Chest Pain after a crash

maky

Just interested to see if anyone here has had this...

A week ago last Friday I had quite a bad fall, hitting a tree at about 15mph with my shoulder (thats bad for an xc boy like me anyway). So que lying on the floor winded and in pain for five minutes before riding home. The next day all seemed fine and it was just a bit bruised.

A couple of days later I started to get this pain, kind of muscular feeling, just under my armpit on the side of my chest. The weired thing is I only get it when lying in bed. As soon as I lie down it starts, its damn uncomfortable, and if I try and turn over it gos nuts. It is there during the day but nothing bad at all, it certainly doesn't stop me doing anything.

Any ideas?

OH yeah ps, the bike was fine

timjohndavey

maky wrote:

Just interested to see if anyone here has had this...

A week ago last Friday I had quite a bad fall, hitting a tree at about 15mph with my shoulder (thats bad for an xc boy like me anyway). So que lying on the floor winded and in pain for five minutes before riding home. The next day all seemed fine and it was just a bit bruised.

A couple of days later I started to get this pain, kind of muscular feeling, just under my armpit on the side of my chest. The weired thing is I only get it when lying in bed. As soon as I lie down it starts, its damn uncomfortable, and if I try and turn over it gos nuts. It is there during the day but nothing bad at all, it certainly doesn't stop me doing anything.

Any ideas?

OH yeah ps, the bike was fine

It's a cracked rib. Classically they tend to get a bit worse after a few days. Specifically when turning over whilst asleep in bed. Chest x-rays normally are only done within 24 hours to check that the lung is ok ( O'Grady had a pneumothorax with his 5 rib fractures last week) but at this stage it wouldnt be warranted. And cracked ribs dont always show up on x-ray either.

passout

Yep, it's a cracked rib. I've got one now from a car crash I had a few days ago. Took a little while for the symptoms to appear. I think that mine is worse than yours - perhaps I've cracked two or three? I'm on nurofen, but any painkillers will work - even if you just take them at night. Don't take nurofen on an empty stomach or when drinking by the way (sorry to be patronising). My doc wouldn't X-ray for this (after checking for signs of damage to internal organs) but said that they take 4-6 weeks to heal. You may want to cut down on exercise for a little while but if it doesn't hurt (assuming your not on painkillers at the time) then you might decide to risk it. Personally I'm not sure how long to leave it before going back to exercise, but not yet for me as it hurts when I laugh, sneeze, cough etc - not a great sign.

It's probably best to visit your doctor just to be safe but there's no treatment as such.