS surgery with Dr Hansen.
It’s tough advocating for yourself. Be strong, listen to your body, don’t take no for an answer and I truly hope you get the care you need soon.
ELIZABETH LIDBETTER, ONTARIO, CANADA
When I was 11, I had my first sudden, awful, spasmic episode of pain in my rib cage, under my arm along my side and under my breast. I hoped it was a fluke, but I started to have similar episodes every few months that lasted anywhere from a few minutes to many hours of intense pain that nothing would touch, where I couldn’t move or even speak because of the pain.
I had all the tests, etc. at that point and of course everything checked out normal. I found a chiropractor who used super gentle techniques, and regular adjustments there started a decent stretch of, almost, normalcy. I could still feel tightness and twinges when I'd overdo activity or with twisting motions, but was mostly living a normal teenage life for about a year and a half.
February of 2021 is when everything changed. A weird movement at home triggered an episode that lasted a few days and was the worst ever. Instead of going away after a few residual days of soreness, the pain lingered and became daily. I had to stop most activities and rest almost constantly.
I had ALL the tests, all the imaging, travelled to Cleveland and Indianapolis after seeing everyone we could locally, and still no answers. I found the Slipping Rib Syndrome Facebook Group after internet searches of symptoms and it was like a lightning bolt of realization that this was SRS.
Two different surgeons told me I didn’t have it. I was CONVINCED I did. Things were moving in there, I could feel it and no one could confirm it. Finally I ended up at Mayo Clinic last July where a dynamic ultrasound still didn’t show much, but a hands-on exam did. Surgery was suddenly the next day, and it was discovered that ribs 9 and 10 on the left were detached. Surgery at Mayo was slightly helpful. My episodes of excruciating pain were less frequent and lasted a shorter time, but it just wasn’t right.
In October 2021 we travelled to West Virginia to see Dr. Hansen. He was just as compassionate and wonderful as everyone said. He was honest with us that he wasn’t sure what surgery would find, as I already had sutures and it was hard to tell how secure things were. But he was willing to do all he could, and that’s exactly what we needed.
March 2nd 2022, I had Dr. Hansen’s reconstruction technique, with plates and grafts of cartilage tips, between ribs 8/9 and 9/10, and so I started the wait and recovery.
As everyone knows, it’s a roller coaster. Recovery was intense in the beginning. And now, at the time of writing I am 10 weeks into the post-surgery process. There are peaks and valleys. A stretch of good days can be followed by a period of painful ones.
But. Did you notice the words “good days”? Because I’ve had them! More good days in the past 10 weeks than I had in the previous YEAR of my teenage life. An Easter celebration with family all day that would have been impossible before where I said later, “I felt great!”. I still have bouts of nerve pain and muscle tightness that send me to the “what if” place, but I'm still early in the recovery process, and this has clearly been a step toward healing.
I'm not done yet. I may have a surgery on the right side in future, and a nerve ablation might be a possibility, due to a weird piece of cartilage on Rib 8 that Dr. Hansen couldn’t remove without structural concerns, but I am feeling more stability, and less pain.
Still on this journey, but I wanted to say thank you publicly to The Hansens, and everyone in the support group for the continued support and encouragement - even when you don’t know you’re giving it. It has been life-saving.
MAYA OYER, USA
JESSICA DE'O, ONTARIO, CANADA
When I was 11/12 I began to have symptoms of SRS. At first, it started with immeasurable chest pain that made it almost impossible to breathe. This pain would wrap around my chest and up my sternum. The popping began about a year later. Doctors said I has costochondritis and told me to take naproxen. Chest x-rays were always normal. I even had a bone scan done, which was also normal. Over time, I guess my pain tolerance grew. I no longer had the nerve pain wrapping around my chest to my back, but occasionally I would have the sharp pains going up my sternum. My chest was constantly sore to the touch, and even getting an echocardiogram left me in pain for a week. I had extremely bad back pain, which doctors always dumbed down to “your backpack is too heavy”. For years and years, I went without answers, taking a lot of naproxen, and living in pain.
