A strained sternum? How the heck?
Normally, I don't get injured much for all that I do. However, I woke up yesterday morning unable to move or breathe without a significant amount of chest pain! I'm way too young for a heart attack, and I couldn't remember doing anything traumatic to myself, so it was a bit of a mystery. Today I noticed that my sternum was swollen about 2 inches below the top, and decided to get it checked out. The doctor claimed that I've damaged the soft connective tissue around my sternum, and we figured out it was probably job-related (I'm a geologist and recently spent over 20 days in a row hauling awkward, heavy 5-foot lengths of rock core around all day). Apparently the repetitive motion of picking up the core and twisting my body to be able to walk with it was simply too much.
My question is, does anyone have any experience or recommendations with this type of injury? Running is out :mad: due to the arm motion, biking is out:mad: because I can't support my upper body on the handlebars without pain, and I'm having problems even deeply breathing or driving a stick-shift car or sleeping comfortably. How long can I expect to be out of commission, and what if anything can I do to help this heal?
So glad to find others who have had the same injury...
Hi, I am new to Team Estrogen and wanted to let you know how grateful I was to find that someone besides me had strained their sternum. I called my orthopedist and they refused to give me an appointment. They told me to go to the ER. What the :confused:? They don't do ribs? Those are bones and connective tissue too, like the rest of the body! I managed to make my chest pop when doing a push-up. It was bizarre, almost out-of-body for a second. The pain was intense and has been with me now for over 10 days. This forum has given me a starting point to get on the road to recovery. Tennessee must have those same restrictions on PTs, so I am going to try to see an osteopath this week. Guess this means no bike for a couple of weeks. If I get to see the doc, I'll post a follow-up on the treatment. So glad to have found you guys!:)
Follow-up on strained sternum
I can't tell you how much I appreciate everyone's feedback. As I promised, I want to let you know how going to the doc went. I went for a meds check with a doc I use for holistic healing. He is an MD. I told him what had happened, so he palpated the area and having had experience with this type of injury, told me that I had strained and maybe even tore some soft tissue where the first, second, and third ribs meet the sternum on the left side. He gave me some muscle relaxers :) and told me to take naproxen (I have a bunch of that on hand) and use some Therma-Care pads to provide heat to the area at night when I am sleeping. I already sleep sitting up most of the night because of reflux and my chest tells me all about it if I try to roll on my side. I do have a nice Diamondback Recumbant bike at home and will be using it. The place I work is participating in the Walktober fitness program this month, so I am walking a lot too. Tonight we did take one of the dogs for a walk. They are Airedales and too big for me to handle with this strain, so my husband walks the dog and I walk with. I actually slept pretty good last night and am looking forward to going to Charleston, SC next week for vacation:D. We will be doing lots of walking there too.
I have been a bike fanatic since I was 13 yrs. old and bought my first bike. I lived on it. I rode off and on until the day my husband discovered cycling. I got into it with him for a while and got a couple of nice bikes. He doesn't ride much anymore and after dealing with back problems and having my fitness dwindle away, I made a commitment to get back in the saddle and commute to work. I have been loving that, especially the energy I get from being in better shape and the part about not contributing to pollution. I need to pick a photo to go under my "handle". I'll try to get one loaded when we get back from vacation.:o