Rib Injuries

Anyone had these problems? A couple weeks ago, I tweaked a rib while in the first Learning Stages of trying to hit the stupid little white ball. A week later, it was still hurting and my girlfriend noticed that I had a small distorted bulge poking out of my rib cage on that side.

X-Ray looked fine, so the doc poked and prodded around and decided that I'd torn a rib free from some cartilage.

Being bullheaded and unhelpfully oblivious to pain, I took a couple days off before going to a couple of swing clinics. Now the thing pops when I take a deep breath. I don't think it really hurts a great deal so much as surprises/annoys me when it slides around.

Anyone have a similar injury from swinging? In my experience, rib injuries NEVER really heal right (I separated a couple on the other side some ten years ago and they STILL get sore and feel a little deformed)... but what's a good benchmark for taking it easy 'til you're not just destroying your body by continuing to hack away?

I've been getting in 8-10 hours/week between practice and play (Mostly practice). Can I safely transfer all of that into chips and putts without too much of a 'make things worse' setback?

Obviously, the Doc says 'Do Nothing', but he also thought I should be taking handfuls of vicodin for what I'm thinking of as 'Kinda Sore'... so I sort of feel he's gearing for a more... sensitive ... demographic (My Inner Texan has SO many less flattering ways to phrase that, heh).

I torn an intercostal muscle earlier this year and I was out of action for almost six weeks. When I first did it I thought I was just sore from over practicing. After about two weeks of intense pain I finally went to the doctor. She put me on some new muscle relaxant / steroid pill that seemed to work really well.

I laid off for another 4 weeks and haven't had any problems since. One side benefit is the steroids added about 40 yards to my drives and I'm averaging about 310 off the tee.

Good luck. I wouldn't wish the pain I had on my worst enemy.

Funny you posted this now. The exact same thing happened to me about 5 weeks ago. My ribs were a little sore and when I was at the range I hit a driver and heard a "POP!" come out of my rib cage and down I went. I had to be taken off the range on a golf cart. For the last 5 weeks it hurts to breathe, cough, sneeze or roll over in bed. A little over a week ago I started playing golf again with 4 advil before tee off and a few during the round.

Doc told me the same thing. Do nothing.... Even broken ribs can't really be fixed. Next time you go to to chip balls take some advil and see if you can transition to longer pitches.

Yup, I'm with you. Bout a month ago I was getting ready for a company tourny, so I was playing 3 rounds a week and hitting the ranges a lot.

I had a reaalllly nasty slice so I was hitting a lot of jumbo buckets to try to figure out and fix what I was doing, and somewhere along the line tweaked a rib. Not as bad as what you guys are describing, but rolling out of bed in the morning was pretty painful!

On a happy note I fixed my slice. Just needed a new driver with a stiffer shaft that would'nt twist open on me.

Not as bad as you guys but I haven't played for a while. Its getting betting that I'm actually contemplating starting to practice again. (Just ordered some Mizunos

)

Can you play yet?

Doc gave me a crapload of vicodin and a rib belt -- Neither of which I have much use for. The belt helps a -bit-, but as an asthmatic AND a respiratory therapist, I'm not very strongly in favor of their use. Already take handsfuls of NSAIDs for various other issues, so... s'good enough.

Been meaning to focus on some chips, pitches, 'n putts, anyway. *heh*

(Meanwhile, I'm also suffering from Interlock Pinkie. Horrors!)

Ohh yea.. Never one to let a lil pain slow me down. Def been affecting my game though, hard to focus on the downswing with your side screaming STOP!, and it has really made me cut back my power.

Just about healed up it feels like now, and my fractured foot hasn't hurt for almost a week now, so I'm stoked to get out and play a pain free round!

