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

**neufox47** · 12-25-2017, 07:07 PM

Long story short, I fell HARD walking down a steep icy driveway. Feet went out from under me so fast I landed on my upper back. Knocked the wind out of me for a good 2 minutes. Lots of loud, mhheaaa, breaths. Felt pretty bad depite numerous drinks the rest of the night. Was worse the next two days, lots of pain but managed to function taking 800 mg ib profin. Pain started in the back near the spine, but in the ribs and muscle. Two days later pain mostly migrated to my side. Pain had subsided where I impacted by day 4 but the side pain stayed. On day 7 I went for a light jog. Felt better during it but worse after. To get out of the house today I went for another light jog. Now I feel way worse. Pain is both at the spot of impact and on the side. It hurts to move again. I'm at day 9. Pain is pretty bad but manageable. Pain is not sharp in any one spot. I'm guessing I just bruised my ribs but wondering if the pain coming back this intensely may mean I cracked them? Even if cracked I cant really do any further damage unless I take another impact right?

**iceclimb** · 12-25-2017, 07:13 PM

Take DEEP breaths.

Report back.

**Not Neil_Armstrong** · 12-25-2017, 07:54 PM

Sneeze, Fart, laugh, hi-cup, or breath. If it feels like stabbing odds are they're broke, bruised or cracked. Either way you get pain meds and a wrap, that's about all they can do.

Good luck

**::: :::** · 12-25-2017, 08:42 PM

Have your lady punch you in the back
If you immediately ejaculate, your ribs aren’t cracked
Otherwise call a doc, nine days is too long to speculate

**zlatham** · 12-25-2017, 08:54 PM

Check out sublexed rib, could have slipped out of joint where it meets the spine. Try a push up to pop it back in, YouTube is your friend, good luck-

**SJG** · 12-25-2017, 10:55 PM

anyone have a good joke?

Possibly a dislocation too.

I came across a guy this Summer while MTBing, he went OTB hard and landed on his upper back, on his camelback (10' drop), bursting the bladder.

Victim was hurtin' big time, we got him to an ambulance and they carted him off. His son told me he broke 3 ribs.

I'd get checked, yours sounds like more than a bruise. Good luck

**FLS** · 12-25-2017, 11:13 PM

Did you cross post this up over to Best Gaper Quote Of The Weekend?

Heal up soon.

**skinipenem** · 12-26-2017, 05:23 AM

Get an xray. Then make activity/ treatment decisions.

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**skiJ** · 12-26-2017, 05:48 AM

Originally Posted by skinipenem

Get an xray. Then make activity/ treatment decisions.

Sent from my SM-G935V using TGR Forums mobile app

second this --

my broken rib took three weeks ( to subside ) And

you have to be careful about lung trauma. ... I promise : you don't want to (have to ) be treated for a collapsed lung...

x-ray ;

w a l k I n g for three weeks...

( on a lighter note. it sounds like you landed on your head (!) )

good luck... tj

**Flounder** · 12-26-2017, 06:39 AM

Originally Posted by skinipenem

Get an xray. Then make activity/ treatment decisions.

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I crashed hard on my bike in early October. Certainly broke/cracked/bruised ribs. Talked with 2 of my docs and they said if I can breathe and I'm not coughing up blood there isn't much they can do. They didn't xray as it wouldn't change the treatment. Even being on long term steroids, my docs didn't think an xray was necessary.

3 weeks until the pain subsided. Now 12 weeks out and they still hurt on occasion. I now think they were broken, it was a bad crash. Ice and vitamin I worked well in the early days of the injuries. Good luck.

**wildmanwillie** · 12-26-2017, 06:52 AM

If you're not having difficulty breathing it is unlikely a chest x-ray will reveal anything that would have any bearing on course of treatment. Key word: "unlikely".

That said I have personally been through this, chose not to seek treatment, and in retrospect I wish I would have. I likely broke a rib or two about a year ago (obvious lateral deformity and fairly constant pain for 6 weeks). I took it easy for a month with no impact activities then slowly started increasing my activity level. At 7 weeks post injury after a day skiing with several smaller hucks I began to develop neuropathic pain radiating from my scapula down my arm into my pinky and ring fingers consistent with C8 radiculopathy. Speaking with a neurosurgeon I work with he suggested that I likely had a displaced rib fracture that did not heal well which caused a spine misalignment and subsequent nerve root impingement. His opinion was that I should've been more conservative with my activity progression. While my radiculopathy has greatly improved I still have occasional tingling in my arm and pinky with discernible weakness in my right hand.

