What does a cracked rib feel like ?

[ChrisO]

If I had cracked it would I be in sharp pain ?

At first I thought it was just going to be a bad bruise, but actually the bruise hasn't come up very much and the pain is still much the same.

It isn't intense - it is about the pain level of a bad bruise, and hurts more in certain positions.

I've booked into the doctor tomorrow but I'm worried I'll look silly going in and saying I think I might have a broken rib given that I can still cycle, swim (and even kayak over the weekend).

I should add I've never broken any bones so I have nothing to compare it to.

And as I understand it there isn't much they can do about a rib anyway is there ?

[Martin109]

I rather doubt you could swim, cycle and kayak unhindered by a broken rib, but I'm not an expert, and I expect someone medically trained will be along in a minute.

[Chris S]

When I cracked a rib, it was as much as I could do to take a full in-breath.

Coughing was agony. So was laughing.

I couldn't sleep lying down. I couldn't lie with any weight on that side at all.

The pain was sharp, and very debilitating.

[Moloko]

Yeah,as above, shallow breaths only.  Anything more than that is agony.
And as for sneezing, well that's something else.

[Cyclops]

I've done it twice and by far the worst thing I found was trying to get in and out of bed.

Although I could still cycle (I had to take it easy as deep breathing was very sore) I very much doubt swimming or kayaking would have been possible

[Greenbank]

Done ribs 4 or 5 times in varying degrees of damage from bruised ribs to multiple cracked ribs. I've got most of mine from playing 5-a-side football and I was able to carry on playing for the rest of the game, then go to the pub, then cycle home without much discomfort. The pain tends to steadily get worse with a peak about 2 weeks after the initial injury. As others have said, sneezing, coughing, etc become hideously painful.

Saw a doctor once about them (staggeringly painful one morning), they just sent me away to take over the counter painkillers.

Nothing much you can do apart from mask the pain with drugs. Assuming no reasons for not taking them; interleave maximum recommended doses of Ibuprofen+Paracetamol and Codeine, i.e. take I+P, 2 hours later take Codeine, 2 hours later more I+P, 2 hours later Codeine, etc. Be careful with codeine, common symptoms are constipation and nightmares (which really aren't good with knackered ribs as you'll wake with a start in the night and do move damage to them, I had to stop taking it because of this).

I could still cycle, but 5-a-side and swimming were too painful. Usually takes about 6 weeks before they're back to normal.

[hellymedic]

Pain depends on the location of the crack (back, side, front) and whether that particular rib moves much whilst breathing.. Obviously a single cracked rib might cause less pain than having several broken.
It might just feel like bad bruising.
I fell heavily when I left the Brimington Hall Hotel (site of AUK bunfight a couple of years ago) and had pain in the back of my chest for several weeks. This pain was worst when cars in which I was a passenger went over speed bumps. Never bothered to get it X-rayed so have no idea whether I'd cracked a rib.

[Manotea]

A farmed audaxer not of this parish told me a tale of having an 'off half round a 600, taking what felt like a rib injury to a local A&E who refused to give him an x-ray and kicked out as a hypochondriac, finishing the 600, then starting another 600 the following week despite feeling less than 100%, feeling really poorly half way round and detouring to another A&E where they gave him a bed for a night with a cracked rib, punctured lung and pneumonia.

So when I still had a localised chest pain a week after an 'off which say me landing in some bushes about 30km into a 200km which I went on to finish, I toddled off to my A&E late one evening and persuaded a nice impressionable young docter on the graveyard shift (sic) to take some pictures of me with no clothes on. She was more interested in my low pulse rate than my manly physique but she took the pictures anyway. Having established I was probably the fittest person in the building (which is not necessarily saying much, it was a hospital) she kicked me out as a hypochondriac.

Not sure this helps...

[hellymedic]

That famed Audaxer witnessed my downfall upthread...

[Bledlow]

If you can swim & kayak, I doubt you've cracked a rib, unless maybe it's a small crack (just surface), & not flexed much by movement of your upper body. Hmm.

