Painful rib, when should/could I get back to running?
CitrusMaiden
Posts: 60 Member
Looking for someone with more knowledge than me. The title is almost enough for this entire thread, but Iast Sunday I woke up in the middle of the night because I was in pain, and since then I've been in pain. It's not as sharp as it was the first few days, but it's still very much there. It hurts when I breathe deep, it hurts when I walk, it hurts when I bend or twist, it hurts when I pick stuff up etc etc. It came from my coughing as I've had a cold, and I know I've had this before, many years ago, but back then I wasn't trying to be active.
When would it be safe to get back to running? Do I have to wait for it to be completely gone?
When would it be safe to get back to running? Do I have to wait for it to be completely gone?
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Replies
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Listen to your body. It's healing.
If it tells you not to run, walk.
Hope you feel better soon.4 -
I will try to do that.
Thank you, I hope this will pass soon.0 -
4 weeks for bruised ribs, 6 weeks for fracture. You might want to get X-rays and get checked out.2
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Is there a reason why you haven't gone to a doctor to get a diagnosis? Being woken up by unexplained pain isn't a good thing (being woken up by pain in general isn't good actually). Having undiagnosed pain that impedes deep breathing is also concerning. Likely not life threatening, but not something to leave undiagnosed.8
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I'd second the idea of going to a doctor. A friend has a rib that sometimes gets displaced. It can be put back in place so she doesn't seem to miss much time running. If it can get fixed, you'll be happier. If it is broken, you need to know that as well.3
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Atm I'm too poor to go to a doctor, and here they do not fix ribs, they just let them heal on their own. Since I've had this before I don't really feel too concerned, but I suppose if the pain is still there when I get my salary next week I might go.
Most likely it is one of those muscles attached to the rib and not the actual rib, but ofc that's hard to know.
Thank you all for the replies.1 -
Be careful. I lived with what I thought was a pulled something in my ribs for about a year. Turns out it was related to my rotator cuff tear. So if it's recurring you are best to get checked out.
You sound like you know what set it off though so it's probably just something Thet never fully healed but still you don't want to ignore things cause then you get to middle age and it's a case of what do we fix first0 -
AliNouveau wrote: »Be careful. I lived with what I thought was a pulled something in my ribs for about a year. Turns out it was related to my rotator cuff tear. So if it's recurring you are best to get checked out.
You sound like you know what set it off though so it's probably just something Thet never fully healed but still you don't want to ignore things cause then you get to middle age and it's a case of what do we fix first
If they pain doesn't subside I will have it checked out. I am quite confident about what it is since I have had it before, yes, 12 year ago, and on the other side of the chest, so it is not in the same location.0 -
CitrusMaiden wrote: »Atm I'm too poor to go to a doctor, and here they do not fix ribs, they just let them heal on their own. Since I've had this before I don't really feel too concerned, but I suppose if the pain is still there when I get my salary next week I might go.
Most likely it is one of those muscles attached to the rib and not the actual rib, but ofc that's hard to know.
Thank you all for the replies.
That makes enough sense. I will say, I have a good friend who ended up ignoring the pain she was in from an intercostal muscle strain and ended up in physical therapy for a month and a half and an acquaintance who thought she had strained an intercostal muscle(s) but ended up having a broken rib (in her case a doctor misdiagnosed her and the second took a better set of xrays and saw that she'd broken her rib). Neither of these were from any major trauma from what I understand but a. one required more care doctors care than the other and b. both required a lot of rest.
All that is to say, I would really err on the side of caution in terms of when to get back to running. Had the first person not ignored/exercised through the pain for so long, her recovery would have been shorter.0 -
CitrusMaiden wrote: »Atm I'm too poor to go to a doctor, and here they do not fix ribs, they just let them heal on their own. Since I've had this before I don't really feel too concerned, but I suppose if the pain is still there when I get my salary next week I might go.
Most likely it is one of those muscles attached to the rib and not the actual rib, but ofc that's hard to know.
