The surgical consult

I met with the surgeon today, and he seems to think that most of the pain is actually in the cartilage, even though I can tell you that there is definite rib pain...especially after the way he pushed and pulled on my chest.  We're going to do a CT scan in a couple of weeks to see if he can identify any definitive damage to the cartilage.  If he can't find any, then that means that the cartilage is being strained, and there is probably nothing that can be done surgically.
If that's the case, then I'm going to be stuck with taking pain medications for the rest of my life.  This is not the outcome I was hoping for...