How do I know if I broke a rib?

[shinomaster]

Umm....two weeks ago to the night I was out drinking with my birthday boy brother and his/my pal D'Donald (Donny). I only drank two and a half pints of Fred and the Horse Brass.. Fred is probably the best beer on earth...and I'm not kidding or exaggerating.
Anyway...our sexy hot waitress seemed to like me more than our pal Donny. This maybe made Donny mad, so when we left he either punched me, or elbowed me in the chest. Ouch!!! THE next day I woke up with a MP pain in the chest that is just starting to go away. Sneezing or coughing or sitting up in bed was extremely painful, MP, in fact. It still hurts , but it's finally getting better.
Did I break something, or just get a bad bruise? It hurt to take a deep breath...
Some friend! It was just under the right nipple....Should I sue my friend?

[trophyoftexas]

Umm....two weeks ago to the night I was out drinking with my birthday boy brother and his/my pal D'Donald (Donny). I only drank two and a half pints of Fred and the Horse Brass.. Fred is probably the best beer on earth...and I'm not kidding or exaggerating.
Anyway...our sexy hot waitress seemed to like me more than our pal Donny. This maybe made Donny mad, so when we left he either punched me, or elbowed me in the chest. Ouch!!! THE next day I woke up with a MP pain in the chest that is just starting to go away. Sneezing or coughing or sitting up in bed was extremely painful, MP, in fact. It still hurts , but it's finally getting better.
Did I break something, or just get a bad bruise? It hurt to take a deep breath...
Some friend! It was just under the right nipple....Should I sue my friend?

Depends, did she go home with you or the birthday boy? ;)

[Gothard]

Usually, fracture pain is at its worst between 7 and 12 days and then gets *slowly* better. A bruise is worse the next day and gets better right away.
The problem with rib fracture is that to heal a fracture, you must immobilise the bone. So unless you can stop breathing for 4 weeks, it will be a much slower process than anywhere else in the body...

[William]

Does it hurt like a Mo-fo when you laugh? For me that was always the worse part. I can deal with the pain, but when your friends know that making you laugh will result in you bracing yourself against something or rolling up in a ball while holding your arms tight to your midsection simultaneously laughing and crying telling them to shut up but having little effect....means that it might be broken.


William

PS: Hey Shino......Why did the chicken cross the road....... :D

[Dekonick]

x-ray

[manet]

.

[Chad Engle]

Don't sue, steal the peachez.

[slowgoing]

hurts when you laugh
hurts when you cough
hurts when you breathe deeply
hurts when you roll over in bed

all classic symptoms.

pray you don't get hiccups.

get an x-ray and make him pay your copay.

[Birddog]

What good is an Xray? It's not like you are gonna do anything different. If you like to pay for med stuff then go ahead, but all it will do is tell you "yes" or "no" it's broken. The treatment is the same. When it no longer hurts, it's healed.
I had an accident several years ago that resulted in basically crushing my rib cage on one side and doing a fair job on the other with a punctured lung to boot. As the MD was counting the fractures on just the right side he stopped at 27 and asked "is there really any reason for me to count up all these breaks?, will your buddies buy you more beers for more fractures?" I said no and he quit counting. He told me it would probably take 6 mos to heal, maybe longer. It was closer to a year. First liar hasn't got a chance.

Birddog

[BumbleBeeDave]

If it's sticking out of your chest, then I would venture a guess that you need to go see someone. :eek: ;)

But seriously, I had a friend break a rib several years ago while skiing and he said it's gotta be a pretty serious break these days before they actually cut into you. They gave him painkillers and said don't do anything for like two months. Of course he went skliing again three weeks later.

BBD

[big shanty]

The Horse Brass is probably my favorite bar in the world. I usually make of point of stopping there when visiting Portland. After I did my fitting w/ Sacha I went there and sucked down several pints of Caldera dry hop orange to replenish lost fluids. Mmmm.

Side note: I bought a "case" i.e. 12 22 oz. bottles of mixed n' matched Oregon beers at the place next door, and almost all of them were bad i.e. skunked and/or past their prime and/or tasted like foul sh*t. I don't think that place knows how to store beer.

[shinomaster]

Sorry to hear that Big Shanty. I have had good luck buying beer there, it's so close to my house.
I didn't get an x-ray or go see my doctor because they usually just say there is nothing they can do and charge me $500 like when I had a concussion. I can't exactly get a body cast or stop breathing. The Fred was good. I don't know about the waitress though.

[gasman]

bruise or break, it doesn't matter in terms of treatment. Just wait. Don't get an x-ray as there really isn't anything to do other than let it heal.

A few years ago I was taking my second snowboard lesson-going pretty fast down a blue run and I cought a toe side edge. Went down hard, kept going the rest of the day.
Over ther next several weeks I had an endless conversation with my wife...

Me: Oooo crap that hurts to get up.

Her; You broke a RIB !!! Go see a doctor, get an X-ray !!!

