Any tips for broken ribs?

Norco (Vicodin 10's) and laying on the couch at a 45 degree angle to sleep. Honestly, those were the 2 biggest things in making me feel better. Yes, gnarly poops, sneezing, coughing, laughing, any of that shit will hurt like hell, just have to deal with it and limit them.

Best of luck man, broken ribs suck!

The recliner will be your best friend for the next few weeks, for sure. The advice about Advil PM is solid, too. That stuff will help you sleep, but is mild enough not to screw with you when you've woken up.

Celebrex.

When I did my ribs, it felt like someone has poured water on red hot coals after I started taking it. Then I was able to sleep, and sneeze without abject terror.

I have been in a recliner for the last week after breaking 5 ribs, my right shoulder blade and partial fractures to three vertebrae. Came up short on a jump and went over the bars hard.

Worst part was getting a call from hospital Monday morning (crash happened Saturday) and asking me to come back to hospital because they think they found fracture in neck when re-examining x-rays. Got there and they strapped me to spine board with hard collar on an sent me on two hour drive in ambulance to city for ct-scan. Was released from city hospital the next day.

Turns out neck was not broken......which was good but time on spine board sucked.

It's been a week pain is getting better. Have not sneezed yet......hope I don't have to.

If you have the bucks buy a recliner chair that stands you up when you get up. My brother had one that he lent me. He had it cause his wife had crashed on quad a year ago and broke her ribs in 16 different places.

yummy

don't laugh, poop, bend over, turn wrong, cough, fart, for about....3 months


i broke 4 and about a month after i bent the wrong way and popped them again...so not fun

What he just said...broken ribs just suck. Period.

Tip: don't read the following if you have broken ribs.

So this lady is standing on a cliff, going to commit suicide, when a bum happens to walk by.
He asks her "since you're going to be killing yourself, could I have sex with you first?"
She yells at him "GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU SCUMBAG!"
He turns to walk away and mumbles "that's fine, I'll just wait for you at the bottom"

Read it, didn't ya'...

You have to try to take a deep breath at some point, the doctors made me do it - they said some peeps get lung infections from the phlegm trapped in the lower lungs.

Also, do not laugh, cough, sneeze, fart, lie down or get up. For like 6-8 weeks.

Actually, there is a fairly new procedure which can "heal" even the most severe rib fractures. It involves having narrow, curved titanium plates screwed right over your existing ribs, whch reinforces, strengthens and heals them. My understanding is the procedure is fairly simple, and extremely effective. You may wish to consider...

I recently fractured 3 ribs. I didn't even seek medical help for 5 days because I didn't know they were broken. I never broke a rib before, and aspirin seemed to be managing the pain just fine. I only went in for X-rays after 5 days because the pain of trying to cough or sneeze was so excruciating, It was physically impossible.

THe inability to cough is critical, because it means if anything is lodged in your lungs, and you cannot cough it out, you can easily die! IT can also indicate that your lungs are damaged, have partially collapsed, or are infected and filling with fluids that you can not expel, meaning that you will drown and die!

IF you absolutely can not cough or sneeze -- go to a doctor, and get X-rays, quick! Your very life really does depend on it.

Yeah, so after X-rays confirmed my ribs were fractured, the doctors started fighting with me over the need for narcotic pain meds -- while I kept insisting that aspirin had been sufficient for 5 days, and I just can't afford to be drugged up, and zombied out.

The reason doctors push prescription pain meds for broken ribs is because when breathing is painful, you reduce the pain by taking short, shallow breathes, which can cause complications, such as; inadequate oxygenation, infections, fluid buildup, and even the potential risk of collapsing a lung. So doctors consider pain meds important to properly healing broken ribs--ensuring patients are able to breath deeply.

But instead of pain meds, we compromised and he sent me home with a breathing exercise device and daily breathing goals to achieve instead. It's going on 2 weeks now since fracturing my ribs, I can breath deep and cough just fine. The pain has become negligible.

I know its fairly obvious, but whether you are taking Norco (hydrocodone) or Vicodin (oxycodone), especially at high doses, try to do so sparingly (any opiods for that matter). The results of the days of back up can be excruciating enough to outweigh the positives. Try to find a happy medium, where you can get some pain relief (which can help with the healing process) and not so much that your poo feels like it looked Medusa straight in the eyes! Additionally, make a conscious effort to hydrate.

Ribs... never good but if you ride dirt bikes it's just a ritual that seems to have to be performed every so often.
The rehab is like having your mother in law come visit you just endure it till it goes away.

Did you fracture or break any ribs when you broke your back? I completely crushed my T-11 and fractured 3 up and they told me a fractured a few ribs too but I must have been in so much pain from the back surgery I didn't notice my ribs.

Don't bear down too hard when you are taking a crap.

Hammer

Been well covered already but here's my list of things not to do: cough, spit, sneeze, fart, shit, laugh, cry, move, crossfit, vape, dab, (the last three you should probably avoid even without busted ribs)

Do 100 situps morning and night, it will toughen them up