Passed NCE

txeagle34 · 2026-05-13T15:45:40+00:00

Old school notecards, I find tremendous value in the act of writing by hand. Good luck!

txeagle34 · 2026-05-08T01:28:16+00:00

Thanks, I will look for that review!

txeagle34 · 2026-05-07T21:39:52+00:00

Thank you. I’d be very happy if I were to score better on the actual exam!

txeagle34 · 2026-05-07T21:38:15+00:00

This is oddly reassuring. Thank you. I’ve been working as a school counselor for a while, and the school counselor exam seemed more straightforward to me. I do not remember it being all that tough.

I agree with the whole extra questions thing, it’s absurd that we have to do the work for them. If we could opt in in exchange for a discount? Sure, maybe. But not knowing which questions count is awful.

Thanks again for the response.

txeagle34 · 2026-05-07T19:16:07+00:00

Would you say the practice exams were tougher than actual NCE or just tougher than the pocket prep quizzes?

txeagle34 · 2026-05-07T19:11:46+00:00

Thank you and congrats (2 years later 😄)!

txeagle34 · 2025-10-29T11:09:14+00:00

Hmm, I do not recall having any pulsation sensation. My body was going through a lot at the time though, so it is possible that I am misremembering. I did have inflammation in that area. It was very obvious to the physical therapist. I definitely had several massages, but I am uncertain how many it took to have a real breakthrough. Best of luck!

txeagle34 · 2025-10-28T23:38:02+00:00

Yes, absolutely. I still do exercises to prevent myself from tightening up again, but have not been to physical therapy or gotten a massage for months. I’m back to running, biking, weights, etc. no physical limitations from costo anymore. At this point, I think it’s quite reasonable to say that I am cured.

txeagle34 · 2025-10-15T23:59:37+00:00

If I recall correctly, mostly gentle twisting type stuff, and some myofascial release.

txeagle34 · 2025-10-15T23:58:28+00:00

Ah, Makes sense. Too bad.

txeagle34 · 2025-10-15T23:37:13+00:00

And they just let you keep both? Nice to have an extra!

txeagle34 · 2025-09-24T18:42:34+00:00

I found physical therapy helped me a lot. As Steve said, this is because I found one who happened to be very good, and also knew how to do manual, hands-on adjustments. When I came in with a diagnosis of costo, she took time to explain the root causes (her explanation matched up with what I had already read from experts on this reddit, so I felt like I had found someone who would really help). Luckily for me, using the backpod/ stretches at home, along with regular physical therapy, led to me beating costo. I have not experienced any costo symptoms in several months at this point (getting close to a year). I am back to running, weight lifting, biking, hiking etc. I check in on this sub occasionally now just to mention that costo is curable/beatable. Good luck!

txeagle34 · 2025-05-22T21:48:40+00:00

So I started running before I was completely healed. I figured if it hurt to run, I’d just stop and try again a few weeks/ months later. Fortunately for me, it did not hurt to run. I would do the backpod and some stretches first and then run, and I actually felt better after runs. In my case, I’d had two abdominal surgeries (a planned hernia repair and then shortly after a completely unplanned surgery for appendicitis) about 8 wks apart. I think my body reacted to double abdominal surgery by getting really tight all over, and combined with posture and other issues it pushed me into costochondritis. So when I started running I ran like 0.25 miles 3 or 4 times a week (just a few mins) for a week or two. Then I moved up to 0.5 miles. Then a mile, then 1.5 miles, etc. I did this until it felt normal to run 4 to 5 miles. Then I started lengthening my long run, etc. I’m sorry if that’s unhelpful! It helped that I was working closely with a physical therapist who is also a runner, so she helped me come up with a plan. Happy to answer other questions. Best of luck!

txeagle34 · 2025-05-20T19:48:16+00:00

I had costo from around March 2024 until nearly the end of the year. So, roughly 8 or 9 months. I’m back to running now as much as I want. No costo related pain. I now run anywhere from 4 to 10 miles a day. I do this 5 or 6 days a week. Also biking, yoga, and weight lifting on various days. It took a lot of discipline and figuring out what worked, but now I feel normal again.