This injury (intercostal) seems like the injury du jure of the last few years. I had no idea what it was until a handful of MLB players (including 3 from my Brewers) went down with these injuries in spring training. About 6 weeks ago it happened to me playing softball. I hit a home run but could barely walk around the bases. I kept trying to play golf and softball and the injury eventually ran from my side into my abdomen. It took a business trip (without golf clubs) to Palo Alto and a week of seminars to finally start the healing. I still have some pain but it is mostly isolated to spending time on the toilet (no joke). As I have gotten back out to the course, I've noticed my swing plane and hip slide are noticeably different. I either dead push the ball or overcompensate and dead pull the ball. It's one heck of an injury.

Without engaging in any preliminary warm-ups of stretching,
I hit about a hundred balls on the range 2 months ago. Everything went well or so I thought until 2 days later when at 4 AM I started getting chest pain and I thought I was getting a heart attack. It was diagnosed as Costochoindritis. Apparently a nerve gets stuck in between the ribs and produces an intense pain similar to a heart attack. Whatever you do, PLEASE never self-diagnose. Rush yourself to the emergency room to rule out any cardio condition (EKG, stress tests). In my case the costochoindroitis was self-limiting, lasting 20 hours. It was no fun and quite frightening.

Yes. Yes. & Yes.
Here is a summary of my FRUSTRATING RIB INJURY.

Initial Injury June 13th, 26 Holes of Golf.

1st reinjury, June 17th, 9 Holes of Golf

2nd reinjury, June 20, 18 Holes of Golf
From June 20th through June 26th could not lay on stomach. Hurt to breath, cough, and sneeze. Doc said it was intercostal strain / chronritis (sp)

3rd re-injury, July 22, Reached for cell phone in car and rib popped, horrible pain. Could not lay on stomach, hurt to breath, cough, sneeze, and could not lift arm. Pain at level 8. Doc did xrays and ct scan. Showed hairline fracture in 7th rib. Apparently I had fractured the rib during the 2nd injury...LESSON LEARNED - If your ribs hurt - DON'T PLAY GOLF....

August 19, 2009, Rib felt almost completely better, pain is below level 1 when walking. Stretched really hard was considering playing golf if I could stretch without pain. Felt pain. Did not play golf.

August 21, 2009, Rib has pain at about a level 4 when walking, reinjured while stretching on August 19, 2009. It does not hurt when I breath, cough or sneeze.

August 27, 2009, Rib pain is almost gone. I have not walked or stretched in 7 days. Walked 1 mile very slow. Rib pain was a level 1.

August 28, 2009, Rib pain is almost gone.

August 29, 2009, Walked 1 mile, Swam for 1 hour, had sex. Walking nor swimming bothered rib. Pain level below 1.

August 30, 2009, Walked 1 mile very slowly. Pain level below 1, however still nagging when turning a certain way. Still cannot do a sit up without pain.

Well Guys,

I'm 27 and 2 months into my golf "career"...it hurts when I take a deep breath. Left side of the middle of my back; I'm sure it's a rib thing. Nothing has popped and it's not what I would call a serious pain, but I know something is wrong as it hasn't gone away in the 2-3 weeks it's been there.

Should I see a chiropractor? munch on some leftover flexoril? heat/cold it? Rest?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Mercer

I had the exact same thing several months back. To make things I worse, I had an upper respitory infection which meant every time I coughed, it hurt like hell. Sneezing almost made me cry! Doctor said dont do anything for 6-8 weeks. I stopped cold turkey for 4 weeks straight and then did nothing but putted and chipped for 4 more weeks before playing a round of golf. My first round out in 8 weeks I shot the best score of my life. Dont hurt yourself and take it easy. The golf courses arent going anywhere...

You could go visit a doctor to find out exactly what type of injury it is, then just as localhawaii said, just take a rest from golf for a few weeks until it heals up. My minor rib injury last year took about 3 weeks to heal up. The entire time I tried to shake it off after a few days and swing again, but doing that just delayed the healing process. Just last week I injured my upper right shoulder and probably a rib muscle after hitting a real fat shot. Since then I have just been taking practice swings, but the injury seems to flare up whenever I release the club, as I guess that part of the back takes a lot of strain in the downswing. I know the ribs are somehow involved since if I cough I can feel the pressure around my right rib cage, though the pain isn't too bad. So this week I'm not going to swing anything except a putter. I was supposed to play a round this upcoming Wednesday but I'm going to cancel.

