Off and on rib pain.

E

Ella S

New member
About four years ago I fell at work. I was cleaning a shelf and slipped on the ladder and my side hit the counter, I had a REMOVED boss who wouldn't let me go home even though my side was sore. after work went to the doctor and x-rays were taken. nothing broken but I was cirtainly going to bruise, which I did.

Two years ago I slipped coming up the stairs while carring a crate of stuff for christmas and the crate slammed in to the same side from two years prior. It wasn't as sore but it did bruise.

Then this year I started having pain in the area I had been previously injured, it was only intermitant but this week it's been constent and it is getting worse. my ribs are extreamly painful. I can't get into see my doctor for another week. I went to the walk in clinic and well the doctors are not that grat the guy asked me a few questions then told me to loose some weight. I am a bit large but not by much I'm 250lbs which is considered over for my height and age (I'm 5'6", and 25) so only 75lbs over (and I have been loosing weight) and there is very little fat between my ribs and skin (I mean I can feel them no problem).

And let me say touching them is not too pleasent right now. but the doctor wouldn't even touch or come near me.

that is al in the past now and I will be filing a complaint, but more urgent right now is what the heck could be wrong. The area hase been bumped a bit but nothing like the hit it took before. When touching the ribs in the vicinity of the pain I can make them move a bit, there's no grinding or clicking sound that would lead me to believe they are craked or broken, but I can make them almost wiggle for lack of a better word and sort of move up and down a bit. I can't do that on my left side.

I I'm trying to get into my nice helpful carring doctor sooner but in the meantime I'm just looking for answers.

So if I'm rambling but I've just recently came form the walk in and am still very upset.

Amanda
 
Since you did not actually crack or break the ribs on either occasion, I am not sure, but I know of someone who did have a cracked rib and later developed costochondritis (inflammation of the rib and the connective tissue).

He had to wear a compression bandage around his chest and I believe they gave him anti-inflammatory medication.

I had open heart surgery at age four to replace a valve with an artificial one. They broke two of my ribs. Now that I am 51, I feel every weather change in those ribs. They tell me that is typical.

Hope you can get in to see your doctor sooner. I know my friend could barely move from his pain until they started treating him.

Lindaru :)
 
Not too long ago, I had a few posts on here about my inflamed rib. I had pain up my side and back on my left side for 5 weeks before I found out what it was.
At first, I thought it was a Urinary Tract Infection, and then when that was ruled out, they looked for Kidney Stones, which there were none. Finally, after telling my primary doc when and where it hurts, he poked me in the side of my back in a certain place, and I almost went through the roof- he said one of my floating ribs was inflamed, and all the other pain along my side and up my back was just referred pain.
Anyway, he had me take Celebrex (an anti-inflammatory) for three weeks and come back. It started working a week later, and greatly reduced the pain, but the pain was still there (though not as bad) by the time I went back 3 weeks later. He said that since the pain did subside a great deal while on the Celebrex, the rib is probably not broken. But he thinks the remaining pain may be from the way I sit at work, so it's still being aggravated and not having a chance for the inflammation to fully go down.
I think I originally hurt it back in January when I slipped on ice and fell down my front steps. The edge of one of the stairs jammed into my back in that same area. It hurt for 2 weeks in that general area of my back (especially over my spine where I'd gotten a huge bruise), and then I was fine until March when my side and back hurt for about a week and a half and it was thought I had a UTI, so I was put on antibiotics. The pain came back a month later in April, and that's when the UTI/kidney stone theory was shot down, and by the 5th week, my doctor figured out it was inflammation of one of the floating ribs. But at the 8th week mark when I saw him for a checkup, he said to try to sit better at work, and the pain should go away, so last week, I really paid attention to how I was sitting, and I definitely feel a difference. I think I just injured it back in January, it became inflamed, but the way I sit at my desk at work kept it irritated for longer than it would have normally been.
Anyway, good luck. Maybe another doctor will actually do an exam, and send you for x-rays or a bone scan if he suspects they are broken.
But to me, having been through something similar, it sounds like an inflamed rib.
 
I too have left side rib pain and it goes around to my back. I went to the doctor and they did x-rays of my ribs and found nothing. I went to the chiroprator and he thinks it is the cartilage in between my ribs. Some times it does not bother me and other times it hurts really bad. Its driving me crazy thinking of all the things it could be. If some one else has this please respond.
Notcrazy78
 
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