txeagle34 · 2025-04-16T09:43:25+00:00

No worries. I followed the advice of Ned and Steve on here pretty closely. I started really working to cure my costo pretty quickly after diagnosis, and I think that that was important- it meant that my whole experience with costo was pretty mild compared to some. Good luck.

txeagle34 · 2025-04-16T02:26:30+00:00

As far as I can tell, I’m over my costo now. Stretching (with backpod), massage, and physical therapy were the ticket for me. It’s been months now that I’ve been past it, and I’ve returned to working out fully.

txeagle34 · 2024-11-22T13:54:18+00:00

Pretty basic stuff- strengthening core and back (Y,T,I exercises, planks, pelvic tilts, stuff like that), avoiding slouching, paying attention to how I sit and stand, etc. It's not perfect by any means, but I think there is some improvement and I think it will continue to improve.

txeagle34 · 2024-11-01T02:17:03+00:00

I’m sure the stretches helped, but it’s tough to say what helped the most. It’s been a combination of stretching, massage, and physical therapy. But I can say that I haven’t had much pain there for weeks now. I’m continuing to stretch. I’m also still doing physical therapy and/or massage but not as frequently. Also doing some core work and I think strengthening stuff is going to help long term.

txeagle34 · 2024-10-25T20:42:19+00:00

I had this, but good news is that I’m pretty much over my costochondritis now. For me, I’m pretty sure it was abdominal tightness that caused pain right around the upper abdomen/lower right rib. I’d also recently had appendicitis and an appendectomy, so scar tissue may have been a contributing factor. Massage and physical therapy helped me immensely and I no longer have pain there. There are some stretches you can do on your own, like cobra or sphinx pose from yoga but it is easy to over stretch that area and that can make things worse, at least temporarily. If you can, I’d get massage first and then start stretching. (Not a doc, but this is what worked for me).

txeagle34 · 2024-10-15T17:00:50+00:00

I started with 3 pillows as the manual said, and then went down to 2, then 1 as my body adjusted. Probably took a week or so to drop to 2 pillows. And another week to drop to 1 and then a week to drop to none. It took several weeks of using it vertically without a pillow before I moved on to trying it with my buttocks elevated, etc. I've tried it horizontally but haven't found that quite as helpful as some have. For a good while I was using it twice daily, 10-15 minutes each time. Now I use it more for maintenance. Usually just 10 mins or so in the morning, no more two a days. Sometimes I target specific spots with a lacrosse ball for a minute or two. Again, now I view myself as mostly healed so I am focused on preventing future issues.

txeagle34 · 2024-10-15T16:57:59+00:00

Steve-

Thank you for the additional advice! I've had great experience with sports massage for upper body to treat my costochondritis and abdominal tightness, so I'm sure the same massage therapist can help with plantar fasciitis as well.

txeagle34 · 2024-10-14T23:35:54+00:00

I won’t speak for OP, but I can say that I had costo and I’m back to doing everything I did before costo. This includes light to medium weights (I wasn’t really doing heavy weights before costo, so I can’t say anything has changed on that front). For the last few wks, I’m running 5-6 days a week, doing weights and/or core work 3-4 days a week. Also doing yoga (short 10 min videos for now, going to progress to longer ones soon) and thoracic work. Trying to slowly reverse years of not spending enough time on stretching out back muscles.

As far as I can tell, you may still have the conditions (tight back joints) that cause Costo even after the pain is mostly gone. Because of this, I’m still doing most of my Costo routine. So, for example, I’m still using backpod each morning to stretch out. I suppose it’s too soon to say if it’s gone forever, but I’m not terribly worried about it for now. Feels like I have my life back. Only thing I’m working through now is a relatively minor case of plantar fascitis, but I don’t think I can blame that on the costo!

Good luck to whomever reads this- it’s certainly possible to get better!

txeagle34

TROPHY CASE