Pleurisy

So about 3 months ago, I took a terrible tumble skiing. I ended up with a couple of broken ribs. I did as the doctor told me, rest and relaxation is really the only thing that can heal the broken ribs. Basically it only hurt to breath, laugh, and sneeze. That doesn't sound so bad. I mean you only need to breath to live, living with swallow is a laugh all in itself, and sneezing isn't so bad until you get the flu...which of course I got this season! Lucky me!!!

Last night at the nuggets game...My side began to ache. I thought it was a little strange, but it has been hurting on and off for the past 3 months so I really didn't think anything of it. I also want to believe that I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, so I can pretty much handle anything. Throughout the evening it continued to get worse and worse. Sleeping was terrible, every time I moved even the slightest bit I woke up in pain. It seemed to get worse throughout the morning, but I thought I could handle it. I was popping ibuprofen like it was candy, but it wasn't touching the pain.

As I was doubled over in pain at work, I got bumped and ended up on the floor. After a good laugh for everyone except me (remember it hurts to laugh), I had extreme difficultly getting up. Once I was able to stand up, I was in extreme pain and doubled over. The managers immediately, sent me home. On my way, I stopped at an urgent care center near the house. Unfortunately, their x-ray machine was down, so they made me an appointment at their sister operation. I called Swallow and asked her to take me to the doctor, who left work to come take care of me. What a good roomie she is. I went home and waited for Swallow to take me to doctor. We then spent the next 3 hours at the doctors office.

I ended up with 2 broken ribs that still haven't healed and a diagnoses of plueurisy. Pleurisy by definition is an inflammation of the pleura, which is the moist, double-layered membrane that surrounds the lungs and lines the rib cage. The condition can make breathing extremely painful. I must admit that x-rays are awesome. The rib fractures look pretty impressive, going all the way through the bone. It was also pretty neat to see a rib fracture on the other side from a rough soccer injury while I was in high school. Evidently, it is not uncommon for rib fractures to never completely heal.

Take care of your ribs. My advice is to guard them with your life, because it seriously is terribly painful!