6 more etreamly looooong weeks......

[jstuart1]

Gee this not diving is making me crazy!! BUT I WILL BE GOOD! My ribs seem to be healing well, though I am heading for that touchy time when things feel good and have partially healed till you over do it and re-break them. As of last week at least I could drive with my right hand again. It was a very strange/ painful feeling though when every time I coughed I could feel them move. No movement so far this week and I'm being careful with what I do. If I had to break two ribs, I am sure glad they broke toward the back. It's much more stable back there so I can breath just fine even when they first broke. I figure that after a second X-ray in mid september if I get the all clear I'll try TL the 3rd weekend. I can't wait.

 

[WaterWayne]

j, regarding breathing, did the docs give you a tube device with an air-floating ping-pong ball? When I cracked my ribs (the day before I was to leave for Cozumel, worse luck), they sent me home with such a device. I figured that was just a $75 add-on to the bill, not needed for a healthy guy like me, but I was WRONG. It seems that with broken ribs, you're really not breathing as deeply as you were before, although you don't realize. Therefore, you're not truly purging the bad air in the bottom of your lungs. Therefore, you're subject to respiratory infections, like the pneumonia that kills so many elderly, bed-ridden folks. I started having weird, racking coughs after a week or two, even though I was moving around normally. Then I started using that blowing device hourly, for ten minutes as instructed, and it cleared up within half a day.

Get well soon.

 

[jstuart1]

No the doc didn't give me one of those. He did prescribe an (Albuterol I think) inhaler but he indicated that it was more for quitting smoking than preventing pneumonia. He made it sound like the stuff would make me cough and hurt so I might lay the smokes down. The break happend on July 7 so I am close to 3 weeks now. I cough once or twice several times a day from smoking and as long as I hold my ribs it's not bad now and I can take deep breaths slowly with no problems. My lungs still feel clear and the cough is the same as allways. I think the hardest thing has been people asking me every day if I have sneezed yet. Just the suggestion you need in this condition!!! I made it until yesterday before I did and yep it hurt like the dickens.

 

[sealskin98]

Did ya get the ace bandage thing?

My sympathies.

Damn that stuff hurts.

Hope you heal well and quick!

 

[jstuart1]

No ace bandage either. Just some vicodin and an anti inflamatory.