Chhavi Mittal on now battling Costochondritis: Even breathing gets painful at times

It’s been more than a year since she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is cancer-free now, after undergoing treatment- but now Chhavi Mittal has another thing to deal with.

She took to Instagram recently to share that she has been diagnosed with costocondritis. Explaining to us what it means, the 42-year-old says, “I think what I am experiencing is a side effect of all the cancer treatments, it started with a foot fracture. I went to get it checked, and upon the scan I found out that I have low bone mineral density which hinted towards osteopenia, a condition where bones start losing calcium in the blood. The treatment is an injection, and I took it.”

What happened next was even worse, she continues, “I started experiencing severe chest pain, which felt more like soams in the chest. It went all the way back to the upperback shoulder, everything felt really tight. I started taking pain meds for it. Once the spasm passed, I realised there was an injury to the chest cartilage, which basically means that breathing and everything causes pain. My left arm’s movement is restricted, even filling a bottle of water is painful for me. Only the pain can be managed through medications, it’s been seven days I have been on it”

Her children, Areeza and Arham too are trying to chip in with however they can to help their mom navigate through her everyday life. “My daughter helps me a lot,, running small errands. My son too does that, but it gets a little difficult for me to explain to him I cannot pick him up, and that he needs to be careful around my left side. But I am not dependent upon anybody, I was not even after my cancer surgery or treatment. I always try to do as much as I can on my own. Lifting weights I cannot do, and I need to be driven around though,” she shares.