How to tell if you broke your rib?

So, you’ve been out gallivanting around and have found yourself in an uncomfortable predicament. Did someone hit you with a club? Fall down the stairs? Get attacked by a wild animal? Whatever it is, that chest pain sure is concerning. Could it be possible that you broke your rib?? Fear not young grasshopper! We are here to help guide you through these confusing times.

Symptoms

The first step in determining whether or not you’ve broken a rib is by taking note of any symptoms you might be experiencing. Here are some things to keep an eye out for:

  • Pain when breathing deeply
  • Pain during movement or twisting
  • Bruising/Rash on chest area
  • Swelling/Lumps near ribs
  • Getting winded easily

If you’re experiencing any sharp, constant pain after experiencing some kind of trauma like getting tackled hard while playing football or doing belly flops at the pool – this could also indicate a breakage has happened.

Comparing Injury Types

It’s important to differentiate between types of injuries one might sustain from their thorax (aka mid-section), because figuring it out as soon as possible can mean life or death! There’s “bruised” which refers simply just soreness and/or tender-to-the-touch areas, then there “could technically still happen” (fracture) and lastly there’s BROKEN bones.. ouch!

Diagnosis

You really think something funny is going on down South; so now what.. call Mommy/adult supervision/doctor right away??? As much as we would love nothing more than for our loyal usership to seek the grave importance of medical attention– sometimes all we need is ourselves!!

Okay fineee…..if self-diagnosis does no justice: The most accurate way as always though–is obviously visiting your local doctor/hospitalcare provider. It’s best not to put off any feeling of discomfort for too long though, because sometimes that can lead to even worse injury or infection.

Here are some shenanigans techniques we’ve learned:
– X-ray: An Imaging test where well, doctors take pictures of our skeleton while a machine buzzes and whirls around you! Highly recommend after checking yourself first!
– CT Scan (Computerized Tomography): Essentially the same as an x-ray but in 2-D format except with even more detail.
– MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging): This one is a bit fancier pants as it uses made up magnets instead! It will help visualize soft tissue such as tendons and ligaments better than the two aforementioned!

Treatment

Unfortunately, there isn’t actually anything that they can do about rib fractures, other than letting them heal over time. 🙁 So what does this mean? Onto.. drumroll please……self-care baby!!!

Some self-treatment methods include:

  1. Take painkillers such as acetaminophen – it’s important not to take Aspirin which thins our blood/time from clotting–uh oh
  2. At Home Ice Pack using cloth so that cold doesn’t harm our skin surface/melt through
  3. Relaxing – this means limited physical activity or bending/stretching; it was probably going to happen anyways since getting up from bad takes way longer without oomph power left inside!!
  4. Posture/Good Sleeping Habits — The old dime-a-dozen trick… making sure good bone circulation is happening during sleep along w/ allowing the body enough proper support!

Also just so you know I am NOT friggin’ WebMD miss-know-it-all medical professional advice guru..

Bored Panda has a couple words of advice:

But sometimes, our Googling can make us think we are coming down with diseases that would put Grey’s Anatomy to shame. Or even worse, our searches might lead us towards questionable “cures” and self-medicating practices.


“The father of the art humbly confesses,”read an inscription from the 15th century about medicine.” in these times.

Granted also back then balloons still hadn’t been invented so what do they know! Depending on factors like age/immunity factor/etc however getting injured in any way shape or form is never something to laugh.. actually let’s change that, let’s start laughing at (our mishap–not necessarily others misfortunes tho they def shouldn’t have mumbled under their breath walking by you; RUDE!)

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