Have you ever fractured a rib?

[Deleted]

I've had a horrible case of bronchitis that then became pneumonia. I haven't slept more that 2 consecutive hours in 2 weeks, despite being on my now third antibiotic and second bottle of codeine cough syrup. I am almost positive I fractures a rib (or ribs) while coughing last night. I was sore this morning, but not too unbearable. I taught in the classroom all day and when I came home and went to sit on my bed, I heard a loud pop and felt thus horrific pain.

I can't even stand up straight. It hurts to cough (which is every two minutes or so) and I'm pretty sure I can hear it popping even with just a deep breath. I'm really trying to avoid a $200 co-pay and wait it out to see my PCP in the morning.

If you have experienced this, please let me know the treatment process (if there is one). I was curled on the kitchen floor in fetal position with some serious tears. I'm pretty sure thus feeling JS equivalent to childbirth.

[flex]

There is no treatment--it has to heal on its own. They can do an x-ray to see if it's broken and prescribe pain medications, but that's about it.

[kirra]

My primary care and physical therapist both think I cracked a couple a few months ago, but we decided not to X-ray to confirm. There isn't anything to do for them. I was told to be careful, and unless I started having trouble breathing to just give them time to heal.

It was about three months before it stopped hurting to breathe, but other than that here weren't any complications.

[underwaterrhymes]

My baby fractured my ribs when I was pregnant.

It was awful. There was noticing they could do but let it heal and I couldn't even take Ibuprofen. (Although they did give me it during one ER visit because I was contracting and they felt that the risk of a 24-hour course of Ibuprofen while pregnant was better than me going into early labor.)

I hope you feel better soon. Icing it helped as did the Ibuprofen during the brief time I was allowed to take it.

[ErinExpat]

I fractured one giving birth. The only thing that helped was time and staying on a schedule with my pain meds.

I'm sorry. It is the worst.

[Booze Raccoon]

I broke a rib when I was carrying my niece and fell down the stairs.  I had pain and a lump where my rib was sticking out.  I didn't bother to go to the doctor because there is no treatment, time heals it.  I didn't feel that I needed pain meds so I just dealt with it with Motrin.

Hope you feel better soon.

[pretzel]

*waves* Welcome to the broken rib club! I'm sorry to hear you broke your rib. I broke mine back in the '90s, and it sure does hurt, especially the sneezing, which you're doing so much of right now.

Make sure to load up on cold medicine so you sneeze as little as possible. Don't bother to go to the doctor, there's really nothing they can do for you.

A word of warning about pain meds--if you're prone to headaches, you might want to stay away from them. Taking ibuprofen and the like for too many days in a row can actually *give* you headaches and it can take a couple weeks cold turkey without meds to get over them.

I hope you heal soon. *hug*

[speckledfrog]

MH broke his rib a few years go and aside from x-raying it to confirm it was broken there wasn't much they could do. His doctor did offer pain meds.