Question - Just Crashed

[bikerboy337]

I just crashed about 45 minutes ago on a nice long ride, limped home without much pain. I ended up flipping over my bike at about 15mph going up a large hill (rear wheel slipped out, note, never used open cam skewers with semi-horizonal dropouts again).

I landed on my right side, knocked the wind out of me. Now... slight pain in my ribs where i landed, nothing bruised, doesn't hurt bad, but i can feel some slight pain in the area...

question: does this warrant a trip to the doctor/ER, or should i wait to see if it gets worse. again, slight pain, not bad, but i can feel it hurt when i breathe deep...

[Lewis Moon]

Do you have insurance? If so, pay the co-pay and see a doc. If not, ice and wait. See how it feels in the AM. You MAY have broken a rib.

YPDIYDT.

[bikerboy337]

yes, i have insurance...

just really dont want to spend the next 4 hours in the ER to be told that i brused my ribs...

guess i'm wondering if anything bad can come from waiting to see...

[MattTuck]

Sorry to hear that :(

Don't want to give any advice (since I'm not a professional doctor), but listen to your body... it knows when it is serious.


feel better.

[dave thompson]

I crashed once. Didn't feel bad enough for an ER visit so called my Doc and he squeezed me in for an exam. Glad i did, turned out I had two cracked ribs.

[beeatnik]

I put off a visit to urgent care after being hit by a car. Once I spoke to an attorney who handles a lot of bike accident cases, he urged me to get checked out to rule out a collapsed lung (had chest tightness and shortness of breath two days after the accident).

[fiamme red]

Even if the rib is broken, not much a doctor can do for that, except prescribe pain meds.

[soulspinner]

Wouldnt mess with breathing get it checked ot. Keep that rubber side down............

[MattTuck]

I crashed once. Didn't feel bad enough for an ER visit so called my Doc and he squeezed me in for an exam. Glad i did, turned out I had two cracked ribs.

other than paid medication, what do they do for this?

[MattTuck]

Oh, as an aside. if you do go to the ER, tell them you fell and impacted your head/neck. When that actually did happen to me, they saw me right away -- they put a neck brace on and I had to wear it for like an hour. But I didn't wait in the waiting room.

[bikerboy337]

thanks so far...

it definately hurts if i press on my ribs, but i'm guessing they're just bruised if anything... planning to just wait it out and go to the Dr. tomorrow if they hurt... certainly nothing bad, its was a flip at 15mph, but just wanted some quick thoughts and i think based on what ive seen and people i've spoken to at work, just wait it out until tomorrow... then maybe hit the doctor...

[savine]

just tough it out n see what the morning brings. as has been said the quack can´t do much about broken ribs though i bet it´s just bruising. head up:)

[cp43]

other than paid medication, what do they do for this?

I have no medical training, and base the below on a doctors visit I made over the summer for my bruised ribs.

They only do anything for broken ribs that are displaced. So, if they're bruised, or even broken but sitting correctly, they don't do anything. They didn't even bother to x-ray my ribs, since the treatment would have been the same either way.

Not sure about pain meds. They didn't offer me any, but I didn't really complain about the pain.

The old treatment was to wrap the torso. This has gone out of favor as it prevents you from fully inhaling. If you don't fully inhale somewhat regularly you can get fluid in your lungs. Also, the wrap only treats the pain, by immobilizing the ribs, it doesn't help them heal any faster.

Chris

[gasman]

If you fractured a rib there isn't anything to do but give you pain meds.
If you get very short of breath go in immediately, but that doesn't sound like that's the case. I broke a couple ribs snowboarding years ago. Just sat in pain.

[tele]

ER's suck....do you have a rapid care clinic near you? In my experience they are much faster and have an x-ray machine etc... do get an idea what is going on.

[CunegoFan]

other than paid medication, what do they do for this?

Do people take pain meds for a cracked rib? I think I cracked mine after slipping on ice while trail running. I did not go to a doc because all one could do is tell me I had a cracked rib. I just made sure I did not watch any funny movies and prayed to the gods I would not have to sneeze or cough.

[gasman]

Some people take narcotics for rib fractures. It depends on how many and how bad it hurts, everyone is different. I just took ibuprofen to sleep .

[Lanterne Rouge]

Caveat I'm no doctor and the best advice is listen to your body.

That said I sat in the doctors office for a few hours with a fractured rib and like everyone has said there is nothing that can be done except to control the pain (as it was my birthday I opted for few ice cold ones).

I still have a rib oddly jutting out but hey bones heal and chicks dig scars.

I hope it's not too serious?