Thank you all for the replies.
That makes enough sense. I will say, I have a good friend who ended up ignoring the pain she was in from an intercostal muscle strain and ended up in physical therapy for a month and a half and an acquaintance who thought she had strained an intercostal muscle(s) but ended up having a broken rib (in her case a doctor misdiagnosed her and the second took a better set of xrays and saw that she'd broken her rib). Neither of these were from any major trauma from what I understand but a. one required more care doctors care than the other and b. both required a lot of rest.
All that is to say, I would really err on the side of caution in terms of when to get back to running. Had the first person not ignored/exercised through the pain for so long, her recovery would have been shorter.
Thank you for sharing, rest it is then. I will probably wait until the pain is completely gone before I run again, I don't know if I would've waited if the pain would've been somewhere else, but this one I can feel with very many different movements, making it quite uncomfortable, so it's pretty safe to say I won't try anything until it feels alright.
If I end up going to a doctor next week I'll write the outcome in this thread.0 -
The pain is finally improving! It suddenly got more dull on the 18th and now I hardly feel it at all, or I do, but it doesn't feel like pain anymore, it feels like a bruise. I suppose this means it was a muscle and not a rib.
I wonder if this means I can start running again next week, or if I should wait one more week just to be sure. Hmm.0 -
I wouldn't started running already but I am the worst for advice regarding taking it easy. I need my shoulder repaired and I'm already planning how quickly I can get back to activity.
If I were you I'd try an easy run to test it out0 -
That's great to hear that you're starting to feel better. I would wait another week. Yes I tend to lean towards the conservative route with regards to injuries, but honestly what's one more week?CitrusMaiden wrote: »The pain is finally improving! It suddenly got more dull on the 18th and now I hardly feel it at all, or I do, but it doesn't feel like pain anymore, it feels like a bruise. I suppose this means it was a muscle and not a rib.
I wonder if this means I can start running again next week, or if I should wait one more week just to be sure. Hmm.0 -
AliNouveau wrote: »I wouldn't started running already but I am the worst for advice regarding taking it easy. I need my shoulder repaired and I'm already planning how quickly I can get back to activity.
If I were you I'd try an easy run to test it out
It sure is hard to wait. I had finally gotten into running, it was finally starting to be fun, I've never been able to run more than 200 meters before. Losing all my progress is what scares me and makes me want to start as soon as I can, but I'll make sure the pain is completely gone before I do... maybe it's another week.
That's great to hear that you're starting to feel better. I would wait another week. Yes I tend to lean towards the conservative route with regards to injuries, but honestly what's one more week?CitrusMaiden wrote: »The pain is finally improving! It suddenly got more dull on the 18th and now I hardly feel it at all, or I do, but it doesn't feel like pain anymore, it feels like a bruise. I suppose this means it was a muscle and not a rib.
I wonder if this means I can start running again next week, or if I should wait one more week just to be sure. Hmm.
I'm just scared of losing progress, and I do feel like I'm very veeery ready to just start running again, but I should probably wait, you're right.0 -
There’s obviously no way for me to know what your injury is, but anecdotally I had costochondritis from labored breathing due to kidney stone pain. There was a sharp stabbing pain in my chest with any deep breathing. My doctor said I could do whatever lower body exercises I wanted to such as running but to absolutely not do any upper body exercises or anything that involved lifting with my arms or chest muscles. Since he gave me the OK to run I did and it was fine, the pain was nearly nonexistent while running, even though it was bad just with everyday activity. He also told me the pain would take weeks or months to completely go away and would cycle through times where it would seemingly almost be gone only to come back again and keep doing that until it finally subsided. It took a couple of months to heal all the way, apparently women with narrow rib cages are slightly more prone to suffering from costochondritis for unknown reasons. Just my experience, YMMV
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CitrusMaiden wrote: »The pain is finally improving! It suddenly got more dull on the 18th and now I hardly feel it at all, or I do, but it doesn't feel like pain anymore, it feels like a bruise. I suppose this means it was a muscle and not a rib.
