Did I crack ribs and does it matter if I did?

[Ale_capone]

You can also get inflamed cartilage taking a hard blow to the ribs. It takes a few days to settle in. Feels like broken or dislocated ribs. Cracking. Crepetous . Painful.

I took a blow to the side, bruised ribs, but 3 days later, my sternum popped..

I've broken, bruised, dislocated... #1 this g they do is listen to the breathing sounds.

[Flounder]

Liver and lungs don't matter much.

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Couple of advil a day for 3-4 days isn't going to hurt my liver or any one else's. Well aware of lungs, one doc that said not to worry about an xray is my asthma doc. Nice try though.

[Ale_capone]

Yes it can. If you drink non stop.

I broke my ribs at Brighton, but went to the clinic in park city. They gave me Vicodin. I drank heavily, damaged my liver.

The clinic was awesome. Ran xrays, did a follow up visit, and they didn't charge me a dime. No insurance.

[grinch]

Last count I think I’m up to 10 broken ribs. They’ve only should up in x rays because my spine was being x rayed. Family doc would check your breathing and tell you to take it ez most likely. Uncomfortable week of sleeps and then a couple more weeks of mild discomfort more than likely. You’d probably know. I broke 4 and didn’t bother me a bit. I was so focused on 2 broke and 2 shattered vert I guess. Tylenol 3’s for a few than vitamin I’s for a few and good to go hopefully

[old goat]

Wrong. If they are cracked, it is possible to re-crack them via non-impact moves if you don't give them sufficient time to heel. A few years ago I cracked 2 ribs on a mountaineering traverse, managed to get out with great pain. After a couple weeks the pain subsided so I went out for a planned week-long high route with Honey. On day 1 I rebroke both ribs while scrambling with a full pack on relatively easy class 2 terrain, requiring me to abort the trip via another painful exit.

Yours may or not be cracked. IME, bruised ribs can be as painful as cracked ribs. Get x-rays.

I fell on my chest and apparently broke ribs in August 2 years ago. Pain went away. Next December I twist on a turn and have pain. After a couple of weeks I decide to get xrays. I saw one broken rib with no sign of healing, the radiologist's rpeort said 3. One of these days I need to look at those films again. I seem to have healed fine, but things heal slow when you're over 60.

If they are broke when you take deep breathes or any breathes for the matter, you can hear the ends rub together, like clicking fingernails.

sometimes, not always.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Yes it can. If you drink non stop.

I broke my ribs at Brighton, but went to the clinic in park city. They gave me Vicodin. I drank heavily, damaged my liver.

The clinic was awesome. Ran xrays, did a follow up visit, and they didn't charge me a dime. No insurance.

He said Advil(ibuprofen). Vicodin has acetaminophen(Tylenol) which is a liver toxin if taken in larger than prescribed doses and/or taken with alcohol.

Unless your rib fractures are displaced or angulated(unlikely) they aren't going to show up on x-ray very often. A CT scan will confirm a broken rib diagnosis but that's usually reserved for when a visceral injury is suspected.

[neufox47]

Well they aren't broken / cracked according to the doc. But today was the worst day by far. Terrible muscle spasms.

Pneumonia isn't contagious?

https://www.medicinenet.com/is_pneum...t_is_pneumonia

[willywhit]

so what are ya crying about ? muscle spasms ? good job, getting a x ray but I've cracked ribs and just toughed it out because I knew there wasn't anything they could do. Getting tossed over the bars on a mtb ain't fun.
Smacking a tree out of bounds and getting knocked out, same deal.
Ibuprofen and take a lap

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Well they aren't broken / cracked according to the doc. But today was the worst day by far. Terrible muscle spasms.

Pneumonia isn't contagious?

https://www.medicinenet.com/is_pneum...t_is_pneumonia

You need some Robaxin, I'd rather use that than narcotics with injuries like this. If you can keep the muscle spasms at bay you'll be a lot more comfortable.

[old goat]

Well they aren't broken / cracked according to the doc. But today was the worst day by far. Terrible muscle spasms.

