busted ribs never healed

Long story but way back in 1994 I put a tuneup on my stepson's Nissan pickup at his apartment complex's parking lot. Cars parked facing each other in this lot. I told him to get in and fire it up so I can hear it-he did then not thinking about the shifter being in 1st, he popped the clutch, hit me and threw me backwards my back slamming into the front corner of a mercedes. I thought I was dead-I couldn't breathe for almost a minute-went to ER and they x-rayed-said I had 2 broken ribs just between my right shoulderblade and my spine. It took almost a year for them to totally heal. But they did.
Fast-forward to 2005 and I am at work-one of my freezers on the salesfloor (the ones you open the doors to grab your pizza or TV dinners)is iced up at the floor where the drain plugged up and the backed up water froze solid. I am kneeling into this thing and trying to lift the fan housing up out of the ice when CRACK and I sink 2" and I can't breathe! The bottom front of my ribcage was against the bottom of the doorsill and I guess I put too much pressure on it and wound up crushing the cartilidge there.
Since 2005 I cannot sleep on that side as I feel bones moving and it is SO painful to this day.
What I have now, is a situation where I cannot even relax in my recliner normally, sit for long drives in my truck, generally put any kind of pressure on that right side of my back because of the pain of rib shifting between the back injury in '04 and the front injury from '05...with the "shifting" comes a nausiating pain in my sternum as well as a sharp stabbing pain in my spine area related to the injury. I got trouble the pain of sitting in the livingroom trying to enjoy some frikkin TV caused me to come in here and do some searches TO NO AVAIL so I come here...to VENT and in hopes of getting some input from someone who may know about stuff.
My friends here know that I am permanently disabled by a huge bloodclot that runs from my right upper arm, through my shoulder, up into my right neckvein to my brain, and up to the top of my heart.
There was this thing my Rosie pulled off a website that said "upper extremity bloodclots mainly ones in the right subclavian are extremely rare, and can be caused by an old rib injury"
So I have been through a dozen Drs and cardiovascular surgeons, a thoracic surgeon, a hemotologist-all of whom concluded that it's hereditary but no reasonable cause to point to.
What I would like to know is will these ribs ever heal or will I suffer my life through? Any experiences with unhealing ribs here? Misery needs some company.

 

Hey Frank sorry to hear that you are in pain all the time. I cant imagine how it must be like. I dont have any information for you since I am an EMT and only know more about emergency situations. I hope someone can chime in and help you out.

 

That really sucks man. I know how it feels with broken ribs, its constantly terrible, it hurts just to breathe. Fortunately mine healed over time. I hope the best for you.

 

Thanks WW me too. I am ok painwise long as I sit or sleep a certain way so that's the good thing-thank God the pain isn't 100% of the time. By the way-as always, thank you for what all you do for people in your work

 

Thanks AJ-I appreciate you too..luckily I can breathe ok it only affected breathing upon 1st trauma for me. But that shifting thing causes a pain-especially when the bones move BACK into position -that knocks the wind out of me for a few secs. God only knows what is going on in there. Good thing I am on blood thinners or I'd surely be making more clots.

 

Yeah thats def good that the pain isnt 100% of the time cause then that would totally suck!!

Thanks!! I really love helping people out and with my job I get to do it a lot or at least the best I can. Again, I hope you get it all figured out buddy.

 

Thanks again WW this is gonna be tough to get answers on I can see.

 

Ask your doc if you have Thoracic outlet syndrome?

Did you have the clot still? Are you on coumadin or anything?

 

The bloodclot I described above is now fibrous and part of the vascular system-which is what caused my being disabled because it restricts bloodflow from my head and right arm back to my heart, and yes-I am on blood thinners (warfarin)for life. The diagnosis is Deep Vein Thrombosis in Right Subclavian/axillary veins.

 

Sounds like a vascular surgeon would want to remove as much of that as possible. Compromised flow is never a good thing. Are you restricted with movement of that arm, i.e. docs tell you not to do certain movements/actions?

Fibrous meaning fibrinolysis? the action of the clot to be broken down. If that is true then the clot is gone and no longer restricting blood flow? I'm just confused. Either way hang in there man.

 

I busted a couple ribs about 5 years ago and they still ache to this day. My doc injected something into the area about 2 years ago to cause some calcification around the area and it made a HUGE difference. Mine were the ribs just under your serratus muscles on the side of your body.

 

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Sorry about your pain. I screwed up my back in the military and to this day I still have pain.

FWIW, I have had cracked ribs twice on the front of my body. Both times it hurt like h*ll for a few weeks, but after a couple of months I was back to new.

Hope you can find some relief for your pain & discomfort.

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To USFCON-
This clot is huge-it goes into my right neckvein, through my shoulder, into my upper arm, across my chest and to the top of my heart. It has hardened and has become part of those veins according to the vascular surgeon who did the imaging, and according to the thoracic surgeon who tried to better explain it to me so I fully knew. They both concluded it is inoperatable. Getting this in the upper extremities is very rare-most folks get it in their legs. I cannot do anything with my right arm without immediate pain and burning because the blood hangs up in it and lactic acid buildup happens-my arm is constantly at that "burn" stage you get when you work out... typing this burns my forearm. My arm is constantly swollen. Bloodflow also is restricted in my head back to the heart-causing head pressure even when bending foreward slightly..I cannot even get down to pick up something off the floor without getting dizzy upon standing back up. It's such a wierd life now-I was the strong hard-working nut that everyone could count on-now I'm the one who needs help with stuff but I know I am still lucky. They say I have to live with this thing because they cannot "replace" that much vein. I never got a clear answer from any of these doctors how my blood is affected by being held up in these extremities while it's trying to get back to the heart and lungs for oxygen. They say I grew all these auxilliary veins in my shoulder, under my arm, across my ribcage, across my right upper back trying to get that blood back to the heart-but obviously it's still a poor substitute for the nice fat arteries that are dead. The dead arteries were the "freeway" while the auxilliaries are the "tollbooths at rush hour".

Maybe that can help me too-I will ask about it-especially that front area.

Thanks SOS and sorry about your back pain-you be careful with it.

 

Wow Frank, I'm sorry to hear about this. I've got nothing to help you out, but just wanted to let you know we all hope you find some kind of solution for the pain. Good luck.

 

if it's truly still broken (you have xrays to prove it?), then can plate the two ends together.

 

Thanks OTG

It is a complicated thing-the last Xrays showed them healed-but the front injury never stopped hurting when I tried to lay on that side. Then, if this makes any sense, the front injury seems to have joined the back injury so that when I even sit for a period of time in the truck-that protruding side of the seat back pushes at the ribs and pain shoots from my spine all the way around to my sternum! Then after I get away from the seat, about 3-5 minutes later-I get this really painful sensation of the whole mess going back into position-the sternum pain knocks the wind out of me. All I ever got from the doctors was "we cannot mend ribs-they heal themselves..all we can do is give shots for pain" so I live with it. But like I said originally, I worry that the "movement" of bone I feel could be damaging stuff in there and I still feel in my gut that it started this whole clot thing. Sorry to ramble guys-I guess I'm still venting.

 

Ahh I misread, thought it was an acute problem, not a chronic situation. It makes sense to have collateral flow, but as long as you stay on your coumadin so nothing "sticks" to the calcified(hardened) clot. It is rare to get, as i mentioned there is what's called thoracic outlet syndrome and people get clots in their arms/shoulder area related to injury etc. Keep taking your rat poision! God bless ya man and hang in there.