When I was 18 I went to a chiropractor, who first told me about slipping rib syndrome. Back then, there wasn’t anything online you could find about it, really. Over time, some stuff like the Dr. Oz patient came about, and then I saw some research done on prolotherapy for SRS. I saw a sports medicine doctor, we did an ultrasound (which was normal), and discussed prolotherapy. Ultimately, it was too costly and he said it wasn’t a guarantee as my SRS had already been longstanding for multiple years, and prolotherapy worked best in his practice for new injuries.
I was back to square one. Then one day I found the SRS Facebook group and learned about Dr. Hansen’s method, but I am in Canada and was unable to travel to Dr. Hansen. When I originally found the group, I had no idea who Dr. Matar was. It was only in 2020 that I found out about him from his first SRS patient, and I felt like finally, I had a solution to the problem I had been living with for half of my life.
Dr. Matar and his team were absolutely phenomenal. I hadn’t had surgery before despite tonsillectomy and some dental stuff when I was small, so it was very anxiety-inducing. I have a history of going through panic attacks when going under/instinctually fighting it, even when I’m mentally fine. Dr. Matar and his team were holding my hands/reassuring me as I was anaesthatised. The surgery was quick, and we made the 5.5-hour journey home the next day. That was the only day I took my opioid pill.
The first 3 months were rough, I feel like a lot of people say the same thing. After that 3-month mark is when I stopped doubting the success of the surgery and truly started to see the benefits from it. After that it was mostly downhill, but there was still periods of time in which I had a lot of inflammation flare ups.
I am now one year out and I feel absolutely phenomenal. I’m able to do so much more that I was never capable of before. Lifting heavy things was never easy for me, and I’d have lasting chest pain afterwards. Now I can lift half my body weight without any pain or discomfort. Doing long walks I would have to take breaks due to chest pains/difficulty breathing, but now I walk 1.5-2+ hours a day, and work full time as a preschool educator with no pain or discomfort. Before I wasn’t able to gently touch my chest without pain, touching anywhere was painful and sore.
I haven’t done any high impact activities, but based on the recovery so far, I feel so much stronger now. A huge reason of why my back pain was so bad before was because I had pretty much zero core muscle as a result of my SRS. Slowly I’ve been building my core muscles just by doing every day things and trying to be consciously aware to activate it. My right side doesn’t bother me at all, no popping, and it isn’t painful. I would do the surgery again in a heartbeat if I needed it, and I’m forever thankful to Dr. Hansen for his work to create a non-invasive method to repair SRS, as well as Dr. Matar and his phenomenal team in Ottawa.
AUDREY THAIN-ARDIS, GEORGIA, USA
Hi, I'm Audrey, from Georgia, USA. My SRS journey started at least 13 years ago, but possibly even longer. Between a car accident when I was 18, overworking my abs as a teen (why did I do 200+ crunches most days?), being hypermobile, and finally 2 pregnancies in my mid 20s, my ribs have been painful for so many years. I started pursuing medical help for my rib pain during my first pregnancy in 2010, when the pain became unbearable. I was told it was probably round ligament pain and would resolve after delivery. When it didn't resolve, I went to many doctors for many years, most of whom told me it was all in my head.
When I showed them my lumpy deformed-looking ribs, one doctor even told me I just had an uneven fat deposit on that side! By this point, the pain and worry about not knowing what was wrong and imagining all the "what-ifs" had given me pretty bad anxiety. The pain made it hard to do my daily tasks, hard to sit on the floor and play with my kids, really hard to sit at all. Riding in a car or sitting anywhere for more than a few minutes was excruciating.
I got used to awkwardly telling people I'd rather stand when they offered me a seat, and always stayed flightily busy to avoid sitting. My lack of rib structure also made it very hard to get a deep breath. (Imagine trying to do pull-ups on a spring-- that's what trying to get a deep breath felt like!) Meanwhile I was still being told that my pain was all in my head. The lack of validation from this has such an effect on your confidence and mental health! Finally in 2018, late one night, desperately searching google for what could possibly be wrong with me, I saw something online about Slipping Rib Syndrome and it clicked! I knew this had to be it.
