so i fell off two weeks ago onto a small sapling trees stump. it was about 4 inches thick and a foot tall and i fell over onto it and it punches me in the middle of the ribs.i grabbed another tree/bush as i went down so i didnt fall with all my weight, but most of it.
i contiuned to ride for two/three hours and was ok.
next day it hurt alot so i thought id see a bruise appear,but nothing.
three days later i went to the docs and he said youre all ok,its just bruises.didnt get an xray or out.
anyhow two weeks on its still flippin painful.ive not been riding as he told me any hard exercise would slow down the bruising recovering.
so, does it always take this long to go??

Ribs are always in motion (else you die) so the nice lady told me when I bruised mine, as a result healing takes longer. Ask your GP for some proper painkillers with a decent level of codeine in them and take it easy for a week or two.

yes. they suck.

i went for a weeks snowboarding three weeks after I did mine. one of the most painful weeks of my life…..

From my experience if you were able to continue riding then it can't be that bad.

I have only broken or badly bruised my ribs once (hard to tell the difference I believe unless they are very seriously broke) and there was no way I could continue to ride. Don't remember any obvious bruising developing as such either.

From my experience it got worse before it got better in so much as mobility improved the pain seemed to increase. Biggest mistake I made was not taking the GP up on some prescription pain killers.

Think I was completely off the bike for about 3 weeks then I few gentle weeks – had niggling pains for a few months.

When I posted in here most people were suggesting about 6 weeks but my recovery didn't seem to take that long.

I've done mine a couple of times, severity varies a lot… I did 2 of the lower ones and it was pure murder, because they move so much and they're not as supported. 6 weeks of misery, pretty much. But this year I did one higher up and it wasn't suxh a big deal, I had trouble getting my full breath and it was painful but nothing like as bad, I was back doing light rides after a week. Healed faster too,

With briken bones, movement isn't always a bad thing, both times I was advised to keep moving, take deep breaths etc, to help them heal (heal well as opposed to heal fast) same with my hip, I wasn't allowed to unweight it, I had to put a little weight on to bed it in.

People always say "If you've broken it you'll know", but that's total balls 😉 Especially with ribs where doing the soft tissue in can be every bit as bad.

Yep – I've been skiing with bruised ribs too. I caught a cold early in the week – sneezing on a freezing cold chair lift was absolute agony 🙁

It always takes longer than you think to heal for the reasons mentioned above. The more patient and careful you are, the quicker it will heal. Keep taking the iboprofen to help you sleep if nothing else!

I've cracked mine a couple of times – the same pair of ribs in the same place! First time was about 2hrs into 10 Around Kirroughtree so I rode the remaining 8hrs with 2 cracked ribs!
I was in agony next morning, went to A&E and they prodded around said "Well they're definitely cracked, there's nthing we can do about i, have some painkillers" and that was that. Took about 3 weeks to heal, the second time I did them it took longer cos there was a large lump of calcified bone over the weak spot.

It's just a kind of suck-it-and-see with ribs, depends which ribs are injured and how badly. Take it easy, take painkillers, that's about all you can do.

First time I spent a week well out of it on Ibuprofen, and another two or three weeks in lots of pain, other times it's been just a week or so. I'd agree with the deep breathing advice too, I ignored it because of the pain it caused, and for about two years after was subjected to surprise bouts of immense pain if I stretched myself in the wrong direction(something about keeping the muscles supple and stretchy,and not allowing them to stay contracted according to the doctor.).

according to tj you can also get lung infections if you breath shallow to stop 'em hurting. you'll likely wake up like a bear with a sore head most mornings. they hurt less as the day goes on. laughing and sneezing are very painful. 6 weeks is about right IME, give or take.