It’s only a Dr. visit, some X-rays and three prescriptions. So, it should cost my insurance company very little. My Dr. asked me if I wanted a referral to an ortho. I said no at the time. But, I’ve been reading that displaced ribs can be difficult to heal. So, I’m going to call her Monday morning and ask for that referral. It can’t hurt to get an experts opinion.
13 days in now and I’m doing pretty good. I didn’t go see my Dr. until last Monday, a week after it happened. She prescribed me Lidocaine patches for the pain. Baclofen, a muscle relaxer and Ibuprofen. She asked me if I wanted an injection for pain and I said no. I’ve had 4 surgeries and I’ve never had a pain killer do anything for me, except make me sick and really tired. The last thing I want is to be barfing. I don’t even take anything if I have a headache. Because it doesn’t do anything. So, I don’t know how much of my felling prettying good is from healing or from the prescriptions. I’ve been getting out the last couple of days to a local winery and restaurant called Stonehaus for a coffee and something to eat. I’m sitting here right now and my pain level is like 2. Getting dressed, in and out of bed, on and off the couch gets to be about a 6 on the pain scale now and I can sleep pretty comfortably on my right side. The first week, anything but standing completely still was 8 to 10 on the pain scale. I’ve had 2 very painful hernias. One of the surgeries was extremely painful. One surgery, last March was robotic, so there was almost no pain involved. But, these ribs were much more painful than any of that. I believe I’m a person who can take a lot of pain. I remember in Jr. high and high school when we had to do physical testing every year. I was always the fastest in the whole school in the quarter mile and mile run. Not because I have any talent. In fact, I was probably one of the least talented. I won because I was willing to endure the pain, just to win. You should have seen all the track couches come running. I was like no, I race motocross. I don’t have time to run around in circles with a bunch of other dudes. Same with long desert races. I did pretty good, because when my legs, arm, lungs and heart were on fire, I told my self it’s just temporary. But, this pushed me to a whole new level. Having this amount of pain for days and not seeing an end in sight is just crushing. Someone told me once that pain is a sign that you are alive. And, I think about that and I honestly think that helps me get through pain. But, about day 6 I told my girlfriend, when she was helping me out of bed, I just can’t do this anymore. I really couldn’t see an end in sight. When I knew it was time to get up out of bed or get in bed, I would get really worked up and tense because I knew what was coming and that just made everything worse. I joked with my GF that I sent Rip a text to see if he could drop me off at the train station. We’ve been watching Yellowstone. I told her I told him that he didn’t even have to shoot me, that I’d just jump over the edge. I told her that he text me back and said, it don’t work that way around here. I was like, hell! I guess I’ll just have to get through this. Then she told me the joke: Every woman should have a Rip in her jeans. OMG, try laughing on the inside and not laugh on the outside. It’s hard to do. Then I think about how much worse it could have been. Like I said in the OP, I thought I had broken my back. And, the first thing that I thought about was David Bailey. I was on the race track and he became paralyzed right in front of me. I don’t think a single week goes by without me thinking about him. And, there are much worse injuries that I could have suffered. So, I feel pretty fortunate it was only 5 ribs. So now, I just hope that they heal properly. I’m worried about that. I can only imagine how painful surgery would be to fix this.
Other than a small rip on the end of one of the grips, I can’t find a single scratch on it. Not even a mark on the seat or levers.
That really is solid progress.
I’ll take that advice. I’m wondering how they heal when they are displaced? Do the ends just heal over where they are or will they attach themselves back together? This is what I’m worried about.
They will heal where they are touching. Don’t worry, just take it easy and give it time, you'll be fine.
Those mid-trail obstacles can cause havoc with pedal strikes.
Urgent care Doc thought I may have broken hip but apparently the D30 hip/thigh armor in shorts spread the impact (I just happened to pick that chamois for day) and I just have deep bruising and swelling… wife said I now have a “Kardashian size” hip!
One of my warehouse managers went off sick for a week and when he returned, I went to see him and asked what the problem had been. He said it had been a kidney stone. He didn't say that it was painful, he just produced a small glass jar with the "stone" inside it. He said that it came down his penis. I was in pain just looking at it!!
