Oh mighty Oracle.

Please tell me what I can do to help sort my bloody ribs out.

I had a minor crash on my motorbike last monday (27-4) caused by wet weather, diesel and a car driver not paying attention. Fortunately, no one else was hurt and the only damage was to my beloved Blackbird and my ribs.

I have had an x-ray, the docs were only interested in internal damage (of which there is none, thankfully) and not bothered about my ribs as they couldn’t do anything with them anyway. However, the pain is incredible. I’ve been told to take 1000mg of co-codamol (sp?) every four hours, but it still absolutely knacks.

Painful activities in increasing order of magnitutde: Breathing, laughing, having a dump, coughing and sneezing. I’m a hayfever sufferer too – joy.

Should I just MTFU?

Nowt you can do.

Not a lot you can do, mine have been bust for three weeks now.
Had a couple of gentle rides over the weekend, then one on Tuesday with the club and that hurt. Last night on the turbos was ok though.
I did try riding with gaffer tape round my chest which stopped the pain but also stopped the breathing.
So I guess the recomended 5 weeks.

I feel for you brother. I came off about three weeks ago, again on tarmac. Ribs were as painful as ****. Didn’t get an x-ray, just been taking paracetemol and ibuprofen. They are easing up a bit now. Sneezing doesn’t make me cry any more but I can still only lie on my good side in bed. If I roll over, I wake up. Might chance a light road ride this weekend. I’m afraid time is your only friend here.

Diclophenic. The food of champions!

Won’t make it better, but does ease the pain greatly. In my experience its a 6 weeker before a tentative return to the saddle. With Diclophenic I’ve done it in 2.5 weeks. Mark you best try not to have another fall for a while, as you will be risking a punctured lung!

Ibuprofen and asprin every 4 hours stagered with the co-codemol give more pain relief as you get a dose every 2 hours. Not recommended in for too long as is screws up your guts a bit.

I feel you pain. I broke three back ribs in two places each (fell backwards onto a tree stump while holding a chainsaw). Hurt like ****. Everything one started to heal another one would crack again.

Normal rib cracking is 2-3weeks of sore pain then 2-3 weeks of discomfort from memory.

Thanks chaps. Is Diclophenic a POM or an over-the-counter jobbie?

Someone in the office has mentioned Arnica, any good or hippy-mumbo-jumbo?

diclofenac is POM and not that much different or better than ibuprofen that you can buy everywhere (depends mostly on how much ibuprofen you take)

cocodamol max 2 tabs four times a day (4hrly wait between doses is OK but not OK to have 6x daily)

Assuming you’re OK with ibuprofen, do as WCA suggests ( 😯 ??!!) and alternate that & co-codamol

BUT I wouldn’t take big doses of aspirin regularly (esp if you’re also taking ibuprofen)

it hurts takes a long time to recove can easilty be rebroken in same place and thankfully I dont feel your pain

You could take co-codamol and 2 hours later a dose of ibuprofen. All co-codamol has in it is paracetamol and caffeine. Go back and ask for a stronger painkiller.

HTFU, there is nothing you can do I’ve had broken/fractured ribs on and off since Aug 08. It is an inconvenience and plays havoc with my golf. Taking pain killers will mask the pain and increase the chance of you injuring them again by getting back on you bike too early. You need to give them a minimum of a month off, better with six weeks.

Note to self – don’t break ribs.

Mine seem to be healing well, I’ve had this before and never take pain killers to mask the pain, ok perhaps at night to help sleep. I’m probably wrong here but I think it pays to feel the pain and therefore do no further harm.
Pain is a usefull ally.

Flaperon – I’m on 30/500 (x2, x4/day) co-codamol. I don’t know about caffeine, but they do contain codine – an opioid (whatever that is).

Scaredypants – many thanks, I’ve just bought the entire european ibuprofen stock. I haven’t got aspirin to hand so won’t bother.

The B@stards at work keep coming over to try and make me giggle. They find it funny listening to me laugh/squeal at the same time.

Absolute arse. Diclophenic is definately a better painkiller for the ribs than Asprin/Codine/Ibruprofen.

The Codine/A.N. Other is not bad advice, but having done all of these I would still recommend a visit to your GP to ask for something stronger.

Regarding pain being Gods way of telling you to slow down. Fair point, but don’t take it too literally. If it hurts get some help with it, otherwise in 6 weeks time you’ll be walking round with huge bags under your eyes completely shot to bits through lack of sleep and so on.

Trampolining is good for broken ribs too*

*Just in case you are in any doubt, this is NOT a serious sugestion

otherwise in 6 weeks time you’ll be walking round with huge bags under your eyes completely shot to bits through lack of sleep and so on.

What is prescribed with kids?

Big bean bag for a pillow works great, helped me sleep (along with the drugs) a lot better.