Me:I didn't break anything, it's just bruised .

Her: No, you broke a rib-you're hurting-go get an X-ray.

Me: Well even if I did break a rib they wouldn't do anything about it !!

We repeated variations for weeks.

A couple months later after I no longer hurt I felt a big lump on my rib-healed bone had formed a callous. My wife was right-dangit.

Good luck-it will get better.

[BoulderGeek]

I broke mine on a carving snowboard, when I fell on my arm and radio.

I knew it was broken because I could feel it clicking when I breathed deeply or tried to get out of bed.

If you can do a sit-up to get out of bed, you probably didn't break it through.

I had to roll over on my front, and slip to the floor like a toddler. But, that only lasted about a week.

Take calcuim and eat calcium-rich foods for the next couple of weeks. I, too, had a knot where the bone knitted. That stayed with me for about a year,but eventually was reabsorbed.

[vaxn8r]

What gasman and birddog said. It really doesn't matter because it heals when it heals.

Having cracked a rib my guess is you didn't if you're feeling better at two weeks. Mine took six and I understand that's typical. Rib contusions are tough though and they hurt longer than you think they ought to. There's a lot of cartilage in there as well which won't show up on xray even if you damaged it.

[vaxn8r]

Oh, yeah, but you could come down to Eugene and see me anyway if I can get $500 out of it :)

[shinomaster]

Oh, yeah, but you could come down to Eugene and see me anyway if I can get $500 out of it :)

Are you a doctor?

[chrisroph]

Rib injuries really hurt and take forever to go away. You should make the guy who punched you keep you stocked in your favorite beer until it gets better.

[bcm119]

No one has mentioned the obvious- punch him back.

Of course, if he's not a skinny cyclist you probably won't crack one of his ribs.

[marcus]

Shino,
Sorry to hear you got injured.

It would be beneficial to know if you have a fracture or not. If fracture is ruled out and it is a contusion, then certain stretches and movements could hasten healing as well as prevent adhesions and you could be pain free and back to full duty sooner.

On the other hand, if a crack is found, you want to move it as little as possible, (breathing excepted!), so that the little bone repair cells can do their thing undisturbed.

Get well soon.

[PanTerra]

I sounds like it is cracked to me. For me, sneezing was the worst. I was on a ski trip several years ago. I cracked a rib falling on ice. The pain at first felt as if it was bruised. I kept skiing for the rest of the trip, which I actually got better at, but walking was hurting a little more each day. Laying down was getting pretty hard to do, and took a while. When I got home from the trip, it was really getting hard to move without a lot of pain. Laying down in my creeky wooden-framed bed was not much relief. It still was a painful effort. I could only recline in small increments. Eventually I would get completely prostrate, but my bed creeked as I laid all the way down, in a modeately pace - creek, creek, creek ,creek, creek, and so on until I was flat. Sometimes I even shriek. Unfortunately I lived in a 2nd story apartment. After a couple of nights of trying to get into bed, I found a note on my dooor from the apt management, saying that they were getting complaints from other tenants about strage noises coming from my bedroom. :no: It probably did not help matters that when I finally did lie down all the way, i gave out a loud sigh of relief. :cool:

[Fat Robert]

you go get an x-ray, you zagnut.

jeesh.

[dvancleve]

I got hit commuting to work last year and am 99% sure I had several cracked or broken ribs. Nothing I could see or feel, but it hurt like a mofo if I coughed, laughed or sneezed. I didn't bother going to the Dr. at all and I would say it was about a month and a half before it was gone. It got less painful, but a hard unexpected sneeze still smarted after for quite a while. Long after the fact my urologist (if you don't have one of those thank God) said there wasn't anything to be done about cracked or broken ribs anyway.

Merry Christmas and happy healing,
Doug


What gasman and birddog said. It really doesn't matter because it heals when it heals.

Having cracked a rib my guess is you didn't if you're feeling better at two weeks. Mine took six and I understand that's typical. Rib contusions are tough though and they hurt longer than you think they ought to. There's a lot of cartilage in there as well which won't show up on xray even if you damaged it.

[FierteTi52]

I have broken ribs in 2 different mountain bike crashes. Not much you can do. Don't cough, sneeze or let your wife girlfiend or bar waitress crack dumb jokes. Hope you have a speedy recovery!
Jeff

[shinomaster]

Thanks for the warm thoughts. Today I can feel it is healing and getting better. I'm too busty to see a Doctor now but maybe after Christmas.

[gasman]

Thanks for the warm thoughts. Today I can feel it is healing and getting better. I'm too busty to see a Doctor now but maybe after Christmas.


Hmmm.... sex change ??


I'm glad you're feeling better.

[William]

Thanks for the warm thoughts. Today I can feel it is healing and getting better. I'm too busty to see a Doctor now but maybe after Christmas.

Silicone or saline? :rolleyes: ;)



William

[shinomaster]

oops....no I have a chest like a 5 year old girl..

*BUSY*