Crash & burn, how soon to return?

[Tangled Tango]

Hello,

A few days ago I was on a descent, on a sharp left hand curve and an oncoming truck was just over the center line entering my lane. As I was leaning into the turn I had to steer further to the right in order to aviod the truck. At somewhere around 40 mph I couldn´t keep a good line and rather than get flattened by the truck I went off the road into the bushes, tumbling about 20´ and breaking three ribs. I consider myself lucky as other than the ribs, I had only minor cuts & scratches. I was able to ride the 40min it took to get home. My main question is for those who have broken ribbs. How soon were you able to get back on your bike? Are there any important dangers I should be aware of? I´m impatient to get back on my bike, but I don´t want to make things worse or incure a long lasting injury.
Thanks in advance for any helpful responses.

 

[brianf7]

OK did the bushes have thorns and are you still pulling them out of arms and legs?.

Nothing wrong with legs so no reason not to pedal but racing with rib issues will take time and depends on recovery.

ounce you are up to it by all means ride as often and as far as you can but dont bexpect too much. you will have soar ribs and possibly breathing issues
if you try to push it.

sooner the better good luck

 

[Toobab]

I had fractured ribs one time, and was told 6 weeks, and there was no way I could ride for about 3 of those anyway. After about 4 weeks, I could ride to work taking it easy and I was ok. It was at least 6 weeks before I could ride without feeling it. Easily the most painful fracture I've had out of wrists, collarbones, toes and little finger.
Important dangers. There must be lots, I didn't really get told anything like that but I think they assumed the pain would limit what I could do and they were right.
I just read your post again, and you really were lucky! No way I could have ridden home either as my bike was in bits anyway.

 

[Christophe]

Most of the bad stuff that could happen already occurred during your crash. Ride when you can do so comfortably, ride easy for a while, and try to avoid terrain or situations that force you to get out of the saddle. Other than that, the worst risk is crashing again.

After rides or anything that causes stress & pain for the ribs, put a cold pack on them and take ibuprofen or some other anti-inflammatory pain reliever.

 

[forty four]

2 times i have broken ribs in my experience you can ride more or less right away though 24h rest is best and no high speeds deep breathing hurts and the ribs crack you can feel it getting out of the saddle also hurts. better than breaking a leg or something thats for sure.

 

[Tangled Tango]

Thanks for your most encouraging posts. I´ve been taking some strong pain killers and am feeling very little discomfort, but that will come as I start lowing the dosage. In the meantime I brought my bike in for a check up: make sure there were no hidden fractures. Oh yeah, lots of thorns and some kind of poison ivy type itchy stuff, though not as strong. So I´m lucky to be alive, lucky my bike wasn´t damaged and now feel damned lucky that I´ll be back on the bike sooner than I´d thought. Still will give myself one week off.
Thanks again for your replies.

 

[Lucid1]

Whatever you do, don't sneeze!!

 

[Tangled Tango]

Whatever you do, don't sneeze!!

Sneeze, cough or blow ones nose. It´s difficult to sleep as the only comfortable position is on my back, and I never sleep that way. I´m taking some "special" medication for that and it seems to help.

 

[delbified]

broke my pinky on monday. i'll ride again as soon as i can untape it from my ring finger and put a glove on (too cold to ride with no gloves). cycling is good like that, as a low impact sport you can get away riding with lots of injuries.