Just wanted to relate a similar experience. Started playing golf a few weeks ago at age 56, thinking I was in the best shape of my life. Well, now I temporarily feel like I'm 90, with sore upper back (beginning a month or so ago) and now a similar problem on the right, with the left finally better. Until a few weeks ago I had never gone to a chiropractor, not sure I even believed in chiropractic. But so many golfers urged me to go, I decided to do it. My initial injury was left upper back between shoulder blade and spine. After hurting it, but not that badly, I sneezed, apparently out of position and experienced a 30 second back spasm that hurt like nothing I've experienced. I think I displaced a rib and somehow injured -- tore or strained or sprained -- some muscle around it. Chiropractor adjusted the rib back into place (assuming you believe this is what actually occurs; I don't know myself), and I got some relief and it continued to get better over the next few weeks. Frankly, I think I waited too long to get help and really injured my muscles, which meant that the rib fix didn't really give me great relief until the muscles started to heal. When I went back to swinging the club again I apparently did too much, too fast, because I was trying obsessively to overcome my slice. As a result, amazingly, I experienced the same injury on the other side -- exactly in the same place, but on the right side of my back. This time I knew to go to the chiro immediately and she "popped" the rib back into place and I get immediate relief -- though it was still sore. Despite my moderate skepticism I am sure that what she did helped. Then, the next day I apparently popped it out again, inadvertently -- it's easy to reinjure while the muscles are weakened from the injury. I went back to her office immediately and she put in back into place again, along with electric stimulation, etc. Anyway, I would encourage any and all of you experiencing similar things to go to the chiropractor -- one that knows his or her limitations. I do believe that in my case the propensity to injury is a result of my trying to overcome major swing issues early on in my experience and my OC personality. Henceforth I'm going to try to discipline myself to be more moderate -- only on the golf course, mind you, and at the first sign of such an injury, run to the chiro for a quick "fix." I suppose anti-inflammatories can be helpful, but I try to stay away from medicine if I can. I definitely would caution again pain medicine if avoidable. MDs usually don't have a clue on these types of injuries and the chiros can at least accelerate your recovery; I'm convinced of it.

Got rib issues at the mo, injured it a few months ago, was not too bad so kept playing, about 4 weeks ago it hurt real bad during a round, so layed off for 2-3 weeks then played this weekend (should not have) and the pain this week has been real bad, not helped by a chesty cough I have had and now it hurts bad when in bed, getting up and even opening doors now. Got a docs appointment on Monday and gonna ask if they will refer to my Private Health care so that I can get a specialist look at it and x-ray/MRI done. If I am gonna have to have a few montsh off to repair what ever is broke I would rather do it over winter here in the UK.

Yep, i got the same problem, After spending 5-6 hours at the golf range for 5 days in a row i tried some stiffer shaft clubs and accidently hit the ground one shot, i lost my breath for a second and i almost heard something snapped, this was after feeling a littlebit sore in the ribcage area. Struggeled for 2 months chiropractor thought it was a musslestraint, all doctors thought so as well, after 3 weeks i went out playing again, didnt go so well, had too much pain. Then i got really fed up and had my ribcage x-ray´ed, turns out i had a pretty severe fracture in my rib. It was completly broken.

I had to lay of the entire season since it takes about 2-3 months for a rib to heal properly.

Now, a year later i started playing again, after a few weeks i feel a bit of lesser pain in my rib area again, doh - I wonder whats wrong, i got a pretty fast swing, Its annoying me, since i wonder  - i cant play golf? i gotta break the damn rib bone after a few weeks of playing? Im perfectly well in all other imaginable ways and play lots of different sports.

Maybe i can swing in a different way?

And, to all you who wonder what it can be, it sounds like many are describing a fractured rib, or stress-soon-to-be-fractured rib. xray it.