Had a bad crash on Sunday, fish tailed on a small groove on a closed road (Beach drive in Bethesda, MD) while barely going 17mph. Anyway, I have what feels like a slight rib fracture, sharp pain on any large breath. I landed flush on my left front side. I was wondering what the general experience has been with recovery time, ability to exercise(can I run or elliptical?) etc?
All I can say is I feel for you 
.
Below is a copy/paste from a PM conversation I was having with another member a while back. I think his his (& my) injuries were a fair bit worse than what you are describing (google ‘flail chest’…) so take this as a worst-case scenario, and good luck on your recovery.
What you’re describing was very similar to my own experience. I getting out of bed in the morning was always the most painful part of the day, and my chest felt really tight as well. I found that the best thing for my pain was actually exercise! In addition to the lung puncture, you’ve got some scar tissue that is forming right now. Making those muscles work a bit every day felt a lot better than doing nothing for 3-4 days in a row. A rough timeline for me was:
Early Feb. 04 - Accident happens. I’m in the hospital for 8-9 days.
Late feb. 04 - Get a chest infection (empyema) and have to go back in. Chest tube goes back in, and I spend another week in hosp.
Early March 04 - Back at home. Pain throughout the day, sleeping only a few hours a night.
Mid-March - Ribs are tender, but general mobility throughout the day feels pretty normal. Chest is tight in the a.m., feels pretty good by about noon.
End of March - I start running again. My first run was about 20 minutes, and it hurt. This was a depressing day.
April - I kept testing my run, and by about the 3rd week of April I could go out for a 45-60 min run and it felt pretty good. This was at a very easy pace (9 - 9:30 miles), keeping my breathing easy. The first few minutes of the run my chest would sting a bit, but it lessened (and was shorter in duration) as the month went on.
Late April, early May - Can’t remember exactly when, but somewhere around here I got back into the pool. Not good. It hurt like hell the first few times. I did short sets, was in the water 3-4 times a week, and by the end of May I was feeling pretty good again. I think the swimming really helped with the early morning tightness, things really started to feel better (sorry, I know you’ve got a shoulder to work on).
June - I did an easy 1/2 marathon, finished in about 1:50. Not a great time for me, but mentally it felt really good to be back out there.
July - I had by now put in a bit of time on the bike, but was pretty scared about having a dismount. I spent a lot more time running/swimming that biking. Didn’t do any trainer riding at all.
Mid-July - ‘Raced’ a local 1/2 IM
This is a tough course, usually a windy bike with a few good climbs, run is up and down. I hadn’t swam in my wetsuit since the accident. I almost dropped out of the race after the first loop - it was really hard to breathe. I was carrying a few more lbs than normal which didn’t help.
Hope this give you some encouragement! I’d say that within 6 months of my accident, things were pretty much back to normal. Everything is going to hurt a bit and feel discouraging when you start back. It gets better, I promise.
I have several hairline rib fractures from my crash 10 days ago. Still a lot of pain with upper body motion and especially sudden jolts (like sneezing or coughing). The pain is becoming more localized which is the first step toward recovery. I fractured 4 ribs in a soccer collision several years back. It took at least 6 weeks of zero physical activity before I was able to comfortably sit up or breathe deep. Probably another 3-4 weeks before I was back into reasonable activity. Pretty much any medical pro will tell you that there’s nothing you can do to fix it, but there are a lot of things you can do to make it worse. Don’t rush the recovery. If the pain is extreme, you can probably get a prescription for an anti-inflammatory pain reliever.
Have cracked ribs on 2 occasions and recovery was pretty similar both times. Was biking within a fortnight, swimming a week or so after that, and running again after 4-5 weeks. Should be noted that I had to ease my way into each sport pretty gently - my rule of thumb was that a bit of discomfort was OK but any sharp pain meant I should slow down or stop.
Good luck!
Have cracked ribs on 2 occasions and recovery was pretty similar both times. Was biking within a fortnight, swimming a week or so after that, and running again after 4-5 weeks. Should be noted that I had to ease my way into each sport pretty gently - my rule of thumb was that a bit of discomfort was OK but any sharp pain meant I should slow down or stop.
Good luck!
IOW listen to your body which is the most important thing. They may not be fractured ribs, but there’s not a whole lot of difference early on between bruise, fractured or broken. They all hurt. I’ve bruised mine a few times, the worst being where any bump in the road sent incredible pain through my body. Smooth roads were not a problem. No way could I run because the pain from those shock loads. It also affected my range of motion, so things like swimming would have been out. My intensity was governed by the pain. I’d pretty much stay threshold or below until the pain disappeared. The deeper/harder the breaths, the more the pain crept in. Use this as a time to focus on building that aerobic base back up!
I broke a couple of ribs at the end of April.
Pain got worse in the following 5 days then finally went away in about 4 weeks.
Swimming was the most painful so I ditched it til the pain went away. Running wasn’t great but bareable.
