After the last post, the pain got worse. Much worse. First I made an appointment with my family doctor, but then, as the pain progressed, I let H take me to the hospital. Of course, I managed to start feeling better on my way there... not "better" better, but not as bad, at least. It was a loooooooooooong day. H stuck with me for as much of it as she could, from 11 am to after 3 or 4 pm. (I think... I didn't look at the clock. She did stay much longer than I thought she would be able to.) I eventually got x-rays, but the doctor couldn't see anything on them. Apparently cracked ribs are really hard to spot... so they could be cracked, or it could be just muscle damage and stuff. She did say that my lung hadn't collapsed. (I could have told her that. Not that I've actually experienced that, but my lungs didn't feel weird, I just couldn't take more than shallow breaths without experiencing excruciating pain.) The verdict: take over the counter pain medications (she would have prescribed codeine if I wasn't strongly against it) and go easy on myself. After much twiddling of thumbs on his part, dad finally got to take me home sometime around 6:30 pm, and I was home shortly after 7.
I lied, and told my grandma S that I had a normal day. I don't want her worrying, especially with mom and Bob away at the moment. Luckily I didn't have to pause for breath after every few words at that point, so I was actually pretty convincing. ;)
It sucks that this happened my first week I'm gainfully employed. (Yeah, I haven't mentioned that... I have a 20 hour/week job in the department this term that should let me pay my bills, plus lets me continue working on my dissertation.) Whether or not I go in tomorrow will depend on how I feel in the morning... I'm considering just going in for my office hours, because then I wouldn't *need* my laptop. (Less to carry, and thus less to strain my ribs. Not having my laptop during that time would just mean have less to do when no one needs help.)
On the upside, dad bought me some get-well chocolate:
(I checked, and can't find any bugs!)
7 comments:
I know how bad rib pain can hurt. I have broke a rib, have had inflammation of the cartilage between the ribs and the sternum, and have had pleurisy. Isn't codeine an over the counter medicine in Canada? I wouldn't have denied pain meds. I hope you feel better soon.
Yup on the pleurisy, I've had it and the treatment sucks.
Ya know, no one gives you a medal at the end of the day for how much pain you are in, call em back and ask for the pain meds-seriously.
Yay on the job-what will you be doing?
Take the meds! "Better Living Through Chemistry" is my motto. Seriously, there is no need for you to suffer. Congrats on the job, by the way.
hubby cracked a rib twice in the past 6 months (one on either side, two different hockey injuries). The problem is that they can't DO much for it either. That said, we have some Canadian OTC tylenol with the tiniest bit of codeine in it (8mg), and that helped him so that he could sleep at night (he couldn't sleep at all without it). :( It heals but it takes a while. I hope you feel better soon. :(
The reason I refused codeine is that the one time I had it, it did absolutely *nothing* for the pain, but made me vomit every time I moved even slightly. I'd rather not repeat that experience, especially since vomiting would be even less fun with a broken rib. No codeine for me, thank you very much!
I will, however, take advil or tylenol. ;)
Tylenol 3's are prescription. I didn't know about any codeine that was OTC here, but then I haven't been reading labels in the painkiller aisle for fun lately, either. ;)
My job is running a help centre for first and second year computer science courses.
Boo for cracked ribs and pain. Yay for going to the hospital to be sure what was going on. Boo for them not being able to fix anything. Yay for the job! Hang in there!
Yikes.
I can't do codeine - it makes me itch all over. Ugh. And it never really helped with the pain. Sleep, some, but pain, no. Some 800 mg ibuprofen, however, is quite helpful for me short term.
Hoping you'll feel better soon. Are you icing it for now?
And YAY YAY YAY for the job.
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