After the fall
Mar. 18th, 2004 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carbonel(As it were.)
Well, I have an amazing variety of bruises on various parts of the body, and I didn't realize until later that night that I'd banged my knee pretty badly, but that's doing much better now.
The main problem is that I must have broken or at least cracked a rib on my left side. It doesn't hurt much when I'm not moving, as long as I don't take really deep breaths, but if I do something that uses those muscles, it goes *twinge!* -- peaking at about 8 on a scale of 10 for pain. The cats keep getting startled because I'll do something to make it go off and I'll squawk.
And I can't cough, however much I need to. It just hurts too much. Last night I thought I was going to have to go to the ER because I needed to cough, and I couldn't, and it kept setting it off, and I couldn't catch my breath. I kept thinking to myself that worst come to worst, I'll pass out, and then I'll be able to breathe. Luckily, it didn't come to that.
Everything I've researched (and already knew, but I rechecked) says that there's not much to do for broken ribs but wait for them to heal. Strapping them isn't recommended because it keeps the person from taking deep breaths, and that way lies pneumonia. I'd feel more sanguine about this course of action if I didn't occasionally feel something that could be bone shifting.
I need to go to the clinic Monday for an unrelated issue; if it's still giving me hell, maybe I'll see if the doctor can do anything. I don't need pain meds; it's the spikes of pain that are the problem, not the rest of the time. And anything that would deal with that would totally zone me out.
Bleah. In the meantime, I'm trying to be very careful about anything I lift.
Well, I have an amazing variety of bruises on various parts of the body, and I didn't realize until later that night that I'd banged my knee pretty badly, but that's doing much better now.
The main problem is that I must have broken or at least cracked a rib on my left side. It doesn't hurt much when I'm not moving, as long as I don't take really deep breaths, but if I do something that uses those muscles, it goes *twinge!* -- peaking at about 8 on a scale of 10 for pain. The cats keep getting startled because I'll do something to make it go off and I'll squawk.
And I can't cough, however much I need to. It just hurts too much. Last night I thought I was going to have to go to the ER because I needed to cough, and I couldn't, and it kept setting it off, and I couldn't catch my breath. I kept thinking to myself that worst come to worst, I'll pass out, and then I'll be able to breathe. Luckily, it didn't come to that.
Everything I've researched (and already knew, but I rechecked) says that there's not much to do for broken ribs but wait for them to heal. Strapping them isn't recommended because it keeps the person from taking deep breaths, and that way lies pneumonia. I'd feel more sanguine about this course of action if I didn't occasionally feel something that could be bone shifting.
I need to go to the clinic Monday for an unrelated issue; if it's still giving me hell, maybe I'll see if the doctor can do anything. I don't need pain meds; it's the spikes of pain that are the problem, not the rest of the time. And anything that would deal with that would totally zone me out.
Bleah. In the meantime, I'm trying to be very careful about anything I lift.
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-19 06:16 am (UTC)B