Pneumonia isn't contagious?

https://www.medicinenet.com/is_pneum...t_is_pneumonia

Based on what does your doc say no fractures? Not seen on xray. Doesn't mean you don't have broken ribs. Like the man says they don't always show up. The ribs overlap a lot on a pa and lateral chest. You can get rib details which show the ribs at different angles but it's not worth the trouble. The key to diagnosis. If the doctor can put his finger on the rib and push and it hurts it's presumed to be a rib fracture. In any case the treatment is the same . You can try muscle relaxants but the key is pain medicine. Hope they did spine films with obliques.

so what are ya crying about ? muscle spasms ? good job, getting a x ray but I've cracked ribs and just toughed it out because I knew there wasn't anything they could do. Getting tossed over the bars on a mtb ain't fun.
Smacking a tree out of bounds and getting knocked out, same deal.
Ibuprofen and take a lap

I've had back spasms for no particular reason for decades. They are painful enough that all I can do is get down on my elbows and knees with my head on the floor, sweating and nauseated, praying it will go away soon, which it always has after 20 minutes or so, but it also leaves me wondering what I will do if it doesn't go away, and how long will I wait before I go to the hospital. As I said before I've broken ribs and the spasms are much more painful.
About that smack on the head -- obviously you should have had an MRI because there is something very seriously wrong with you. Maybe it's not too late.

[willywhit]

It wasn't just my head it was my whole side. A big hematoma on my femur. It managed to crease a metal can of Carmex in my pocket I hit so hard. We didn't wear helmets back then.

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[willywhit]

Have you ever met someone that had serious head trauma? Motorcycle accidents for example. It's nothing to joke about. I've seen people lose memory, their balance, nauseous all the time. I wouldn't wish that on anyone

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[old goat]

Have you ever met someone that had serious head trauma? Motorcycle accidents for example. It's nothing to joke about. I've seen people lose memory, their balance, nauseous all the time. I wouldn't wish that on anyone

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Sure--in the ER, in the OR, in the ICU, on the wards, in the clinic, and in my personal life. I wasn't joking.

[skinipenem]

Couple of advil a day for 3-4 days isn't going to hurt my liver or any one else's. Well aware of lungs, one doc that said not to worry about an xray is my asthma doc. Nice try though.

Yeah, you misunderstood genius. Lungs and liver do matter if one has displaced rib fractures goes skiing/ riding falls and punctures a lung/ liver etc...

(Not sure why i care enough to repost though... issues i guess)

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[old goat]

Yeah, you misunderstood genius. Lungs and liver do matter if one has displaced rib fractures goes skiing/ riding falls and punctures a lung/ liver etc...

(Not sure why i care enough to repost though... issues i guess)

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The chance of that scenario--internal organ damage due to a fall on broken ribs--is remote. A lot less remote than the risk of internal injury in general. I wouldn't tell someone not to ski with broken ribs if their pain was well controlled on non-sedating drugs. Ribs are moving with every breath and a lot with every cough and they still heal.

[willywhit]

sorry if I sounded like a douche. I know that shit hurts. been there

[old goat]

sorry if I sounded like a douche. I know that shit hurts. been there

I thought maybe you were joking but decided you weren't. Should have given you the benefit of the doubt.
One thing I learned in practice was to not judge people's pain. People surprise you. Friend of mine took care of a guy who was a world champion in a sport known for the ability of its athletes to tolerate pain. He was injured in a non-sport related incident and my friend said he was the the most complaining, difficult to manage patient she had. The emotional component is huge. With athletes, including recreational skiers like us, it's as much about our fear about when or even if we will be able to participate again as it is about the objective degree of pain. For that matter, there is no objective way to measure pain--with the possible exception of Scoville units.

[willywhit]

I thought maybe you were joking but decided you weren't. Should have given you the benefit of the doubt.
One thing I learned in practice was to not judge people's pain. People surprise you. Friend of mine took care of a guy who was a world champion in a sport known for the ability of its athletes to tolerate pain. He was injured in a non-sport related incident and my friend said he was the the most complaining, difficult to manage patient she had. The emotional component is huge. With athletes, including recreational skiers like us, it's as much about our fear about when or even if we will be able to participate again as it is about the objective degree of pain. For that matter, there is no objective way to measure pain--with the possible exception of Scoville units.

yep. drunken sarcasm gets lost in translation. My dad used to call us out as kids for whining about how much it hurts. Unless you need a ride to the ER, don't tell me how hard you fell off the dirtbike, your mom hates those things. I've got a pretty high threshold for pain but when you're crippled up with back pain and the Scoville units are off the charts and you can't even sleep it's so painful, you can't tell someone to be tough, when they're almost in tears. Thank god for drugs to quell it and fix it. I've never been a fan of oxy-anything and would rather ride out the pain, most times.
this plantar fascitis is just annoying, franks red hot on the scoville. It must not persist, tho. a work in progress right now. getting that shot

[skinipenem]

The chance of that scenario--internal organ damage due to a fall on broken ribs--is remote. A lot less remote than the risk of internal injury in general. I wouldn't tell someone not to ski with broken ribs if their pain was well controlled on non-sedating drugs. Ribs are moving with every breath and a lot with every cough and they still heal.

interesting... I dont have a strong opinion on this; however, the last time my wife broke ribs riding, our friend who is a trauma surgeon recommended strongly against more dh for a few weeks due to the risk of liver laceration. A bit outside my scope though.

