Cracked ribs, approx recovery time.

[rangersac]

Seeking some advice from those who have experienced rib impacts. Three weeks ago I did an OTB and highly suspect I've cracked one, if not two ribs. Whilst I haven't had an x-ray to confirm, it's my understanding that basically you just have to take it easy and wait for the healing process to do it's thing. I've got all the classic symptoms, pain when deep breathing, sneezing and coughing aren't much fun, and sleeping kinda sucks. Fortunately riding isn't affected, and I can manage pretty much everything else. I'm just wondering what sort of recovery period others have experienced.

 

[ctguru]

Seeking some advice from those who have experienced rib impacts. Three weeks ago I did an OTB and highly suspect I've cracked one, if not two ribs. Whilst I haven't had an x-ray to confirm, it's my understanding that basically you just have to take it easy and wait for the healing process to do it's thing. I've got all the classic symptoms, pain when deep breathing, sneezing and coughing aren't much fun, and sleeping kinda sucks. Fortunately riding isn't affected, and I can manage pretty much everything else. I'm just wondering what sort of recovery period others have experienced.

cracked ribs 3 times riding

they can take ages to heal

don't get an x-ray, waste of time

I've still ridden with cracked ribs, you just need to be careful not to fall again on the cracked ribs as they can turn into broken ribs which can puncture lungs et.

 

[rangersac]

cracked ribs 3 times riding

they can take ages to heal

don't get an x-ray, waste of time

I've still ridden with cracked ribs, you just need to be careful not to fall again on the cracked ribs as they can turn into broken ribs which can puncture lungs et.

Mind defining 'ages to heal'? Just curious to know what I'm in for.I'm with you on the riding with them though, did the Blue Dragon a week afterwards with no issues aside from it being a bit tender when things got really rough.

 

[Moggio]

When I cracked mine my riding mate who is a doctor said if it takes 2 weeks to stop hurting they were bruised, 4 weeks they were fractured and 6 weeks they were broken. As long as they aren't displaced there was no need for x-rays and resetting or anything. Though he said these terms were all pretty arbitrary and they will stop hurting when they stop hurting.

I rode with mine 3 days after the accident, but it hurt like hell (stupid of me). Mine took 6 weeks to stop hurting and were tender still for a few more weeks if touched.

 

[Zam]

Yeah i played footy with cracked ribs, gets tough when you start breathing heavy and big risk if you land of them again, other then that not much you can do, recovery time can depend on the crack, but anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks maybe.

 

[ctguru]

Mind defining 'ages to heal'? Just curious to know what I'm in for.I'm with you on the riding with them though, did the Blue Dragon a week afterwards with no issues aside from it being a bit tender when things got really rough.

ages = months

mate of mine said his were sore for 6 months

I would probably say 3 months? But not acute sharp pain, after the initial injury and acute pain, it turns into a dull ache

 

[spoozbucket]

I did three in all different locations and the last one was still a bit weird after two months but it was also sore at the sternum end so I'm not sure if it was cartilage damage or something there.

I found that the biggest issue was standing up and pedalling, after any ride where I tried to push bigger gears I got pretty sore, after a couple of times I stopped doing it as it was halting healing. One of my ribs went from being cracked to broken in bed, went to roll over and, kapow, haha!

 

[Flow-Rider]

I've had fractured ribs before from a kickboxing tournament about 20 years ago, didn't feel much pain after the fight but next day I could hardly breath. Not much you can do about it, the doctor strapped my rib cage but it was still painful to breath. It was about 5 months before I started to feel good again and sleeping in a bed was a nightmare. Everyone heals at different rates, there is no set time rate and I would still go to a doctor and get it checked out.

 

[gregp]

6 months for me. Had same symptoms as you. After first 2 months there was no improvement so i stopped riding till it healed up. X-rays didn't show anything.

 

[Mywifesirrational]

Some weird advice at the start of this thread.

Fractured, broken or bruised is the same thing. Broken is the laymen term for fractured. A bruise is normally the cracking of the periosteum layer of bone, A crack is a fracture, complete separation of the bone is also a fracture - but obviously this affects healing time and physical ability greatly and will be classed differently.

Adequate diagnosis is the benchmark of modern medicine, go get an xray, especially with the symptoms you are reporting. More than likely they'll say yup it's fractured and take it easy. But the xray will indicate the severity and therefore the time of healing.

