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I had an uneventful tumble on the bike, weekend before last, when my left foot wouldn't unclip. That was on the Sunday. Roll on to the Tuesday when I began to start felling some pain in my chest towards my left shoulder. It hurts when I press on the area. Seems to be be rib 2 or 3.
Now, a week and a half on, it hurts alot and even more when I sneeze or cough. The pain seems be across the whole of my left chest area. I phoned my gp and couldn't get an appointment. They told me to phone 111, but I haven't been able to get through.
Anyway, I suppose I'm after some reassurance that the pain I'm feeling is related to the tumble I had, and not due to heart/lung issues. I know the answer will be seek some professional advice, but I've tried, and can't get any. I don't want to burden A & E due to the pressures they are under.
If it is indeed a rib injury to ribs 2 or 3, how long will it take to heal, and is there anything to reduce the pain when coughing / sneezing?
If it is what you think it is, it can take quite a while. Whenever I've broken or bruised ribs its take a couple of days for it really hurt as the initial swelling protects the area for a bit. When that swelling goes down the bone or muscle damage starts to hurt more. It can take quite a few weeks before the pain subsides.
I say though that if the pain continues to get worse rather than remain constant you should get it checked.
It sounds like a broken rib to me - it can take a good six+ weeks to heal. You can reduce the pain when coughing by holding a cushion to your chest.
Surprisingly painful. Did something similar when I fell off a wooden pump track at a cycle show onto my ribs. Paracetamol, and resting it. Six weeks is about right. I also broke five ribs in a bike accident, but the rest of the pains (face, wrist) were so bad, I barely noticed the ribs!
just to add that with broken ribs the pain tends to kick in a couple of days after you've done it weirdly enough, though I'd expect to be feeling that things are starting to get better, not worse, by now.
My only other advice would he to revise the incident from "fail to unclip topple" to something involving high velocity and big air time. Tip for the next one.
IME experience it's one of the niggliest mild injuries you can pick up. Sometimes you'll nearly forget about it then you turn your body a bit differently, or cough, or sneeze and ooh boy! It buggers up your sleeping and IME lasts about 6 weeks and healing doesn't seem to be progressive - one day you just notice you're fine.
And don't fall on it whatever you do unless you're OK with weeping softly to yourself for about 5 minutes.
Weird.... this happened to me on a night ride last week. Clipped a tree on the side of a shoot, and hit the deck. Very sore for a couple of days and still have some pain. Getting better everyday though but when I sneeze or cough it is pretty painful. Mine is confined to a small area though.
It's weird that it has taken 10 days to become painful, so unlikely a broken rib, which hurt a lot straight away and start to settle after a week
It can be just as painful, broken rib or not. The area is covered by muscle tissue and this can get bruised quite badly. So long as you are breathing OK, zero point going to A&E or even a GP. Done mine 3 times. Mate just did 4 ribs and a punctured lung, but they sent him home. Recovered for a couple of weeks then got back on the bike. You are OK to ride when you can tolerate the pain - no pulling on the bars for a while
Any chance you had Covid approx 7-14 days previous?
They told me to phone 111, but I haven’t been able to get through.
Try calling at odd hour. I called them at 3.30am and got to see a doctor (nearest walk-in 24/7) almost immediately after they could not get an appointment with my GP. I took a taxi there and got prescription immediately and all done by 5.30am. Managed to go to work at 8am but was half awake at work all day.
I fell over whilst running in the dark pretty much 18 months back. Was fine that night, apart from a few scrapes. Following day I had similar symptoms to yourself.
As we were in COVID mode for my sister in law who's an A&E nurse to have a look. She said broken rib.
Most annoying thing was sleeping, had to sleep on my back.
Think it took about 5 weeks to heal well enough to resume running and cycling.
Annoying more than anything.
As above, bruised or broken ribs are very painfull when laughing of sneezing... assuming theres no other symptoms it's just a queston of recovery time, not much can be done about it other than a bit of ibruprofen or paracetomol.
Did one or two of mine in a few years back after an OTB, and I struggled to get out of bed in the morning for the first week as the pain was so bad when manuvering...the worst thing was knowing how much it was going to hurt to sit up or the anticipation of knowing a sneeze was comming!
Have a search for my post from February this year. Broke three ribs after a rollerblade tumble.
Had to go to A&E as I couldn’t get a GP appointment. Got a hefty dose of strong opioid painkillers and naproxen. Made sleeping tolerable.
Had two boxes of naproxen so a months worth and used the full course of that but omitted the opioids which was MST twice a day and oramorph as needed (4-6 hourly) and went to 30/500 co codamol on week three.
Ribs feeling mostly normal after 8 weeks.
They ache though now it’s gone cold.