After about 9 weeks into rib healing a new issue cropped up and it warranted a visit to urgent care! Turns out it was costochondritis, the inflammation of the cartilage of your ribs near your sternum. The pain was intense and worsened with inhaling, laying down or bending over. Sleep was out of the question. This pain is often mistaken for a heart attack. I took myself to urgent care very early on day 3 because I knew something was not right at all. I was pretty certain it wasn't heart related (it was on the right side first of all) and it was just so consistent. If I had gone to the ER, no doubt they would have ran an EKG and other stuff. Anyone can get costochondritis. People who slouch are and sedentary, people who do a lot of handstands or pushups, power lifters, or if you happened to move a heavy couch! My was due to my rib trauma. I was pretty immobile for a while, guarding and over compensating on many things. Being out of whack lead to my costochondritis. Later found out maybe my computer monitor angle wasn't helping either.
Treatment is rest and NSAIDs according to the urgent care doc. But I am allergic to all NSAIDs so we did a week of steroids and I was in the middle of rehabbing a few things! Now that the steroids are over, I sought out the advice of a costochondritis expert who gladly called me back and gve me a few pointers! I am to ice my chest, add in some specific stretches and slowly introduce my ACL and TFCC rehab again, stopping anything that seems to trigger it - all this for 4 weeks at least. Costochondritis will go away eventually, 2/3 of people have no symptoms after 1 year, but it is a gradual process. I am halfway through my next "100 day phase" (days 900-1000). I had so many milestones and progress during days 800-900 and I probably will need 100 days to make up for everything that has happened recently. Fingers crossed I am not any worse off come day 1000! If I break even that would be good. That 8 week running program my physio gave me back in late May 2019.... Yeah I have not finished it. Going on week 19, but mark my words I will get there! I want to move to the next phase! Body just needs to cooperate!
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Alrighty! 7 weeks post displaced rib fractures! Definitely done with that acute pain stage (first 2 weeks), doing a lot of hiking and bringing back in running, some light lifting, but still the ribs are not 100%. I'm not out of the woods yet. I can still feel it. I wonder if they are healing in alignment. I think at the 2 month mark (which is 9/25) I will probably get x-rays to see how they are healing. If not healing in alignment, probably need to get surgery to get them aligned. Displaced ribs are at risk of not healing in alignment.
I started to bring in light weight lifting about 4 weeks post ribs. Very light, like 10 pounds on some machines, more on others machines. No dead lifts or thrusters. That left me quite sore in the legs! You'd think I was majorly deconditioned already. However, during my past 7 weeks of ribs recovery, I have hiked the steepest and longest trails so far in ACL recovery! This shows me I still have my strength, maybe my knee is getting more adapted to hours of activity. New to my hiking is a little bit of trail jogging! If it's downhill/flat, non technical, and I'm up for it, I will run it. I long to run freely, I think about it a lot! Feels great to do something I used to do! It seems my tight tendon feels at its best when it has 3 hours of activity in the knee, like a long hike. Everything else will be really tired and whooped, but I feel the tight tendon the least during those times. Back when my PT gave me an 8 week running program, the time of running increments bumped up every 2 weeks. Starting with just 30 seconds of running, by the end of 8 weeks I was supposed to be running 90 seconds, with 2 min walk, repeat 8x. I was a little stuck at only 30 seconds, x8 for about 8 whole weeks before plantar fasciitis cropped up, then I broke my ribs. I couldn't advance because my weekend hiking was getting in the way and using up all the "knee budget." Finally, after 3 months from starting to run, I moved up to 60 seconds of running, x8! Now lets see if my knee can hand this 3x week for two weeks straight. |
AuthorA 45 year old active female who tore her ACL in January 2017 (at the age of 40). Reconstructive surgery in February 2017 with bone-patellar tendon-bone autograft. Archives
November 2022
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