Cycling was generally ok. Take it very easy for a week then get on the turbo if it doesn’t hurt too much…
I missed out on a 70.3 as a result but went on to PB by a long way in my IM in July so don’t fret too much 
Back in the spring I was in a bad sprint pileup, fractured two ribs and punctured my right lung. I was in the hospital with a tube in my chest from the Tuesday evening it happened until I was released on Friday morning. I was on the rollers Sunday. I was on the road Tuesday. I won a 19 mile time trial three weeks and a day after leaving the hospital.
The doc said I had to be careful about the lung and I had to pace myself some during those three weeks. The pain from the ribs helped accomplish that. It hurt to get out of the saddle, so I didn’t for a while.
YMMV and HTFU!
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I’m just recovering from a broken rib now. I’ve been able to cycle, moderately, not hard, through it. I could actually feel the rib “click” while riding. However, it was not at all possible for me to run or swim for 5 weeks. I actually ran a week before I was able to swim, but my fracture was high in back, under the lat. The best advice I got was to sleep upright, maybe even on a couch, with pillows under you. As others have said, the worst part of the day is trying to get out of bed. It’s been 7 weeks now, and I still can’t sleep on that side because of the pain. Good luck, and be patient.
while you were crashing on your bike on sunday, i was getting thrown from my horse. this is my third broken rib episode (bicycle, downhill skiing, horse). i’ve broken quite a few bones, and nothing competes with ribs, because you can’t isolate and immobilize them.
my advice is to do what i’m doing: take the percocet (or whatever suits you). this, because you need to sleep, and when you sneeze, cough, get the hiccups, you’d rather be waterboarded (i think).
i’m just going to do (athletically) what i’m able when i’m able. right now, 4 days later, walking is it. progress from there 
I cracked three ribs last year --dumb fall down my spiral staircase after a few too many
Killed my run training for about a month, I could bike on a stationary but really, I just got lazy. I basically did not train for 4-5 weeks, then started up a little, and then stupidly re-cracked them at a work function (go cart racing, rammed my boss, ouch). So that was another month of recovery, leading up to the NYC marathon. Then I felt better, ran NYC (a bit slower than previous years) then 2 weeks later ran the Knickerbocker 60k (much slower than previous year). That race sucked because my training was null for the few months leading up.
You could probably do an elliptical if you go easy. I think it was about 2 actual weeks before I could sit up comfortably in bed each morning and did not want to kill myself from the pain a simple sneeze (or laughing!) would cause. ouch! I should have trained more at that point but it was too easy to get lazy. and 2 weeks turned into a month off pretty quickly!
Anyway, all in all it was like 4 or 5 months before I felt 100% healed but only about a month to actually recover enough to be able to run comfortably (though a little slower), but still covering long distances.
I say just try to keep active so you don’t lose your progress, but keep easy on the ribs. It’s easy to re-crack them while they are healing. I’ve heard it really takes like a full year for them to be 100% back to normal, even though they’ll feel 100% fine LONG before that.
FWIW, I never really felt that I needed any meds, maybe an occasional tylenol. My dr did not give me anything, nor did I ask. There’s not much you can do other than be patient. Just don’t get lazy.
If any of you other recent victims are taking an opiate-based painkiller (like Dan is), you might want to up the fiber in your diet for the next little bit. Busted ribs and constipation is a place you don’t want to visit…
If it just happened I would say take a week or so off doing any exercise that would expand your ribs. If its truely fractured then you want the break to stay immobile for a bit to start the healing process. At least that is what doctors have told me in the past for fractures. Something like ribs an collar bones heal pretty quickly, you just need to not work that area for a week or two. Ride on a trainer or rollers for now, then you can start getting back in to exercising. I have fallowed that rule in the past and was back to training fully in 3-3.5 weeks.
If I can push through the pain, should I?
When I have my greatest moments of pain when I breathe, it seems like the location of the pain is shifting every 2-3 days. I hope the 4 week timeline is on schedule. 8-(
5 weeks ago I crashed my mountain bike pre-riding for a race on a Thursday. Didn’t think I was really hurt. Didn’t ride Friday (day before race). Saturday I raced a tough 30 mile race with a brutal 9 mile climb and a 20 mile descent with some pretty technical sections, lots of baby heads and some drops, trails that beat the hell of me. By the time I finished I was in real pain. I felt like I was having a heart attack, except on the wrong side. On Monday it was confirmed that the lump on my chest was a rib poking out a little bit. Someone mentioned getting up being the hardest part of the day. I second that. The first couple of days I needed my bf to support my back and help me sit up. Even then it hurt. Lots of vicodin, sulindac and 9 days of no riding at all. On day 10 I got on my cross bike. 2 days later I returned to my beloved mountain bike. I’d say I’m at about 85%. I no longer need any pain meds and it only hurts when I sneeze. I’ve been riding a lot, including a 60 mile mixed terrain day on the cross bike and another mountain bike race. I’m just extra careful so as not to crash again. Unfortunately it wasn’t healed in time for me to race the trans rockies. Biggest let down of the summer. I can still feel the lump if I run my fingers over it, but it’s not so visible anymore (thankfully).