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[neufox47]

Thanks for the info old goat. Taking it much easier these last days. I've had to sneeze a few times and it triggers intense painful muscle spasms that make it difficult to breathe for a minute or so. This sucks.

[old goat]

interesting... I dont have a strong opinion on this; however, the last time my wife broke ribs riding, our friend who is a trauma surgeon recommended strongly against more dh for a few weeks due to the risk of liver laceration. A bit outside my scope though.

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We docs tend to be a cautious bunch and recommend not doing a lot of stuff based on theoreticals. Sometimes it doesn't make a lot of sense--telling someone with a hernia repair not to lift over 25 pounds for 6 weeks, when the average cough or sneeze (see below) puts orders of magnitude more stress on the repair. If you had a bunch of rib fractures with a flail segment--ie several adjacent ribs each broken in two places so the segment doesn't move with the rest of the chest with breathing--then yes, skiing would be dangerous, but most likely you would be in a hospital getting an epidural, IV opiates, and maybe a ventilator.

Thanks for the info old goat. Taking it much easier these last days. I've had to sneeze a few times and it triggers intense painful muscle spasms that make it difficult to breathe for a minute or so. This sucks.

If you're able, hold a pillow firmly over the part of the chest that hurts, or hold the pillow between your chest and the wall, when you feel a sneeze coming on--to support the ribs.

BTW, regarding the earlier issue of whether or not pneumonia is contagious--generally speaking the transmissibility of your average pneumonia is low. Family members and medical personnel almost never catch pneumonia from patients. Mostpneumonias are caused by bacteria that are already in our bodies and not bothering us until for some reason they do--for example we break a rib and don't breath deeply enough and cough enough to clear mucus out of our lungs and expand the air sacs. There are exceptions--influenza is much more contagious than bacterial pneumonia. TB of course.

[Dantheman]

with the possible exception of Scoville units.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt_sting_pain_index

https://www.sciencefriday.com/segmen...insect-stings/

[old goat]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt_sting_pain_index

https://www.sciencefriday.com/segmen...insect-stings/

Don't overlook the emotional component. The same sting can hurt a lot more if you get stung on the dick instead of the arm.

[neufox47]

4 weeks and change out and finally getting close to normal. I've been able to do some light exercise this week. Saw a PT friend who thinks that I pulled my diaphragm when I fell, then running further injured / inflamed it. Said that having the wind knocked out for 2-3 minutes when I fell indicated damage to it and that running was then about the worst possible thing to do next to mogul skiing. The pain also felt very deep and while my ribs were tender there was definitely pain that was too deep to be exacerbated by palpation. Also, that the pain I was getting from sneezing, intense deep muscle spasm like pain that restricted my ability to breath for 1-3 minutes, sounded like a diaphragm issue. Whatever it was, I'm glad it is getting better and that fucker hurt. There were times that sneezing resulted in cold sweats, getting light headed, etc.

[old goat]

4 weeks and change out and finally getting close to normal. I've been able to do some light exercise this week. Saw a PT friend who thinks that I pulled my diaphragm when I fell, then running further injured / inflamed it. Said that having the wind knocked out for 2-3 minutes when I fell indicated damage to it and that running was then about the worst possible thing to do next to mogul skiing. The pain also felt very deep and while my ribs were tender there was definitely pain that was too deep to be exacerbated by palpation. Also, that the pain I was getting from sneezing, intense deep muscle spasm like pain that restricted my ability to breath for 1-3 minutes, sounded like a diaphragm issue. Whatever it was, I'm glad it is getting better and that fucker hurt. There were times that sneezing resulted in cold sweats, getting light headed, etc.

Haven't heard of that one before. It does seem to be a popular topic on alternative medicine web cites, running sites, weight lifting sites, not so much on medical sites.

The symptoms you are describing are entirely consistent with broken ribs.

The diaphragm can rupture--the mechanism is almost alway severe blunt trauma to the abdomen, or getting stabbed or shot. The symptoms are--your internal abdominal organs are in your chest. Pain from the diaphragm is felt in the shoulder, not the chest. The nerves from the diaphragm joint the nerves from the shoulder area, among others, before entering the spinal cord, and since injuries to the shoulder are much more common than injuries to the diaphragm the brain assumes any pain impulses coming from that nerve root are from the shoulder.

Most importantly, you did not harm yourself by running. You made it hurt more--which is expected but the running did not worsen the injury or delay healing.