I saw a new local doctor who was just out of school and she agreed. Meanwhile, I had found the Slipping Rib Syndrome Facebook page and had started feeling so much more validated finding a whole community of people who understood exactly how I was feeling! (That little group is now over 5600 people strong!!). The Facebook group led me to Dr Adam Hansen at WVU in West Virginia, who had developed a new repair for SRS. We made the trip to West Virginia and Dr Hansen confirmed my diagnosis. My 9th and 10th ribs were fully detached, hooked, and jammed under the upper ribs. There's an intercostal nerve that runs between each rib, so that nerve was being constantly compressed, giving me pain from my abdomen all the way around to my shoulder blade.
I had Dr. Hansen's 3.0 surgery in February 2022 and have never regretted it! He spaced my ribs apart with cartilage grafts, loosely sutured my ribs together, and topped them off with a bioresorbable plate to hold things in place until my body could heal and develop its own scar tissue to keep itself secure. I woke up from surgery feeling much more stable, somehow taller (I didn't even realize how much I had been guarding and compensating for my ribs) and finally able to breathe freely!! Within a few months, I felt well enough to get back to daily life, travel, plant a garden, go kayaking, hiking, and generally enjoy life much more again! Now at 17 months post op, I'm so thankful to be doing pretty much anything I'd like to do and feeling so much better! If you're struggling with these symptoms, please reach out! There is hope!
KARI MORGENSTEIN, FLORIDA, USA
My journey started in 2019 when my husband and I found out I was pregnant. Around 5 weeks, I was vomiting 20 times a day and left fighting for my life and my daughter’s as well. At 8 weeks, I was diagnosed with severe Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG). I was placed on a feeding tube through a PICC line as I was severely malnourished. I was vomiting 20 times a day until my daughter was born.
Around 6 months postpartum, I started to get a sharp, excruciating pain in the front of my chest near my Xiphoid. Any movement such as breathing or talking too much made it worse. This led to appointment after appointment from cardiology, rheumatology to gastro and pulmonology it felt like my husband and I spent every day either scheduling a doctor’s appointment or seeing a provider. Many providers told me nothing was wrong with me and I just needed to “push through”.
Luckily my husband and I were not willing to accept this. We fought tirelessly, day and night, to find answers to my debilitating pain that left me unable to care for our newborn daughter. I, fortunately, came across the Slipping Rib Syndrome (SRS) Facebook page and this led me to Dr. Adam Hansen and Ms. Lisa Hansen. We made the trip to West Virginia in January 2021 and I was diagnosed with SRS (9th and 10th rib on right side).
I am forever grateful to Dr. Hansen (and to so many SRS sufferers and survivors that I met on my journey) for giving me my life back and ensuring my daughter has her mommy. I am now 2.5 years out from my surgery and living life again. Pain free!!! My recovery was not an easy one, but it was totally worth it. To anyone reading this that is currently struggling with SRS or trying to find answers to your debilitating pain: You are stronger than you think.
Crying is a sign of strength. Let the tears flow! Lean on your support system and ask for help. Be kind to yourself. The SRS FB group is filled with many incredibly giving and strong individuals. We are all in this together. Use this group to support you at whatever stage you’re in. Keep advocating for yourself. Your pain is real. You. can do this. Take one hour, one minute, or just one second at a time.
HOPE WILD, MARYLAND, USA
My pain began around the end of 2016. It started out with an annoying pain on my right side liver area. I had imaging which found polyps in my gallbladder but that surgeon was kind enough to let me know he didn’t believe it was causing my pain because polyps typically don’t hurt, but the gallbladder had to come out due to their size and possibly eventually growing into cancer if they weren’t already. There were 3 and thankfully, they were benign. I went through years of pain, which over time turned into clicking with the pain. I think my right 10th rib started to come loose and eventually detached altogether.
The pain continued and my life began to decline more and more each day, which became years. I lost my mojo. Procedures I had: -Too much imaging (scans/X-rays) to count -Endoscopy -Pill Camera -Scoliosis diagnosis and physical therapy -Spinal injections to test for a Rhizotomy which I decided not to follow through with because I didn’t feel it would help -Colonoscopy -Whatever else I may not be recalling in this moment.
