excruciating rib pain

Hi Jean, and thanks for your question - it's a good one!! And a common occurrence within our COPD community, too! While I'm hopeful others in the community will respond to you with their own personal experiences, I thought you might gain some insight for your concern from the material we have published, right here on COPD.net, which focuses on this very subject. For your convenience, here is a link to one of the many articles we have which addresses rib cramps and pain: https://copd.net/living/relief-rib-cramping. I do hope you find it to be helpful in a practical way.
Wishing you well,
Leon (site moderator COPD.net)