How to Care for Cracked or Bruised Ribs
Some people find themselves feeling a certain pain in their chests after indulging in contact sports or after having been attacked and mugged. They often wonder if this pain means that they are suffering from cracked or bruised ribs or if it is just a surface bruise that will go away in a day or two. To determine if you are suffering from cracked ribs or simply from a surface bruise, you will need to know what symptoms of cracked ribs to look out for and then get the treatment for broken ribs, cracked or bruised ribs.
Bruised or Cracked Ribs Symptoms
When you are suffering from cracked ribs or from bruised ribs, you will find that you may be suffering from one or more of these symptoms:
- You will find that you will feel a tight pain in the area where you are injured if you have a cracked or bruised ribs. This pain often increases each time you breathe deeply, and sometimes you will find that breathing becomes somewhat difficult because of this pain.
- If the injury is only a bruise, you will find that laughing, deep breaths, and even rolling over on the bruised side causes you some pain.If you find that even when you are not laughing or breathing deeply and you feel an intense pain in your rib area as well as find yourself feeling a swift tightness in your chest and having a difficult time breathing, you may be suffering from a cracked rib that punctured your lungs. Call an ambulance immediately if this happens.
Home Remedies for Treating Bruised or Cracked Ribs
To treat cracked or bruised ribs, you will need to first identify the severity of the problem. Healing cracked ribs takes some time and often depends on how bad the injury is. Cracked ribs treatment will require that you first have an x-ray taken to help ascertain the damage that was done. Cracked rib recovery will depend on how fast you heal as well as if you wear a cracked rib belt to keep your ribs immobile while healing.