EDIT: I forgot to add that before I got the sulindac I wasn’t taking pain meds during the day. Consequently I wasn’t breathing deeply enough which caused me lung issue, led to coughing which hurt. Make sure you breathe! I didn’t even realize I was breathing shallowly due to the pain which just made it all the worse.
I am going on week 3, and I am wondering… The pain/discomfort for normal activities has lessened. The pain while training has become more bearable.
However, whether training or just sitting in front of my computer, there are few times that I can get a full, deep, satisfying breath. I am breathing as deeply as I can, but I still feel short of breath. Hypothetically, if my range of breathing was from -5 (full exhalation) to +5 (full inhalation), I think I feel like my range is -4 to +3.
I’m just wondering if it’s still normal and inline with what everyone else has experienced after 17 days?
while you were crashing on your bike on sunday, i was getting thrown from my horse. this is my third broken rib episode (bicycle, downhill skiing, horse). i’ve broken quite a few bones, and nothing competes with ribs, because you can’t isolate and immobilize them.
my advice is to do what i’m doing: take the percocet (or whatever suits you). this, because you need to sleep, and when you sneeze, cough, get the hiccups, you’d rather be waterboarded (i think).
i’m just going to do (athletically) what i’m able when i’m able. right now, 4 days later, walking is it. progress from there
Appears to be the season for doing in ones ribs! I too have broken many many bones over the years. People say I’m accident prone, but I reckon I’m just activity prone instead.
I did mine about 5 weeks ago. 2 this time, both in several places. Ruined my month long holiday, but that’s life
I’ve done mine jumping most of the way over a couch (2 ribs that time) then waterskiing (fell while dropping one ski to slalom) 3 ribs on the other side that time, and most recently I did 2 ribs on the same side as the water skiing ones, while putting an 85kg dent in the front fender of a car! While airborne, all I could think was “FK, you’ve done it this time” and “Maaaaaan this is gunna hurt!” hehehe
I’m almost 6 weeks into recovery and have been riding for 2 weeks and swam last night for the first time. Cycling is OK as long as I just dawdle along. Swimming was OK, with just a touch of pain as long as I dawdled along too.
I hope to start jogging again soon, with a return to running, a few weeks after that.
Good luck to all ST’ers who’ve got any sort of injury right now, particularly ribs.
I fractured 3 ribs jumping from a boat to a dock and missing 3 weeks ago. No alcohol was involved but definitely after. To add insult to injury I am a respiratory physician. Technically it takes longer for rib fractures to heal than other bones because you cannot immobilize the ribs. We breathe at rest 12-16x minute and thus everytime we tweak the fracture. We actually have a protocol at our hospital for admitting patients over 70 with 3 or more rib fractures because of increased risk for pneumonia, etc… Mine still hurt, particularly at night. Swimming hurts the most for me to include simply the pressure on my chest from the water. They get better but it takes a while.
I fractured 3 ribs jumping from a boat to a dock and missing 3 weeks ago. No alcohol was involved but definitely after. To add insult to injury I am a respiratory physician. Technically it takes longer for rib fractures to heal than other bones because you cannot immobilize the ribs. We breathe at rest 12-16x minute and thus everytime we tweak the fracture. We actually have a protocol at our hospital for admitting patients over 70 with 3 or more rib fractures because of increased risk for pneumonia, etc… Mine still hurt, particularly at night. Swimming hurts the most for me to include simply the pressure on my chest from the water. They get better but it takes a while.
I was watching a doco on Mt Everest recently. Apparently the pulmonary issues can get so bad that climbers can break ribs from violent coughing!!! Holy Crap. The doco was actually about 20+ climbing doctors that did some tests on everest to do with low oxygen environments. Some poor Sherpa had to carry an exercise bike to the South Col (27,000feet?!) and some of the doctors gave it a whirl…without supplementary oxygen. Their resting HR was over 120 I think and respiratory rate was about 40/min. On the bike, at 60RPM, not doing a whole lot of watts, their HR’s jumped extremely high (close to 200 I think) and their respiration was up to 80 breaths per minute! Far out!
Imagine being on Everest, feeling like the south end of a north bound cow, then breaking ribs from the coughing and still at least having to walk downhill to base camp. Just plain crazy.
I’ll stay at sea level for now
Funny. Those guys are from Denver where I did my specialty training where they were studying the phenomenon known as “high altitude pulmonary edema”. They actually did heart catheterizations in a makeshift lab at base camp which I think is at 18,000 feet. Pretty crazy stuff. The guy that spearheaded those studies (Jack Reeves) recently died in his mid-80’s when he was riding his bike and was hit by a car. He rode his bike to work every day I was there even in the snow.