I severely broke 4 ribs 13 months ago, I only went to ED to shut the wife up, I was in pain but coping with it alright, turns out the rib pain was masking more serious issues, and I went into respiratory and heart failure while in ED, great place to have that happen. If I had not have gone in I would be dead. Go get an xray.

I got back on after 9 weeks, had a minor fall and re-broke two ribs, at that point in time I had very little in the way of symptoms.

A week later I re-broke them mowing the lawn...

Then I rebroke them stretching...

I was sledge hammering some concrete months later.. rebroke 1...

It was a shit year and all my own doing. I also don't listen to my own advice. Took 8 months in the end, and I spent a lot of time at the cardio thoracic clinic at hospital.

Ribs are a really shit inury, take ages, and dont rush them, very mobile bone, they re fracture quite easily.

 

[ctguru]

Adequate diagnosis is the benchmark of modern medicine, go get an xray, especially with the symptoms you are reporting. More than likely they'll say yup it's fractured and take it easy. But the xray will indicate the severity and therefore the time of healing.

x-ray is a waste of time, essentially the only reason you do an x-ray is to make sure you don't have a pneuomothorax

a large percentage of the time you can't see fractured ribs on x-rays and just treat them clinically

 

[TheAzza]

Mine took 8 weeks.

Fun times!!

 

[MARKL]

I have broken ribs, confirmed by x-ray 3 times. For me recovery time has been 6-8 weeks, cartilage takes longer. Generally too sore to do much activity for the first four weeks and improving after that. Driving over a sharp speed bump is a good indicator of if they are broken or not.

The other thing to keep in mind is complications from the injury, first time i did it I ended up with a lung infection after I had recovered. Second time I was warned that you breathe shallowly during the recovery and that causes risk of lung infection. All I had to do was deep breathing exercises morning and night and was all good.

As MWI has alluded to it is a significant injury with potential repercussions that can force you off my be bike for far linger than the original injury if you don't treat it with the respect it deserves.

 

[rangersac]

Thanks for the advice all. Not too concerned about running off to get an x-ray, as the pain has never been acute, nor has the breathing been restricted in anyway as I've always been able to take a full breath without significant pain. The first two days the pain was pretty generalized, like a bad bruise, and since then it has become more localized, but never concerning. I've also got the next four weeks as pretty much enforced recovery as the missus is away so I'll roll with that and see how it goes. The only thing so far that has been I won't try that again moment, was using a mattock to attack some weeds, so I'll keep off the wood splitter for a while!

 

[Calvin27]

3 weeks for me. Snowboarding accident. Ran straight into a big block of ice. Kept borading the rest of the day. Breathing was hard. I didn't do much activity because breathing was painful. You don't need an xray, they will jsut tell you to rest.

 

[spoozbucket]

You should find that when the generalised bruising goes away you'll be able to feel exactly which bones are fractured. Makes it easier to work out which movements make the ribs move too, I was barrowing mulch a coule of days after and the ribs would click over each other, not the best feeling.

 

[Flow-Rider]

x-ray is a waste of time, essentially the only reason you do an x-ray is to make sure you don't have a pneuomothorax

a large percentage of the time you can't see fractured ribs on x-rays and just treat them clinically

MWI is right, in that there may be other underlying problems. A good friend of mine had a basic fall on some steps, he didn't think anything of at the time and was in a bit of pain. A week later he decided to go to a doctor, the doctor suspected broken ribs and an X-ray was to follow. When the X-rays came through, a strange black spot was seen and he was sent away for further scans. The scans revealed he was riddled with cancer, that's why I said go and get it checked out.

 

[ducky1988]

I have just torn the cartlidge between my rib and sternum.
My friends keep saying I should ride through the pain but I have done this before and know how long it will take to fix.
kind of pissed

 

[Duane]

Broken quite a few over the years of motorcycle racing. Healing varies on the severity and location. Last time 3 breaks in the back ribs, was pretty bad for about 3 weeks, then dull ache for about 3 more.
I always like to know the damage if it's a big injury, then I can make a more informed decision on how much to push or to rest, hence I usually opt for xrays if the pain is bad enough.

 

[redline316]

Mine took about 6 weeks to heal, could still ride during that time just hated when i had to climb some decent hills.