Because I was so desperate I asked my orthopedic surgeon to perform a spinal fusion at one point. Thankfully, he’s a great man/surgeon and talked me out of it because he knew it wasn’t causing the pain I was describing. I couldn’t work and had to give up my independence. I withered away because the rib pain was so bad, I could barely eat. I lived on Ensure. Not eating helped, but it still hurt all the time. My muscles atrophied and everything else began to decline due to the effects of losing nutrition and movement.
Eventually, I found some motivation and I got a job working from home, got on my own again and pushed through it. I kept losing weight and got down to about 92lbs. I started researching more and found out about SRS. I researched thoracic surgeons in my area to find a surgeon that appeared to have an open mind and would be willing to learn. The surgeon I chose was also an assistant professor and that gave me hope. I provided him with Dr. Hansen’s procedure information and he reviewed it, ordered ultrasound imaging and some other tests and we kept meeting and talking. He reached out to Dr. Hansen and scheduled my surgery. At this point, it was exploratory because when it came to slipping ribs, it wasn’t something he’s treated this way and when he looked into it, resection was the solution.
I said no thanks to that and kept asking him to look into the suturing procedure. I need my ribs to protect my organs and support my bone structure. I remember waking up from my surgery and him telling me “you were right!” My right side 10th rib was completely detached and free to float around. He used Dr. Hansen’s 2.0 technique and sutured it to the 9th. It was finally stable! That was January of 2021. I began to have the same type of pain again a few months later. I was happy to let him go back in to take a look around to figure out what was going on. It turned out that the very tip of my 10th rib cartilage had come loose and was flipping around so he snipped it off, added sutures and closed me back up. That was September 2021. I’m almost fully recovered. Recovering from the atrophy is the hardest part because like many SRS sufferers, I have other diagnosed problems like Hypermobility and severe scoliosis. I am a work in progress and I will get there! We grow through what we go through.
HEATHER DOBOS, MINNESOTA, USA
I fought SRS for 16 very hard long years of my life and I’m only 38. I can now say that it’s been 3 years of living and finally experiencing the life I have always wanted and dreamed of pain free. My journey of SRS was hard frustrating painful and so many emotions I can’t even describe. I can not pinpoint exactly how why or when this happened but my decline started in 2004 when my appendix ruptured. From then many GI related issues happened.
I have had all the tests you could imagine and they all would come back negative. Being told over and over again by doctors that nothing was wrong and that it is all in my head. I had fo fight and advocate over and over again to be heard by all physicians. I was losing weight and barley being able to eat or even drink water on my surgery day I was only 96 lbs and felt like I was whithering away. I kept my determination and strength up that I was going get on the other side of whatever was going on with me. If I hadn’t kept that mindset I wouldn’t be here today.
In 2020 while the world was shutting down is when I really started to go downhill with pain and frustration and lack of answers. I was going to a pain clinic and a physical therapist mentioned the words that I had already circling in my head from my own research of Slipping rib syndrome. She did a dynamic ultrasound and saw my flaring ribs very clearly on my left side and said to me “how has no one ever seen this?”
I burst into tears and wept in her exam room and thanked her for not thinking I was crazy. With that I went home and began my own advocating and determination to find a doctor no matter how far I had to go that would help me. I found Dr. Shiroff at University of Pennsylvania. I reached out to his office and I honestly didn’t know how much more time I could deal with this physically or mentally. After a week or so his assistant reached out and we got the ball rolling with zoom meetings and medical records being sent and within one zoom meeting he could see how bad my 8th, 9th and 10th ribs were for me. On July 27th 2020 I met my knight in shining armor, Dr. Shiroff who I believe saved my life and gave me my life back to share my story and help others in the process. It’s been wonderful to be able to experience life, food and and new experiences again. I was finally healthy enough to get pregnant with our beautiful daughter and happy to announce we’re pregnant again. A dream and experience I thought I would never see in my life. I get to be me again and it feels so good.
OLIVIA HEATH, COLORADO, USA
My daughter Olivia swam competitively for years. During her junior year of high school, she experienced intense back pain that worsened when she swam. She also regularly experienced a stabbing pain along the front of her abdomen, and she could trigger that pain by moving her lower ribs back and forth.
