I've had the same pain in the past (prior to pole) and also recently within the last few months. This last episode was bad and didn't stop killing on inhales/forward/side bends/laughing for about a week (was on muscle relaxants and although everything was relaxed and numb, the sharp stabbing pain was still there).
Learned a few days in that I had two rib subluxation (slipped ribs), t4 and t5 at sternum. Nothing you can do about it (except have them manipulated back in place by a high, everage, physio or chiropractor).. Even when back in place though, it'll take a good 4-6 weeks for the tissue to heal. Once mine were back in and pain was pretty much absent (about 2 weeks later), except at the end of very large inhales (mild pain), I could feel my ribs wiggling around near sternum at the end of a large inhale (sort of like gritting teeth back and forth), since that's when theyd be maximally spread.
Im not saying this is what you have, but you might want to bring it up as an option when getting checked out, to rule out anything else. (slipped ribs can be fairly common-as I said, I've had them in the past, unrelated to pole)
