Think You Have a Bruised Rib?
I get a weird amount of traffic coming to this site from people who are searching for something to do with cracked ribs. I think it has to do with my post about getting hit by a car a couple years ago.
While I’m in no position to give medical advice of any kind, I can tell you about my experience, as I think it might be helpful. Here’s a description of my injury — from that original post:
I think I might have cracked or bruised my rib(s) on the left side. When I breath deeply, laugh, cough, or sneeze I have a sharp shooting pain in one very specific spot in in front of the left side of my rib cage.
I found that my injury was much better within 2-3 weeks, but there was still residual pain. However, the pain at that point was much more tolerable than the first couple of weeks, which told me it probably wasn’t cracked, maybe just bruised.
Around that 3 week mark while I was still in moderate pain, I visited my chiropractor for an adjustment and told him about the injury. He actually gave me a chiropractic adjustment that popped my rib back into place! I felt immediately better, and had some mild soreness for maybe a day or two afterwards, but then I was completely better.
I didn’t realize that ribs could get popped out of (and therefore then back into) place, but apparently so. I was so lucky to discover this pretty soon after my injury, rather than having it completely heal up with my rib in the wrong position, where I imagine it could have become a chronic source of discomfort for me.
Go chiropractic care!!
PS – If you’re curious, you can also read about the original cycling accident / car crash that caused the injury.