Dislocated ribs after illness

by Richard Rowland
(Elizabethtown, KY)

Had pneumonia in March. Seemed like I was coughing from the bottom of my feet. In April, felt like I was recovering well enough to hoe some in the garden. Felt a pop in the left side. No initial pain but the next day it hurt bad. Then again in April, was pulling on a pair of tight boots and felt a pop in the right side.Scared me enough to seek medical care. They said they thought I had a cracked rib. The pain once again subsided. In mid May I was bent over to the left from a tractor seat trying to reach something and felt a double pop. since the next day, I have been in severe pain that nothing helps. Not heat, cold nor meds. Fiinally, a new chiropractor discovered I had five dislocated ribs. This was after seeing two chiropractors, two massuse and a regular MD. Everytime he puts the ribs in, later in the day they pop back out. The unrelenting pain is actually driving me crazy. Any advice will be appreciated.

ED: Um, a girdle? Ok, not funny. But we're kinda serious. They're not popping out because they want to. They're popping out because you have unbalanced muscles - either a whole area is actually stronger than an opposing group, or (more likely) a muscle or three are cramped tight. Either way, something in your body is pulling you out of alignment, and the weakness around those particular ribs, along with inflammation (from repeated dislocations) is making it that much easier for those ribs to unseat and stay that way.

Notice how you hold yourself as you try to do ordinary actions.... like breathing. It's not the same as when your ribs are right. Your body is trying to compensate for the hurt part and to keep it immobile as possible, which means muscles that don't usually spend a lot of time pulled tight are pulled tight. Other muscles that would be pulling the other way are weak and inflamed.

What you likely need is to get that chiro to pop the ribs back in, then IMMEDIATELY get a compression wrap or some tape around your ribcage to hold them in. Then do the ice-and-recover several times - 15 to 20 minutes with a cold pack, then 40 minutes or so to let the area warm back up, then ice again, and so on.

It might seem annoying and inconvenient, but at this point, you aren't getting much else done, and the problem isn't going away, so you might just as well take the time. Maybe ask around a gym, or if you know anybody connected to a local sports team, they might have sports-medicine doctors, physiotherapists, etc., who see and treat these kinds of injuries. Obviously, you can't walk into your local major-league franchise and ask to see the team doctor... but any pro- or semi-pro gang is going to have some favorite professionals that treat game and training injuries, and either they'll have time for you or they can recommend somebody.

Also, you'll want to be really sure that it IS just dislocated ribs, and not cracked ribs due to some deficiency, disease, or poisoning - long-term exposure to some agricultural chemicals could be a possible culprit. If you do hard physical labor, and you DON'T crack other bones (like in your hands, feet, forearms...), then chances are you haven't suffered some kind of bone-leaching disease (yes, men can get osteoporosis), so the popped rib is most likely.

Having somebody with knowledgeable hands reset them is the start, but you need to immobilize them immediately after the correction for two reasons:

1) so they don't just slide out again

2) so that your surrounding muscles don't have to take the strain

That will give you a chance to heal. A good physiotherapist can help with the actions, inactions (rest), and exercises to get the healing started (along with the cold-packs). Equally important, either the physio, the chiro, or both can decipher your postural problem that got you into this fix, and show you how to strengthen the weakened muscles so the problem doesn't keep recurring. Good luck. Hope you've got insurance to cover some of this. It ain't cheap, but it's probably less expensive than letting this drag on for months, into years, and losing livelihood for an extended period.