Riding with bruised/broken ribs
 

Have any of you tried riding with bruised or broken ribs? I think I damaged my ribs a couple weeks ago in a bike crash, hurts to climb or stand up, but can ride without pain otherwise. Think I am good to go? I took a couple days off the bike after the crash, and my physical therapist told me to take it easy lifting and twisting for the next 4 weeks. Had an unproductive argumentative time with the work doctor (He wanted to treat my scratched back for some reason, refused to treat my hand which was bleeding badly, and continued to engage with me about the tetanus vaccine after I told him there wasn't a chance in hell)

Dear sweet Larry,

Ride your bike and if it hurts, ride slower.

My experience was with a rock garden and a hardtail last year. Bucked me off and proved to me just how good my leg guards are. My chest was not protected.

This was early April and it hurt through maybe September or October last fall. Every day was better than the previous.

I never stopped working, playing with my kids, riding my bike, rock climbing, or laughing, though they all hurt. Pretty much all the time.

I think you’re going to live.

Edited to add, get the tetanus shot dumbass.

Yep…… had a very bad accident ending up basically impaling myself on the handlebar stem of a vintage steel Peugeot. Broke pretty much every rib on my right side taking about a month before I tried getting back on a bike and just let my body tell me what was too much.

The most important thing is to ignore the advice of the doctor.

Another player decked me with an elbow in an ice hockey game 4 weeks ago and busted three ribs. I kept riding but pulled the plug on ice hockey until they healed.

I've broken a lot of bones over the years. They really do not hurt compared to neuropathy pain

Try to keep the rubber side down while healing - it reduces the time to heal = Bigly.

Come on Larry... More then 90% of road rashes get infected. They are a burn, not a scratch. As far as the tetanus shot, well its obvious you have never seen someone die of tetanus. Keep your tetanus vaccination up to date. Its a survival skill.

As far as the ribs, often bruised ribs hurt longer then broken ribs. I have found compression and splinting the best help for rib pain. Lots of small pillows when you are sleeping. Spandex chest compression when your up and around helps. Tapping and large ace wraps around chest and ribs is discouraged now days, but back before the 70's it was a standard method of treatment.

Hey Larry! Sorry to hear about your accident. Yes, been there done that. Sounds like you've already discovered how to position your body to ride with minimal pain. Carry on in that fashion. Ribs can take a good bit of time to heal. Just go by feel; listen to your body and ride on accordingly.

Yep. Last year when my handlebars assploded.

3 broken ribs, broken collarbone, broken shoulder, busted up knee, road rash.

I rode 6 miles back to my truck.

Was riding full time the next week.

I must say so myself - I'm pretty bad assed!!!

But for real, non of it actually hurt that much. The road rash was worse than the bones.

Actually when it comes to work/company doctors I have found that to be good advice.

A water ski vest in one size too small.

Also useful for those pesky puddles.

Get the vaccine dumbass. Don't listen to dumb ****s telling you vaccines cause this or that. Vaccines are a large part of why we don't have 50% infant mortality anymore. It's hard to believe one has to tell people that in the 21st Century, but there's been a big resurgence in stupidity lately.

QUOTE=genejockey;23000125]Get the vaccine dumbass. [/QUOTE]On the other hand, it's interesting to watch the plan unfold.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3a5024cd59.png

Reminds me of a hippie doofus friend of mine. I mentioned using WD-40 to get the brake/shifters on my road bike working again.

He said, conspiratorially, "You know WD-40 is made with whale oil, right?"

I said, "I think it's something like kerosene and mineral oil." (Note: I was wrong.)

Researched it at home and then sent him a link to a page called "WD-40 Strange Facts and Myths." (Short version: no whale oil, now or in earlier formulations.)

Asked him what he thought of that info next time I saw him. He said, pityingly, "You didn't believe any of that, did you?"

As Cousteau once said, it isn't pollution that's killing this planet, it's OVER POPULATION.

I crashed on the road in June '21 and broke 4 ribs, dislocated my clavicle, and bruised the bejeebus out of my shoulder, hip, and knee.
It sucked.
I took a week off, but rode just as often as normal after that. I was slower for a couple weeks and didnt push myself.




The crash happened on a rural highway- a car passed me and gave me a ton of room, like 10'. But as it pulled out to pass, it honked for some reason. I looked back to see why and as soon as I looked forward, I saw my front wheel hit a frost heave. The bike kicked out from under me due to hitting the frost heave at a bad angle and I slammed then slid along my left side.
No idea why the car felt it necessary to honk since they were giving me so much room.

Current research shows that it may be too late for some patients to take the dumbass vaccine.

I think word for word what I told the doctor was "Given the intensity of the gaslighting surrounding the Covid vaccine, and the severity of my negative reaction, I'd be very hard pressed to get another shot of any kind, my faith in that medicine has been destroyed."

Honestly though, there was a mutual lack of respect. He thought I was crazy, and I thought he was incompetent and soft (He wouldn't treat my "severe" injuries, instead telling me to go to the hospital, took a picture of some scratches on my back to show to me.) Took a lot of hand wringing for him to suggest how to care for my hand without going to the hospital.

Aside from all else --- "soft"?

The only gaslighting around the COVID vaccine was by the people who politicized public health. Everything else, you can find all the studies online. You've had the tetanus vaccine before, almost certainly, but given the severity of the disease and how simple it is to prevent, you'd have to be stupid NOT to get a booster after dragging your skin across a filthy road and getting a lot of crap entering through your skin.

He may have legal reasons for telling you to go to the hospital, like limits on what he's allowed to treat.

*sigh* . . . . . SMH

Another thing - we've discussed this before, when you said you didn't use sunscreen or wear a shirt and you weren't worried about Melanoma or other skin cancers - you're young, so you think you're invincible. Having had a big slice taken out of the skin of my right thigh to excise a melanoma, and my wife having to spend a long day at the Dermo having ever larger slices taken out of her forehead to get rid of a basal cell carcinoma, I can tell you that you will wish you weren't so cavalier with your body at this age.

He’s likely not equipped to treat you. He’s not a hospital. I spent a summer working at the world headquarters of Alcoa. Not exactly a mom and pop operation. There was both a staff doctor and a nurse. As well equipped as their digs were, I’m sure they would not treat potentially broken ribs.

“Funny” (read “twisted”) that you would ignore his advice and instead turn to an Internet forum.

yes. He was taken aback by how scratched up my back was, and thought I would be or should be concerned. He wanted me to sit in the waiting room and wait for a ride to pick me up (I needed to go ride out and find my partner and tell him I couldn’t work.) He ignored my question about super glue on my hand like 4 times before telling me if I wasn’t going to go to the hospital, to wrap it tightly instead of glue.

The one saving grace was that the first thing I told him was that I didn’t want to be there, am getting a full time job with insurance soon, and cannot have this visit get back to HR and effect my employment and future health insurance. He convinced me HR wouldn’t care or get details. Only reason I was there was because good Samaritans accosted me when I was trying to find my partner and made me go to the medical center.

the thing I don’t get about broken ribs is that people say there isn’t anything you can do to treat them, and just live with the pain, and my
physical therapist said if I don’t take it easy they may not heal properly. Doesn’t add up.