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I am afraid to even type this because I know it could be something serious but I am freaking out right now and don't know where to turn so any help would be appreciated. I plan on going to the doctor as soon as possible but am currently unemployed and do not have insurance. Worst case scenario I may have to wait until November. I have barely been to the doctor for anything due to ignorance and fear.
Symptoms:
- Dull to sharp pain when applying pressure to ribs under breast. This may have happened before and I shrugged it off.
- Painless popping sensation directly under right rib. Like something move able is there and is popping like a bottle cap when I press on it. Now that I notice it I realize it may have been that way for a while due to a popping sensation when moving which I dismissed.
- Pain in center chest when I move certain ways lasts about a second and hard to recreate but doesn't feel heart related. I have had this sensation off and on for years but thought little of it and now feel like an idiot.
Additional information that could be related:
- Many years ago I was over exerting myself clearly and pulled a muscle in my right side. I never went to the doctor and it took a while to heal and it comes back every so often when I perform poor lifting habits but always eventually goes away.
- I had a dirt bike wreck this year and landed on my right side which caused my right rib to feel sore. 2 weeks later I got the flu and my right side was painful when I coughed but someone close to me also got the flu at the same time so I figured that was probably unrelated and figured the pain was from the bike wreck 2 weeks earlier.
- My right rib seems to be lower than my left. My sternum definitely seems to pop out more than normal and favors the left side. No pain in the immediate area though.
- Not sure if this relates but my eyes often feel dry some days worse than others but I have always spent many hours each day sitting in front of brightly lit screens.
I had something like that before, I was taking a couple kegs out on a dolly, the dolly hung up on the doorframe and I smacked my ribcage into the handle of the dolly. I had a squishy place on my ribcage for a few months.
Probably all you can do for it is try not to move a whole lot in ways that irritate it. Cartilage takes a long time to heal because it doesn't have much blood supply. You don't have anything life-threatening or you would have died from it already. Without insurance, nobody is going to do surgery on it if it's not a matter of life or death. (assuming it did need surgery, which it most likely doesn't). So just try to relax and don't get on the dirt bike again until you're feeling 100%.
Also, pain when you coughed because you had the flu was probably caused by the injury, but the coughing itself was caused by the flu, not by the injury. If you have to cough before it heals up, try holding a pillow against the painful area to support it, which might help.
Dry eyes when you look at the computer is totally unrelated to the rib issue. Just take breaks from looking at the screen sometimes.
Thank you so much for the replies! I would like to add that the popping in my rib can be recreated when I push directly under the lowest rib if I bend forward a bit.
Hedgehog: Thank you so much for the feedback! Would like to add that I believe the popping and pain under pressure may have been there before the dirt bike injury but I barely noticed it and didnt do any self examination to follow up like I should have. Guess you can say I forgot about it.
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