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 due to the arm motion, biking is out 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?