730 miles starting with snow in Alabama (WTF) on my trip home pulling a trailer with a standard shift Jeep wrangler. No embellishments needed.
Not slowing down is the cause, you have experienced it before, so you tried to do too much too soon. But as said not all breaks are equal. Which ribs, near sternum, mid or spine, full breaks, or fractures, displacement? the more you move the more stress you put on the bones preventing healing. Diet can be a factor, are you rocking conjointin, calcium, vitamin D? I broke 5-9 on the same side as my collar bone, and until the plate was in the collar bone it was unbelievable pain just to lay there and breath, getting up was like being beaten with baseball bats, lot of them.
This matches my experience. I broke 5 ribs racing flat track ... locked handlebars going into turn 2 and somersaulted into the haybales back first... Also partial collapsed lung to go with it... Treatment was loading up with cocktails of dilaudid + valium + morphine for the first week to "relax" your rib cage to help get the lungs breathing again. For 1-2 months I slept sitting up in bed....and yes, it gets worse then better...must be everything settling to their final position...it's a tough haul...
I temporarily expelled people from my life that had good senses of humor and watched documentaries while healing up. Laughing and broken ribs sucks. -jim
second only to sneezing. And a big +1 to sleeping in a recliner. That was a must for the first few weeks and then when I did use my bed again I used pillows on each side of my body to prevent myself from rolling over.
Broke 4 ribs in a crash in 2009. I didn't ride a bike for 1yr as recovery from the other injuries kept me on the sidelines. The worst was only sleeping on my back at night. Not to mention every time someone made me laugh or a sneeze and I was in tears, not fun.
Countless ribs over the yrs from MX, mtb, and of course RR. Seems like no big deal after awhile haha. Broke every rib on the right side, and most on the other, my last big crash. Of course that also ended up puncturing both lungs. I now have some neat matching drain tube scars down my side under each arm pit. Crashed in T7 at the 87 GNF in A Prod. Broke a couple. Raced that next Sun in BSB. We taped some foam on the front of the tank. Was GTG then.
I fell at Barber across from the timing tower (T4?) and landed with my left elbow between my ribs and the pavement. Low speed, didn't hurt much of anything except my back on the left side of my spine. Hurt like hell to breathe deeply. I never had an X-ray, so I don't know if it was actually broken, but it took months to stop hurting.
The worst thing with ribs is that they hurt until you get used to the constant dull, achey, pain. They trick you into thinking you can laugh as loud and sneeze as hard as you want; then all of the sudden, wham! There's that sharp reminder that they actually aren't healed yet.
+1 to the recliner with pillows...took me about 3 weeks until I could go back to bed.....Forget the narcotics, Martini's worked for me.
Been there, done that about 2 yrs ago while mtb'ing. It hurt like a mofo but I don't think completely broke until I SNEEZED a day or two later. I can't even express how f'ing painful that was, THAT was when I went to the hospital and when the rib 'clicking' began. I'd literally feel the rib move in and out on deep breaths.....I'd say an easy 3-4 months before that stopped. So I'd ask the OP, have you sneezed lately?
I think you nailed it. I'm trying to do way too much, and it's causing my ribs to hurt worse. These are on the left side, front, #5 and #6 from the bottom. It's brutal, but I'm shocked they hurt worse than they did right after the accident.
I'll see your laughing, sneezing and coughing and raise you 48 hours of hick-ups from the gas they gave me while plating my collar bone. I swear to god I wanted to die! The doctor said, "I feel for you but it happens sometimes, try these muscle relaxers they might help. Normally it goes away in a few days." I had two broken ribs and collar bone broke in four or five spots. I was out for a long time during the surgery cause my collar bone was curved and they had to try a few different plates. My 90min surgery took like 4-5 hours. My wife was a bit grumpy as she was in the waiting room the whole time.
Oh I slept on the couch with pillows all around me for about a month. First night back in bed my wife elbowed me in the ribs. Also a cramp in the tricep with a broken collar bone (pre-surgery) really sucks. Especially when it keeps coming back.