Moral of my long winded story; you're probably fine without getting it looked at, but there is a possibility imaging could be very beneficial to you. Especially if you can't wait a week after your injury to start running again.

**Fritz** · 12-26-2017, 07:23 AM

^^^damn. Also beware of pneumonia. I got the walking variety after the last time I fractured ribs due to the labored breathing

**I've seen black diamonds!** · 12-26-2017, 07:47 AM

I've had some rib injuries over the years. All minor but very irritating because they messed with my breathing and seemed to last forever because they were so easily re-aggravated. Good luck and be more patient than you want to.

**skinipenem** · 12-26-2017, 07:59 AM

Originally Posted by Flounder

I crashed hard on my bike in early October. Certainly broke/cracked/bruised ribs. Talked with 2 of my docs and they said if I can breathe and I'm not coughing up blood there isn't much they can do. They didn't xray as it wouldn't change the treatment. Even being on long term steroids, my docs didn't think an xray was necessary.

3 weeks until the pain subsided. Now 12 weeks out and they still hurt on occasion. I now think they were broken, it was a bad crash. Ice and vitamin I worked well in the early days of the injuries. Good luck.

Liver and lungs don't matter much.

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**neufox47** · 12-26-2017, 06:20 PM

Hmm, I can take a deep breath with only minor discomfort. What has me most concerned is the pain I have in the side that is not the area I hit. Was dumb to run, but I was feeling not too bad and was pretty confident it was only a bruise at that point. And I was at the inlaws, so a walk jog to get out of the house sounded like a good idea.

There is no sharp pain when pressing on the ribcage with fingers. Coughing, rotating, sneezing, etc is sharp. Guess I'll go to a doc. Thanks for the input.

**kmkmkmk** · 12-26-2017, 07:50 PM

I had a chest impact injury while skiing and broke my sternum and four ribs. They needed x rays and ct scan to check for organ damage. Course of treatment remained the same - suck it up and live with it.

**old goat** · 12-27-2017, 11:37 AM

Sounds very possible that you have one or more broken ribs. You should have an xray to make sure you don't have blood collected in your chest that could solidify and keep the lung from expanding; also xray spine while you're at it. Plain xrays should tell you everything you need to know; you can't always see rib fractures on a plain film but if the lung is fully expanded it doesn't matter. This long after the injury I wouldn't be worried about liver, spleen, etc, and the mechanism of injury--fall onto a flat surface rather than a more focal blow, would make visceral injury very unlikely in any case.

**GeezerSteve** · 12-27-2017, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by neufox47

Even if cracked I cant really do any further damage unless I take another impact right?

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 heal. 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.

**digitaldeath** · 12-27-2017, 01:05 PM

i have broken rib or ribs that fused all fucked up

playing hockey and fell on a tube of chapstick inside my jacket

i suppose its my crux if you land a shot there, but i doubt you could reach

**wyeaster** · 12-27-2017, 01:45 PM

felled by suzy chapstick. bootlickers beware!

**wyeaster** · 12-27-2017, 01:47 PM

felled by suzy chapstick. bootlickers beware!

**farmguy** · 12-27-2017, 01:59 PM

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. Mine was 2 MTB crash's. 6/7/8/9 left side under shoulder blade, collapsed lung. 2nd time 6/7/8 right side under shoulder blade, 2 cracked side, 2 dislocated chest. Blinking my eyes hurt on that one.

**neufox47** · 12-27-2017, 04:40 PM

Getting xrays now. Fiance, mom, and TGR won out against my, I don't need a Dr.

Hopefully I don't catch pneumonia from the woman in the waiting room. They called my name and I told them to take her first. Her lungs sounded like they were half full. All I could think about was the poster saying they got walking pneumonia while they had broken ribs.

**PNWbrit** · 12-27-2017, 04:42 PM

Luckily pneumonia isn't contagious.

**wyeaster** · 12-27-2017, 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by farmguy

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. Mine was 2 MTB crash's. 6/7/8/9 left side under shoulder blade, collapsed lung. 2nd time 6/7/8 right side under shoulder blade, 2 cracked side, 2 dislocated chest. Blinking my eyes hurt on that one.

pics or it didn't happen