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I did my ribs and supporting muscles again after a little off on Thursday. As usual I now have ridiculous pain and a complete lack of mobility. I had a phone appointment with the doctor (as nothing is poking out and my lungs feel ok) and she basically let me choose my meds ... I went for anti spasm and anti inflammatory rather than pain relief. Have you ever found a combination that actually works? I am going to have to do school walks, dog walks and a desk based job on Monday and I don’t think it will be much fun. Have you found a wonder drug? I assume it will be 3 weeks pain, 3 months mobility issues?
Dihydrocodine and lactulose or movicol would be my first port of call. what did you get for anti spasm? Ie proper painkillers and laxatives 'cos DHC turns yer shite into concrete
Remember medical advice off the internet is worth what you pay for it 🙂
Dihydrocodeine and a few weeks of care. Was able to turbo when I found a comfortable position but getting on and off was sore.
Mind I'd only sprung a rid, best thing was finding how to settle it back after sneezing.
Not a lot works over the counter, just protect the area and find ways of living with it, had a fair few rib injuries over the years from many sports, it just needs time to heal, broken ribs aren't too bad unless it causes issues with the lung at night, intercostal tears were a nightmare for healing, just working out what causes pain (bending, sleeping on one side, etc) and minimising it was the only real way of working it.
Ah, ok, sounds like I should have gone Codeine...I only have regular paracetamol for the pain. Diazepam for the spasms (ends Monday) and Naproxen as a anti-inflammatory (only 2 doses a day).
Stepwise approach:
https://academic.oup.com/bjaed/article/16/1/26/2463139
Step 1: simple analgesics
The analgesia prescription for a patient should include regular simple analgesia, for example, paracetamol, a weak opioid, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (if not contraindicated), and a strong opioid for breakthrough pain. If adequate analgesia is achieved then the patient can be continued on this regime.
If it's ineffective then back to GP.
Naproxen
Mind you if I have DHC then I cannot go to work. Decision making is imparired. Its not so for everyone. If you take any codine or opiod based meds ( an you can get some from a pharmacist) then its not a joke - take something to make you shit
@tjagain - Plus one on the laxatives if taking opioid based pain killers, that was something I had not considered when I did mine and was not fun. Also put me out on the couch feeling nauseous and very sleepy for about a week.
Naproxen worked OK, just follow the instructions so you don’t get stomach problems.
@bubs - Unless your dog is super well trained or you have a waist type belt to use, would not want any shock impacts from pulling or if bother happens with other dogs. Really super light upper body for 4-6 weeks, make sure your desk posture is good and no normal stuff like carrying big shopping bags or lifting kids etc. is out really.
Enville ale.
I actually found a paracetamol/ ibuprofen mix as good as anything. A slide out of bed and windowcill-assisted method of achieving vertical in a morning helps a lot too.
Pepper snort pepper. Oh wait dont snort pepper that's it.
Diclofenac ftw.
When I had a hurty bit of Sciatica which was bad enough to prevent me from driving or working:-
Diazepam
Naproxen
Codiene
Senacot
I didn’t think it was working but when I stopped taking it before surgery, the pain was such I tried to knock myself unconscious on the gurney thing they take you for the pre med on.
Codiene for me, kept on boarding for the rest of that week.
It appears i am quite susceptible to codeine though as i felt rough when i stopped taking them
Have you ever found a combination that actually works?
Define “works”?
I’ve tried many things, and nearly all bung you up horribly without offering much more relief than the basics.
The basics being ibuprofen pills, and diclofenac applied on the ribs. Which is what I’m using now. Yes, it’s long slow agony and very restricting.
Anyone tried body armour that protects that area?
achieving vertical in a morning
The worst bit of the day.
I have some demon snowboarding armour that has rib protection. Haven't tested it yet though.
The worst but has to be sneezing when laying down. I thought i might die
Diclofenac's pretty effective ime, as a sort of "ibuprofen with muscles". And cocodamol for the combination of painkilling and mild high.
(I doubt they'd giv you gabapentin for ribs, but, last time I did mine i happened to have some for nerve pain and that improved the whole deal greatly. Like, possibly there are painful ribs somewhere, but I am now a cloud and clouds don't have ribs)
Lolz @ speshpaul
Get a nice pillow.
Carry it round like your best friend.
I was on over the counter codamol and ibrobufen
I did top it up with a some 30mg codeine occasionally.
Tramadol did the trick (twice) for me.
Paracetamol four times a day
Tramadol twice a day.
I broke five ribs and my sternum (and face and wrist). Tramadol took the sting out of the fracture pain. Weird dreams for me.
If you can't get something from the docs, codeine is good. It also suppresses coughing allowing you to breath properly. If you are only shallow breathing, then you can be prone to chest infection.
I've busted mine 3 times - worse was when I broke 9,10,11 and 12 on my right side, but that was coupled with a bad spinal fracture - they weren't bothered about the ribs. I did have to have diazepam for spasms on top of the morphone (and laxatives) as the rib spasms would send my back into spasm, which was another world of pain.
Other times, it's been codeine. I was able to turbo after a week, and gentle road rides (no hills) after 2-3 weeks. Took ages to be completely pain free, but only 6 weeks when I broke my spine, as I was in bed - ribs healed really quickly !