When I had my motorcycle accident several years ago I broke 5 ribs along with several other bones. Like was said, it hurts to laugh.... but the absolute worse is when you have to sneeze. Try to avoid that at all costs!! Breath as deeply as you can... work thru the pain and force yourself to inhale deeply. The breathing machine is your friend... trust in the machine... :hide:

I'm gonna have to go to the doc again soon for follow up and will demand better meds then.

The worst part is trying to move... takes several minutes to go from sitting to standing because after every slight movement it takes 30 seconds or so to get my chest muscles to relax enough to inhale.....

Doc said what he thinks I did (besides cracking the ribs) is tear the muscles that hold them together... since the natural response to any attack on the abdomen is to tense up to protect the internal organs, the slightest twitch sets of a lightening fast chain reaction where the muscles contract causing more pain and a tighter contraction and more pain etc..... I AM getting a little better at controlling it tho and as soon as I can relax, 90% of the pain instantly goes away....
If I could just stop the spasms I would drop to single digits on the whineybaby'o'ometer :cry:

OUCH! Hope you feel better.

"The doc prescribed flexeril (muscle relaxer) and loritab 5-500's and they aren't even touching it... I tried taking a second loritab after 3 hrs instead of 4-6 but it just made me dizzy and sleepy but nothing on the pain
I'm gonna have to get something stronger.... Any suggestions on what to ask for that will really stop the pain so I can breathe normally?"

I don't go for the pills, and find help in a script written by Rudy Toombs, and endorsed by Amos Miburn, John Lee Hooker, and George Thorogood.

"One bourbon, one scotch, one beer"... sounds like you may need to double up on this every couple of hours.

I'm glad it wasn't worse, as imagined, take care bud. You will bounce back and we may remind you of this once or twice in the future.

thanks for all the well wishes guys....

Been doing a little research looks like it's called a "compression tear of the intercostal muscles" Also looks like most people say 3-6 weeks for a full recovery but some claim up to 6 months...YIKES! I sure hope it's the former and not the latter.....

Smoke, i hope you get well soon. when i was a kid i took a running dive off the shed roof into the pool and didn't quite clear the pool ladder ! i also know that rib pain and it sucks for sure.

Most of the pain should be gone in 3-4 weeks. The full healing usually takes about 6 weeks, but you don't feel the last part of it.

Get well soon Brother...

Guess we should of had lunch when you were healthy!! Its to bad and i am sorry you got hurt but it will heal! Careful with pain meds, they can be worse then the ribs at times, I use to be on Oxy and you can't go to the bathroom!! Talk about pain, when the doc had to dig it out 6 days latter I was yelling like a little girl!:zip:

good gad....

Now that's a vision that's going to haunt me.

Good point though, I was also given stool softeners with my meds...

rkc

oh nice....................

just started on oxy (percocet) this morning.... still not stopping the pain but at least it dulled it enough for me to sleep a couple hours..... guess I need to eat plenty of fiber ...YIKES