[#campyuserftw]

4 hours in an ER waiting < living the rest of your life with good health

Mom always said, don't play ball in the house, and Krazy Glue the vase back together; head to the ER for a quick check and make sure you really are A-OK. Eyes checked, BP, temp, x-rays on ribs and prolly just some ibuprofen with rest...but worth a quickie visit to the ER. You were just in a car accident, without the car, seatbelt, or air bag and you're lucky indeed.

Use your healthcare and to heck with the ACA website. ;)

[GScot]

Just to share in making the same mistake and knowing better. I put a bike together and headed out for the morning loop early this Summer. Stood up to accelerate across a busy 4 lane street when the light turned green. Sure enough the wheel pulled out and I ended up like an upside down turtle in the middle of the intersection. Only had a few scraps and embarrassment. Good luck with the ribs.

[William]

I've been training martial arts for eons and I've bruised/cracked ribs numerous times. Like what's been stated already, not much to do but let time take it's course. You'll probably feel it more in the next day or two. The worst part of the healing process for me has always been my friends trying their best to make me laugh. Get used to hugging yourself.;)






William

[jischr]

I crashed this summer at around 16 mph. Crack the radial bone, lung contusion, no one bothered to talk about the ribs other than to say they will hurt. There was a perfect imprint of my handlebar in the middle of my left pectoral. After three days I was green and purple from the left nipple line up and over the left shoulder. They told me to deep breath occasionally and cough to be sure to keep the lung open and clear out anything. Coughing hurt the ribs quite a bit. My first sneeze just about dropped me to my knees.
It took about 12 weeks to where I could push on the ribs and not feel pain. Once or twice I thought I heard a rib pop when deep breathing but it could have been imagination. The bottom line is like most are saying. Go to the ER for peace of mind if you want but they won't do anything unless they can feel a dislocation under the skin. I was told to take Advil as directed for inflammation. Augment it with Tylenol to trick the mind into thinking the pain is gone. And give it time, and more time. And try not too crash in the interim. :)

[Mr. Pink]

other than paid medication, what do they do for this?

Drink tequila. Wash down maybe 8 or 9 Advil over time (the gel caps are awesome) with it. Seriously. It's going to hurt a lot tomorrow morning and the morning after that, and, depending on your age, for awhile. If you're not in violent pain, nuthin' much a doctor can do.

[Janders]

This friendly local ER doc doesn't give advice on internet forums, since he doesn't want to establish a doctor-patient relationship with you.

That said, if you came to the ER you'd likely get a chest xray or rib series xray. As everyone has mentioned, all we really do for stand-alone rib fracture(s) is pain medication as needed, and encourage deep breathing. Xrays are actually rather insensitive for fractured ribs (CT or MRI often pick up small fractures that are invisible on xray... see Jacoby Elsbury of the Red Sox). So even if you had a "negative" xray, if you had one spot right along a rib that was very tender, I'd tell you that it is a likely small non-displaced fracture. Of course, you very may well have a chest wall contusion(bruise) and muscle strain, without any fractured ribs. Regardless, some tylenol, or motrin, or aleve will do it. Vicodin if its horrible...

The more important point of the visit would be to make sure you don't have a more serious injury, i.e. pneumothorax, or say a bleeding spleen due to lower left rib injury. Much less likely, but that's what I'm REALLY looking for if someone comes in with a "rib" injury.

Its up to you to do the risk:benefit analysis with regards to going in to get seen. We will always say "go see a doctor" if for no other reason that we don't want to get sued if something is really wrong. But if I hit my ribs, and they were a bit sore, but I could breath and otherwise felt fine, I'd likely skip the xray as it is likely superfluous.

<soapbox>:no:
Oh and don't lie to triage about a head/neck injury because it'll get you seen quicker:
(1) Its a dick move. Don't be a dick.
(2) It'll get you in a hard collar. It very well might get you an unneeded CT scan of your brain/cervical spine, which costs a few grand and exposes you to the radiation risk of many thousand xrays...
(3) You'll be skipping ahead of someone that might REALLY need to come in first. Don't risk some asthmatic child's health to speed your visit.
</soapbox>:no:

[AgilisMerlin]

sleep well,

shyt happens

[HugoBear]

This friendly local ER doc doesn't give advice on internet forums, since he doesn't want to establish a doctor-patient relationship with you.

That said, if you came to the ER you'd likely get a chest xray or rib series xray. As everyone has mentioned, all we really do for stand-alone rib fracture(s) is pain medication as needed, and encourage deep breathing. Xrays are actually rather insensitive for fractured ribs (CT or MRI often pick up small fractures that are invisible on xray... see Jacoby Elsbury of the Red Sox). So even if you had a "negative" xray, if you had one spot right along a rib that was very tender, I'd tell you that it is a likely small non-displaced fracture. Of course, you very may well have a chest wall contusion(bruise) and muscle strain, without any fractured ribs. Regardless, some tylenol, or motrin, or aleve will do it. Vicodin if its horrible...