I once cracked (not broke right through) one, or just possibly two, on Mongewell Hill, off-road  - & off-track into the air after clipping the inside of a rut, followed by cushioning the fall of the Aussie bloke behind me . I wasn't sure it was cracked, rather than just bruised, until the swelling had gone down enough to feel the ridge. Front, left side, lower ribs.

It wasn't too bad when it happened. Painful, & I knew I'd done something, but my hip hurt more & worried me more (I may have cracked that - I've since had an X-ray which showed up what looked like an old, healed, crack). Got to the pub (it was shortly before lunch), had food & some liquid analgesic, then abandoned the ride & cycled home slowly & carefully.

Next morning, though . . . as Chris S described. I could hardly breathe, hardly move, & Cyclops was damn right about the difficulty of getting out of bed. Went to A&E, where they told me to take painkillers (they gave me some prescription-only NSAIDs, but only one step up from ibuprofen), & make sure I breathed fully every now & then, despite the pain. They decided I didn't have any major breaks, & weren't interested in an X-ray to find any cracks, as they said the treatment was the same for a crack or two as for severe bruising, which I definitely had*. Ease the pain, & let it heal . . . 

*Among the many other bruises, there was an easily recognisable handlebar mark in an interesting place. Mrs B - then rather new to me - was most amused.

[tonycollinet]

The breathing deeply periodically is important. I wasn't told this when I did it at Christmas. In any case, I couldn't cycle up hills, due to not being able to get enough oxygen.

When the pain had subsided significantly - after about 4 weeks, I found I still could not "fill" my lungs, and had to walk up even easy hills (not from pain - they just wouldn't expand enough). I was worried the damage was permanent. I started deep breathing exercises whenever on the bike at that point, and it was probably another 4 weeks before I could get all the oxygen I needed when going uphill.

[ChrisO]

Thanks... Well I went to the doctor who says it could be the rib but she thinks more likely to be muscular spasm or inflammation.

I just don't buy it though. I've had bad falls with bruises the size of dinner plates that are so deep they take days to appear, and I've also had muscle spasms in my back that needed injections to relieve and this is something different.

It does hurt at the very deepest part of my breath intake, and it hurts quite a bit when lying down in bed - I can't lie flat on my back. It's not crying-out pain but it isn't pleasant and it isn't better than it was a week ago.

Whatever, she's given me some pain killers and anti-inflammatory and said to see how it is in a week.

[hellymedic]

Ribs take 3-5 weeks to heal.
My rib had a deep aching pain which lasted about a month.

[Greenbank]

I've never had *any* bruising from rib injuries (again, full gamut from soft tissue injury of the chest wall to two cracked ribs).

[The Mechanic]

I broke 2 ribs during an off a few years ago ( I did a flying act when two old dears walked across the road in from of me and The Mechanic Junior.  .  It was very painful for a few weeks.  The hospital told me to cough even if it was painful as not coughing can lead to lung infections.  Easy to say when it's not your ribs.  They don't even strap them up these days. 

[.calm]

I've had a few broken ribs in the last few years.

One round the front of the ribcage from a mountain bike accident where it was painful, but not too bad. Basically just uncomfortable. I didn't even bother going to A&E for that. Just read up about them online and followed the NHS direct advice.

Then I had two together near the spine when I fell down the side of a mountain. They were excruciating. It's hard to describe the pain, but it was like a sharp stabbing whenever any movement happened near them. Breathing was painful, walking too. I ended up in hospital for a couple of days (via a Royal Navy helicopter). Oddly, at the time despite being xrayed all over they didn't spot that they had broken. My GP found out what it was a fortnight later when I was still in pain. He had a useful way to find out if you've broken a rib although it needs another person and is incredibly painful. Basically, get the other person to put one hand on the sternum, and one round your back and squeeze slightly but sharply. If you get a sudden blinding pain you've got a broken rib.

The thing about coughing is apparently quite important. Apparently the body realises it's in pain and you end up breathing a lot more shallow than usual to avoid it. That means there's a buildup of crud in the lungs that coughing gets rid of. If you don't then you end up with a risk of lung infections/pneumonia.

[Tewdric]

I bruise ribs occasionally playing rugby, and they do feel like you've cracked them, even when you haven't.