Discussion
The main things are pain relief, and making sure you take deep breaths and cough.
The GP will be able to provide you with stronger painkillers than over the counter, but start taking regular paracetamol and ibuprofen.
The main risks you face are developing pneumonia as a result of not adequately ventilating that part of the lung, or a possibility of a pneumothorax. The risk in a recent study was 60 out of 300 patients had some form of air or blood in the chest after injury, two-thirds needed treatment.
If you are feeling short of breath, you may need a chest xray. Other reasons to be concerned would be air in the tissues around the injury which you can feel as a kind of popping under the skin, an injury which is too tender to touch, or a very large area of bruising.
The GP will be able to provide you with stronger painkillers than over the counter, but start taking regular paracetamol and ibuprofen.
The main risks you face are developing pneumonia as a result of not adequately ventilating that part of the lung, or a possibility of a pneumothorax. The risk in a recent study was 60 out of 300 patients had some form of air or blood in the chest after injury, two-thirds needed treatment.
If you are feeling short of breath, you may need a chest xray. Other reasons to be concerned would be air in the tissues around the injury which you can feel as a kind of popping under the skin, an injury which is too tender to touch, or a very large area of bruising.
Cracked my ribs twice in the last 4 months. Was very painful, especially as I had to carry on as normal. Basically you can't do anything about it (unless you have snapped it totally), aside from painkillers and rest. Strapping it up can be pretty bad if it's not done properly.
You could have bruised it. If it's still very painful after about 2 weeks, it's probably cracked
You could have bruised it. If it's still very painful after about 2 weeks, it's probably cracked
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