I wonder if this means I can start running again next week, or if I should wait one more week just to be sure. Hmm.
I'd wait until there's no pain, and then start back very gradually. You don't want to risk re-injury.0 -
I've been able to return to running without any issues, and I didn't experience as much progress loss as I thought I would.
Thank you all for your thoughts and advice!2 -
I've gotten sick with a cough (again) and my rib muscle has started to ache again, not terrible (yet), but annoying.
I am so done with this 😩1 -
CitrusMaiden wrote: »I've gotten sick with a cough (again) and my rib muscle has started to ache again, not terrible (yet), but annoying.
I am so done with this 😩
Rest. Seriously rest while you're ahead. Not doing so will likely only make things worse meaning a longer recovery from both your cold and whatever's going on with what I'm assuming are some of your intercostal issues. I know it sucks, but it will suck even more if you re-injure yourself.
My response is colored by my mild annoyance with a friend who didn't do that whole resting thing despite being told by multiple people that she needed to.0 -
Since this is now a recurring issue, I'd seriously suggest medical intervention, if you can afford it.
Specifically, I'd suggest asking your general practitioner for a physical therapy referral, or going to an osteopathic physician who specializes in manipulation.
Even if it is not a break (as I suspect you're correct that it isn't), those kinds of people can help.0 -
I've been taking a break since Monday when I noticed my throat getting sore. I do not plan on running till I'm good again... I suppose my whatever wasn't 100% healed since it's the same exact location, and I do agree that it's quite a long time for a muscle to heal, I mean, it started on July 7, so either it was a really bad tear of the muscle (which I still think it was, it was extremely painful in the beginning), or it's a rib. Whatever it was it was healing fine on it's own, even if it took time.
I'm not sure what an osteopathic physician who specializes in manipulation does (never heard of it before), I had to google it. They don't seem to get any licence in this country, and there's only one education for it (only for the "osteropathic physican", not the speciality) so I would probably have to search quite hard to just find one, but without it being included in the normal health care, I can see it being really expensive, and I can't afford that. I could probably afford one normal doctors visit, but what would a normal doctor do, how would they ever be able to tell without an xray? And even if it is a crack in a rib, they don't do anything about that. Maybe they'd prescribe me painkillers, but I don't need that, not yet anyway (please don't get worse).0 -
I don't know where you are, but in the US, an osteopath is a full medical degree (a D.O.), with the same range of education as an M.D. They often practice as general practitioners, or in internal medicine, but they can have other normal medical specialties.
Besides those, a D.O. may choose to specialize in "osteopathic manipulative medicine", which focuses on the structure and function of the musculoskeletal system. They use physical techniques alongside the full regular complement of diagnostic and treatment modalities, such as scans, drugs, etc.
In my experience, they can be particularly helpful if something is out of whack with our muscles or skeletal structure, even if nothing is broken, torn, etc.
For example, a friend was in a car accident that involved a rib injury but not a break. She was routinely in pain, unable to sleep, etc. Neither her regular doctor nor a chiropractor were able to provide anything more than temporary improvements. A doctor at a university osteopathic manipulative medicine clinic was able to achieve lasting improvement for her, stating from the first visit, and the full course of treatment was a small number of visits, very successful.0 -
I don't live in the US, but that does sound pretty neat.
As I said earlier, and I read up some more: people can get educated for that in my country, but since they don't get a licence there's no real "competence check" for it, and I haven't managed to find anyone with that specific speciality. I found a clinic (no speciality mentioned) and the price is too high for me so it's not an option atm.
Since it's not too strange (to me) that the muscle is aching again I'll just rest and see if it heals on its own, and hope that no other cough strikes me while it's still weakened after this one is over.
Thank you for trying to help, the profession does sound interesting and I sure learnt something new today ^.^1
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