Olivia's weekly physical therapy only provided temporary relief for her pain. After her symptoms worsened, leading to her quitting swimming, I turned to the internet for answers. Thankfully, I stumbled across Slipping Rib Syndrome and the Facebook support group. I spent many hours gleaning information and encouragement, and it was immeasurably helpful. Olivia’s story would not be the happy one it is today without this group.
My internet searches also led me to Dr. Diaz-Muron, a surgeon at Denver Children’s Hospital who is familiar with SRS. In October 2022, he diagnosed Olivia with bilateral SRS through a physical exam. He also ordered a dynamic chest ultrasound to confirm the diagnosis. It was such a gift to have received an answer so quickly!
The techs were puzzled during Olivia's dynamic ultrasound because they had never seen or heard of SRS before. They did their best to decipher what we were all seeing on the screen, and in the end, they diagnosed her with bilateral SRS at ribs 8-9. Later we’d discover that they had counted the ribs wrong, and it was actually Olivia’s 9th and 10th ribs that were slipping. In fact, ribs 9 and 10 on both sides had become completely separated from her costal margin.
In December, Olivia underwent a bilateral intercostal radio frequency nerve ablation (8-10 R and 10-12 L) at Denver Children’s Hospital. While this helped with the pain a bit, it created an additional problem where she temporarily lost muscle strength and tone in her lower abdomen. Thankfully, she has a great manual physical therapist who helped her through that hiccup. Olivia also had an assessment at the Denver Children’s Hospital Genetics Hypermobility Clinic. They diagnosed her with Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder but not hEDS (she got her hypermobility from her mama).
In January 2023, Olivia had a “normal” CT scan that, when converted into 3-D, revealed her detached ribs. Also in January, she had a consultation with Dr. Pieracci at Denver Health. We both really liked Dr. Pieraacci. He was kind, empathic, and communicated clearly. However, he was performing the Hansen 2.0 surgery, and through the group, I had learned that Dr. Hansen was doing a 3.0 version of the surgery. So, we decided to wait until we saw Dr. Hansen to determine the next steps.
In February, Olivia and I traveled east for consultations with Dr. Shiroff at Penn Medicine and Dr. Hansen at WVU. The consult with Dr. Shiroff went well, and we left with the sense that he is a skilled surgeon who successfully treats many SRS patients. However, he was performing a version of the Hansen 2.0 surgery, and we were eager to learn about Dr. Hansen’s 3.0 version.
Olivia’s consultation with Dr. Hansen was great—he was knowledgeable, professional, kind, and humble. He spent so much time addressing our many questions and concerns. Olivia felt seen, understood, and heard. But I won’t sugarcoat things—the surgery and recovery ahead were daunting for Olivia and left her feeling scared and overwhelmed. And as Olivia’s mom, I was terrified of making a wrong decision that could negatively affect her present and future. (I may or may not have sobbed in the bathtub when we got back to the hotel.)
It didn’t take long for Olivia, my husband, and I to agree that the 3.0 surgery with Dr. Hansen was Olivia’s best option. However, Dr. Hansen’s first available surgery slot was too close to Olivia’s first day of college. It wouldn’t allow for enough recovery time before she needed to do things like carry a backpack long distance. So, we put her on a wait list and hoped and prayed.
Over the next few months, Olivia’s pain became nearly unbearable. Simple things like sitting in class and driving in a car were extremely painful. The main thing that helped her was lifting weights; her muscle gains and the endorphins she got after each lift helped her to push past the pain, discouragement, and fear. She had been lifting for around a year, and Dr. Hansen told her that the muscle strength she had built would greatly help with her recovery. So, Olivia carefully pressed on in the gym despite her growing pain.
The day after Olivia graduated from high school, Lisa Hansen reached out with fabulous news. She said that if we could be in West Virginia in exactly one week, there was a surgery spot available for Olivia! The news was both exciting and terrifying. It was difficult for Olivia to wrap her mind around all that was about to change and around the long road to recovery, but she was all in.
