Crashed on the bike this weekend (not sure exactly what happened, but think I hit a rock or similar and went down hard on left side). Broke one rib (slightly displaced) and punctured the lung causing a small pneumothorax. Would like to get tips/advice on recovery, and hear from others who might have gone thru similar situation on the road back to training.
Oh yeah, and wear your helmets people - the crack in mine says things would have been much worse without it 
Not sure about the bone issue but for the pneumothorax, I had one about 7 years ago. I took off 4 weeks before slowly coming back with biking first, running second and swimming last. No need to rush anything unless you have an A race in March, IMHO.
Not sure about the collapsed lung. Had prolo shot into my 3 broken ribs and my GP cleared me to do anything that didn’t hurt after 3 weeks. Stay off the paid meds if you can!
I did similar in February of 2012- just looked it up to see what my time off and recovery was after accident.
I was off the bike for 18 days- did 1 day on trainer, then slowly building back up outside after that.
I collapsed and partially punctured a lung, broke five ribs (in back), 1 vertebrae and transverse process.
In hospital for fours days after accident.
I’m not sure what constitutes a “small” pneumothorax vs a large one, but I got 10 days in the hospital for mine, so from my point of view it was pretty severe. This was before I ever did triathlon (when I was in high school, injured during wrestling), but I was unable to do much for 6 weeks or so. Over the next few months I steadily got back to basically normal.
I did find that running and cycling for a while could cause some soreness on that side where I think some scarring had occurred, and even 20 years later it seems a little more prone to tightening up on me when I really push things, or during changes in the weather and such.
I would take it easy for a while, then start back by increasing effort in steady, small increments.
my guess is 90% or under. my son had a complete collapse, spent 2 weeks in one hospital and 3 weeks in another and ended up having his chest cracked open and lung resected. so yeah, many different degrees.
Just a word of caution - don’t overdo it and get sick! Wash your hands, avoid flying, the holiday buffet and flee from anyone who sneezes! I caught a little cold coming back from a similar injury many years ago, cold turned into an infection and the coughing etc… was PAINFUL, miserable, and what I think could have been about a 4 week recovery turned into 3 months, really wasn’t completely healthy for a year. Heal up and take it slow.
Not sure how small your small pneumothorax might be. I was in a sprint pileup several years ago and broke three ribs and had a pneumothorax bad enough to keep me in the hospital for several days. I won my age group at a 16 mile TT two and a half weeks after the crash. When I was released from the hospital, I was told I could ride to whatever extent I could bear. The doc said the pain would keep me from pushing too far. Out-of-saddle efforts were really painful for a couple of days. But I had no problem getting into the aero position and camping out there. It was a hilly TT. I stayed in the saddle and that was probably good discipline that got me up the hills faster. Once I got past that TT, the whole episode faded into oblivion rather quickly.
I had a spontaneous pneumothorax. Apparently can happen to tall, skinny men under the age of 40. Don’t know the degree. But I was in the hospital for just a few hours, and got sent away with a clear valve box attached to my chest after they did the surgery with the huge needle to re-inflate the mofo. That was on there for a few days. Once it came off they said I could basically do whatever I wanted. Started full-up training right away, including intense efforts. No problem.
The worst thing about my experience was just thinking I was having a heart attack, because severe chest pain of out nowhere is freaking scary…but at least you get to skip to the front of the line in the ER.
My situation was probably atypical, though. I had no tissue damage, obviously, except a spontaneous tear in the membrane around the lungs…forget the name of that membrane.
Partial pneumothorax and three broken ribs along with multiple displaced fractures in left clavicle, spent four days in the hospital mainly for the lung to recover (no procedure needed for that). Had surgery for collarbone so that wound up being the bulk of the recovery time. Mine occurred late in the year when it happened so I had the winter to recover and was able to resume racing the following spring.
this is kind of a wild story of former NAU runner and Olympian Diego Estrada’s pneumo:
http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/236827-2010-Outdoor-Track-and-Field-Season/video/326218-Diego-Estrada-talks-about-problems-from-2009-XC#.VIZfn2ccToY
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Usually small pneumothoracies resolve without insertion of what’s called a chest tube, but this will be between you and you doc with serial xrays as long as felt indicated. In most instances, the rib fracture will heal. No bike riding, no flying no training until pretty darn well healed. This direction will, of course, not come from us internet flunkies but your medical care team.
JP
Crashed pretty bad, similar injuries to yours, had 3 fractured ribs, small pneumothorax, cracked scapula and ligament damage to my ankle. I spent 1 night in hospital and was off the bike for 11 days, mainly due to my ankle. As soon as I could wedge my foot into my shoe I was on the trainer, only for about 30 minutes the first day but after a few days I was able to bang out some 2hr moderate intensity sessions.
