So the story goes... I was playing basketball 9 days ago and took a shoulder to the right lower chest. I had splitting pain in my upper right back area inside of shoulder blade immediately, but whatever kept playing. I even played raquetball earlier this week, and the only thing that hurt a lot was swinging too hard from right to left pulling on my back.

It has hurt particularly when laying down or sitting up from laying down, and hasn't gotten any better all week. The past couple days it has now been popping near the sternum and I have felt pops in my back as well, but the most uncomfortable popping is in the front (despite the main sharp pains being in the back). Nothing feels out of place or anything and the pain isn't severe, just sharp when moving/coughing/sneezing and yelling at the game was pretty uncomfortable.

Is this something to worry about or just rest for a while? Anything to buy to keep it from popping? The popping seems to happen when bending over to pick something up and then when I breathe after standing back up. Other than that it seems normal despite the with certain movements.

Costochondral separation, basically it's where the cartilage that connects the rib to the sternum is separated and the pain is the cartilage rubbing against th bone. I had this 9 years ago and it sucked. Pain killers and rest is what helped, nothing else. That was from my doc at the time who was one of the team docs at ASU.

This has happened to me a couple of times over the years. Each time a quick trip to my Chiro and I was put back together in no time, near instant relief. Better than chewing pain meds for a couple of weeks.