The more important point of the visit would be to make sure you don't have a more serious injury, i.e. pneumothorax, or say a bleeding spleen due to lower left rib injury. Much less likely, but that's what I'm REALLY looking for if someone comes in with a "rib" injury.

Its up to you to do the risk:benefit analysis with regards to going in to get seen. We will always say "go see a doctor" if for no other reason that we don't want to get sued if something is really wrong. But if I hit my ribs, and they were a bit sore, but I could breath and otherwise felt fine, I'd likely skip the xray as it is likely superfluous.

<soapbox>:no:
Oh and don't lie to triage about a head/neck injury because it'll get you seen quicker:
(1) Its a dick move. Don't be a dick.
(2) It'll get you in a hard collar. It very well might get you an unneeded CT scan of your brain/cervical spine, which costs a few grand and exposes you to the radiation risk of many thousand xrays...
(3) You'll be skipping ahead of someone that might REALLY need to come in first. Don't risk some asthmatic child's health to speed your visit.
</soapbox>:no:

This is great info. When I crashed in February, the pain was excruciating, an 11 on a 1-10 scale. I went to the ER, but was really trying to avoid the ER due to cost. Wound up being a $2,500 day but was worth knowing I was not in danger of bad damage. Was just some broken ribs and significant shoulder soft tissue damage. If it isn't very painful now, probably is not too big of a deal.

[HenryA]

What the Doc wrote above is good. (as you'd expect)

I'll add, with the qualification of having personally had a very serious chest injury from our sport, that if you are hurt badly you'd sure as heck know it right now. That you got home and are walking around and posting to an internet forum suggests that you will likely live at least another few hours.

But it might be worth having a look if you don't get all better soon.

Good luck healing.

:banana:

And I'll add that I'm pretty much an idiot and if I can get back on my bike and ride I figure I'm good to go.

[slowgoing]

The worst part about cracking ribs is turning over in the middle of the night shoulder first (the regular way) instead of more cautiously by moving the shoulders and the hips at the same time. You'll find this out fairly quickly.

[alessandro]

+1 for this:

This friendly local ER doc doesn't give advice on internet forums, since he doesn't want to establish a doctor-patient relationship with you.

That said, if you came to the ER you'd likely get a chest xray or rib series xray. As everyone has mentioned, all we really do for stand-alone rib fracture(s) is pain medication as needed, and encourage deep breathing. Xrays are actually rather insensitive for fractured ribs (CT or MRI often pick up small fractures that are invisible on xray... see Jacoby Elsbury of the Red Sox). So even if you had a "negative" xray, if you had one spot right along a rib that was very tender, I'd tell you that it is a likely small non-displaced fracture. Of course, you very may well have a chest wall contusion(bruise) and muscle strain, without any fractured ribs. Regardless, some tylenol, or motrin, or aleve will do it. Vicodin if its horrible...

The more important point of the visit would be to make sure you don't have a more serious injury, i.e. pneumothorax, or say a bleeding spleen due to lower left rib injury. Much less likely, but that's what I'm REALLY looking for if someone comes in with a "rib" injury.

Its up to you to do the risk:benefit analysis with regards to going in to get seen. We will always say "go see a doctor" if for no other reason that we don't want to get sued if something is really wrong. But if I hit my ribs, and they were a bit sore, but I could breath and otherwise felt fine, I'd likely skip the xray as it is likely superfluous.

+ 1,000 for this. Sooner or later, they'll figure out that they've been lied to, and they'll write that in their notes, and then you'll be known as That Patient to every other provider who reads that note.


<soapbox>:no:
Oh and don't lie to triage about a head/neck injury because it'll get you seen quicker:
(1) Its a dick move. Don't be a dick.
(2) It'll get you in a hard collar. It very well might get you an unneeded CT scan of your brain/cervical spine, which costs a few grand and exposes you to the radiation risk of many thousand xrays...
(3) You'll be skipping ahead of someone that might REALLY need to come in first. Don't risk some asthmatic child's health to speed your visit.
</soapbox>:no:

This is a very bad idea:
Drink tequila. Wash down maybe 8 or 9 Advil over time (the gel caps are awesome) with it. Seriously.

Do you hate your liver? The waiting list for a new one of these is longer than for a Sachs. Pick one--alcohol or ibuprofen--and don't mix them.