Did my 70mi race/ride a month after I crashed, probably not smart though lol
Ouch, I hope your son recovered without further complication or any lasting effects.
It is interesting to see the varying degrees of injury from people posting on the thread. I think mine was something like 70% collapsed and it required a chest tube. Your son’s was far worse from the sound of it, but others sound like a quick recovery with almost no medical intervention.
So to the OP- do what Dr. John says and listen to your doctor and remember nothing sets your training back further than too much too soon.
Thanks everyone… Seems like the majority opinion is to ease back into it as the body allows. No major races in the near future, so that makes the most sense. Hardest part right now is just the pain involved with taking the big deep breaths they want me to take to keep the lungs fully open. Sounds like some of you had much worse injuries and were able to come back fairly quickly, so that provides good inspiration.
I crashed in May of this year, broke 3 ( non-displace) floating ribs. IT took 5 weeks for the ribs to heal, but the damaged soft tissue took additional time - 3 weeks more.
Forget about running or swimming for 2 months, if you have a high pain threshold you might be able to ride a bike trainer lightly in a week or two.
Be patient
Just to put some closure on things… here’s how the last (almost) 6 weeks have panned out:
Week 1: Everything hurt, didn’t try to do much at all, other than what I needed to keep my lungs working and get the left lung to expand. Did a couple walks on treadmill at 3-4 mph max, and a couple of really EZ rides on the bike trainer for around 15 minutes max. Closed out the week with a really slow 3 mile drudge walk on the treadmill.
Week 2: Able to build up to slow jog on the treadmill, and the bike trainer started getting easier. 30 minute EZ workouts on both a couple of times, and did closer to an hour on the weekend.
Week 3: Continued slowly progressing, started being able to approach my normal “long distance” paces on both treadmill and bike trainer. The thought of outdoors on the bike and potential of even an easy fall still makes me way too nervous Did a couple of really easy and short swims in my pool - swimming is going to take a while to come back!
Week 4: Not really painful anymore, more of a discomfort. Starting to hit my “pace/tempo” levels of effort and breathing a whole lot better. First outdoor distance run, and able to do an easy 2 hour bike trainer ride (easy on the body, not so much on the mind).
Week 5: Probably the first week that I truly am feeling closer to normal. Able to run fairly quick without pain, distances up to 8 miles. Bike trainer pace/watts getting back on track. Also starting to be able to do some decent upper body strength training.
Week 6: Still can feel the rib, but not really limiting me; other than obvious things like heavy duty upper body strength training. Weather looks like it’s going to cooperate for my first outdoor bike ride on Saturday, so thoughs/prayers that that goes smoothly!
Anyway, that’s how things have gone. Saw a different thread talking about an IM two weeks after broken rib… wow. I’m sure I’d do what I had to do, but the thought of getting slammed in the ribs during the IM Swim would scare the @#@#$ out of me now; let alone 3-4 weeks ago!
Stay safe folks…
thanks for the timeline. i am finding that i was able to workout (finished swim and did run later, swim and bike the next day) close to injury date but more and more debilitating as time went on. this morning (day 6) i am waking wtih much less pain (and took pain meds last night - not sure if related :)) and took another pain pill. no longer involuntarily yelling when i move or maybe i’m just getting used to the pains. i’m guessing my break was much less than yours as no pneumo and mine was the 10th rib (maybe less painful)? if nothing else, i’m finding a WIDE range of experiences (some swim kills and run okay and others swim is ok but run kills) from ability to workout to pain to recovery strategies. i did my first outdoor bike yesterday and pretty much wanted to shoot myself in the head afterwards (and thus the pain pill).
i also googled broken rib and taping and taped myself yesterday (i know, no compression due to lung expansion issues) and dunno if that is helping or not but nice to have there. i also learned that it is super important to take your pain meds as on pain meds i find i’m breathing MUCH better (and with asthma that might be an issue even without the broken rib?).
continue healing and thanks again for your experience!
thanks for timeline, very helpful. you covered up to week 6, did you return to swim yet? also curious to compare how displaced yours were compared to mine, can you post xray pic? I broke # 6 & 7 (no collapsed lung), I think the lower one is just a bit displaced. I’m now at 1.5 weeks, ran couple times on strong meds (before i knew broken) but now switching to ellipse off meds. Also very light bike, but even light effort is painful off meds. Didnt try swim yet, from other posts it looks like thats last to return, about 5-6 weeks
Did some very easy swimming end of 3rd week, didn’t last more than a few minutes. Was able to do a little bit end of 4th week, felt better, but still limited. Weather turned nasty; so going to try today now that weather is better and feel like it should go OK (end of week 6).
I don’t have a copy of the xray; but medical report says it was “mildly displaced rib; 7th rib laterally”. If the bike is still painful, don’t try to swim. As you say, that will likely be last; just give it time.