So I said a prayer, fell asleep ...
... and voila! there was Mrs. F.
now I have a pain in the butt
Posted on 02/15/2010 10:00:00 AM PST by VA Voter
During a fall last Wed. night, 2/10, I completely broke two lower ribs in my right rear quadrant. The pain getting in and out of bed was excruciating. For some reason as the day progressed the pain decreased and was somewhat tolerable.. The doctor gave me a prescription for some heavy duty pain pills which were helpful except for getting in and out of bed which was still about the same.
Saturday night when the thought of getting in bed was really daunting, I chose instead to slept in a semi-sitting up position, at about a 45 degree angle, with my feet on the floor*.
Getting up Sunday morning, the pain was orders of magnitude less than the prior morning and was at about the same reduced level of pain from the prior evening. I slept the same way last night with the same result. It’s like a little miracle.
I have not taken or needed the prescription pain pills since Saturday night.
This sleeping technique was not suggested by my doctor and is probably not a part of the protocol. I’m passing it along for FReeper benefit.
Good sleeping.
* I used an extra seat cushion on a sofa so the sitting height was raised up.
They no longer tape or wrap your rib cage because it restricts breathing and can lead to complications.
You have my sincere sympathy. I remember it hurt to simply breathe in that condition. Takes a while to mend but you will feel a little less miserable every day.
Pain? Go to California and get a medical marijuana prescription. Stay high and listen to Jimi Hendrix until you heal.
The worse part is you can be doing better after a couple of weeks, make a wrong move, like stretching or reaching, and bang, you feel right back to square one...
Tape your ribs. It’ll make breathing easier and lessen the pain.
You are a sadist.
Other than the Vicodin it's about the only thing that will help.
You know, this is one of those moments that I was longing for while sitting with a rib injury. “I just can’t wait until these are healed up.”
Taking a moment to appreciate the fact that I can breath, laugh, cough, sneeze and sleep normally.
VA Voter - you have my empathy - that stuff stinks.
I second that. I thought I broke another rib when I sneezed hard.
My great-aunt slept sitting up when she broke her ribs too. Sounds so painful. Take care.
May I suggest that you do the “broken rib maneuver”. A couple of times per day you need to wrap a pillow around the broken rib area,,, hold it firmly to the chest wall.... and take slow deep breaths. This will prevent the development of atelectasis of the lung tissues caused by shallow breathing (hurts to take a deep breath, you know). Atelectasis causes pneumonia which causes coughing which causes pain, agony and an “adverse event”..Happy breathing” !!!!
I had no idea so many people had broken ribs! I am too part of the club. It even hurt to breath. The only thing that worked for me was patience. Unfortunately, it is going to hurt for quite a while.
Sucks finding out that you can really only jump 11 inches....
Get hold of Rush and ask for some of the Oxycotin from his “stash”
So I said a prayer, fell asleep ...
... and voila! there was Mrs. F.
now I have a pain in the butt
Do NOT watch anything funny on TV or even listen to funny jokes.
Sneezing and/or coughing will hurt really bad.
The good news is that adjacent healthy ribs hold everything in place, naturally, for bone mending.
The bad news...seems like it took me at least a month to lose thew symptoms...hard to say because it tapered off and became unnoticeable and I forget about it.
From my experience with pain pills: Most opiate-based pain pills also contain Tylenol. If you are allergic to Tylenol, or it is contraindicated by other medications you are taking, check the ingredients on your pain pills. DO NOT ASSUME THE DOCTOR DID THIS!
Seriously.
I'll second that. I fell on my back (landing on one of my kid's toys) and it hurt for a month. I didn't even break any ribs but it apparently take a long time to heal the tissue between the ribs. Good luck.
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