Olivia’s May 24th surgery was a tremendous success! Dr. Hansen excised some costal cartilage from her 9th and 10th ribs on both sides, used the excised cartilage to create spacer grafts between ribs 8-10 on each side, sutured ribs 9 and 10 together with the grafts, and bilaterally placed bioabsorbable plates from ribs 7 through 10. The entire surgery took around three hours, and Dr. Hansen was really excited about how well everything went.
After a week at a nearby hotel, Dr. Hansen cleared Olivia to fly home to Colorado. Olivia's recovery was tough, even though she knew what to expect. Ice became her best friend, and she found ways to stay entertained and encouraged while being bed-ridden. Still, those three months were extremely difficult for her.
About those recovery months Olivia says, “Lifting was my mental and physical solace through my senior year, and to have it taken away was devastating. Those first months felt like purgatory, and recovery was filled with countless tears. SRS patients may feel hopeless during the initial months of healing after surgery, but I encourage them to make a list of all the ways their ribs held them back before the surgery so that they can check them off as they regain strength. Watching my progress kept me sane. I felt devastated right after the surgery, but in time I saw how it brought new abilities and reduced pain that I didn’t think was possible.”
As Olivia’s 3-month post-surgery milestone neared, she was feeling quite good. She no longer needed ice, could work as a restaurant hostess, and was back to being the social butterfly that she is. And three months after her surgery, she was back in the gym. Although she had lost most of the muscle she had built, she was determined to regain it carefully.
On August 30, my husband and I moved Olivia into her dorm to begin her freshman year of college in Arizona. To this day, we’re still in awe over the timing of her surgery. She had exactly three months to heal at home under the care of her family and without the demands of school.
With her four-month surgery anniversary just around the corner, Olivia says, “My body feels drastically better and almost normal, and I’m able to move without popping. Since it’s only been four months, there’s still some healing to be done and there’s still some soreness, but I’m able to do all the things I love. I can do so much more than I could do before my surgery with Dr. Hansen, and I don’t feel held back by my body anymore. Every minute of the recovery pain was worth it now that I get to be under a bar with a lot of weight on it again.”
Whether to have surgery, what surgery to have, and which surgeon to trust are weighty decisions. We believe that we made the right choice for Olivia and hope that the coming months and years yield even more healing and strength.
If you’ve read this far, I hope Olivia’s story has encouraged you. The road to wellness is hard, and conflicting information and experiences are discouraging. As someone who also lives with chronic pain, I know how difficult it is to keep striving for healing and pain relief. Hang in there. Keep doing the next right thing. Hold on to hope, and remember to look for the beauty around you.
ALYSSA LOWE, GEORGIA, USA
After suffering for more than 4 years from severe pain in my chest and abdomen, difficulty breathing, nausea, and fatigue, I had surgery to secure my slipping ribs.
I was scared to have surgery, because I read some horror stories online about how it didn't work or made things worse. I also worried about the risks and complications of anesthesia and infection. But I decided to go ahead with it, because I couldn't stand living in pain anymore. I found Dr. Christie, who is one of the surgeons in the US who specializes in slipping rib syndrome surgery.
He was very knowledgeable and compassionate, and he explained everything to me in detail. He assured me that he had a lot of experience and success with this procedure, and that he would do his best to help me.
The surgery went well, and I went home immediately after surgery. Dr. Christie removed the part of the rib that was causing the problem, and sutured the other ribs that were loose. He told me that I would feel some pain and soreness for a few weeks, but that it would gradually improve as I healed.
He was right. The recovery process has been amazing. Every day, I feel a little bit better. The pain is much less than before, and I can take less medication. I can breathe more deeply and easily, without feeling like someone is squeezing my chest. I can sleep more comfortably, without waking up in agony. I can eat more normally, without feeling sick or bloated. And I can do more things that I enjoy, like walking, reading, and spending time with my family and friends.
Dr. Christie really changed my life for the better, and I'm so thankful to him and his team. They gave me hope and relief, when I thought there was none. They treated me with kindness and respect, when I felt alone and misunderstood. They gave me back my health and happiness, when I thought they were gone forever.
If you have slipping rib syndrome and you're scared of surgery, don't let the fear stop you. Trust me, it's worth it. It's not an easy decision, but it's the best one you can make for yourself. You deserve to live without pain and suffering. You deserve to live your best life.
