Playing with a rib bruise

[EriKon]

Basically the title:

I've had a small accident after yesterday's gig falling down on a monitor speaker with my thorax and I think I might have gotten away with a bruise on my rib(s).

So does anyone have experiences on playing trombone with a rib bruise? Might go to a doc tomorrow just to be sure about nothing being fractured.

Thank you all in advance!

[mbarbier]

Got tboned a few weeks before covid started and jacked up my ribs on my left side, no break just bad bruising and dislocations. super fun, still giving me trouble- I really hope yours heal better.

My advice is 1. Go to acupuncture and/or the chiropractor as early and as much as possible. Basically playing is gonna slow the healing/push things out of alignment so correcting it as often as possible will really help. 2. When you play try just be as relaxed and slow with your breathing as possible to reduce sudden movement, it didn't feel great, but reducing the sudden movement by taking slower breaths really made the process pretty tolerable.

Tbh I found the holding to be the worst part. What side did you bruise? Messed up my left side so holding the horn is what really didn't feel good, but being really conscious of having a relaxed grip really helped. As did putting everything on a cart for a few weeks so I wasn't carrying anything heavy.

I hope you heal up quickly - ribs are tricky !

[Wilktone]

Back in my first year of teaching after grad school I went skiing in Colorado over winter break and fell pretty hard and smashed up my face and ribs. The scrapes and bruises on my face looked worse than they felt, but breathing deeply to play hurt. The x-rays indicated no cracked ribs. My doctor prescribed a pain killer that worked well enough for me to keep my practice schedule going as I had a recital to play shortly afterwards. It still hurt, but was bearable.

If you're still in pain now I recommend an appointment with your science-based medical professional, at the very least to rule out something more serious than bruises.

Speedy recovery!

Dave

[Reidclag]

I've had a similar situation a few times and I was actually told by the doc that deep breathing would help with the healing process, even though it hurt like hell. This was back in my football days where I had different instances of torn cartilage in my chest, a bruised sternum, and a sprained back. If you doctor gives you the good news that you avoided any cracked ribs it might be a good idea to do a little extra stretching before playing, it helps with the stiffness and hesitation to play since your brain knows it might hurt. As long as it isn't too panful.

I agree with mbarbier to get to a chiropractor ASAP, a jolt to your body like that can get quite a few things out of place, some things that you might not notice right away. I've also been going to a chiropractor regularly for over 15 years so I might be a little biased, I know some people (like my wife) won't go near one.

[Doug Elliott]

science-based medical professional

I assume that's disrespecting chiropractors, but seriously they're really good at a few things that physicians aren't.
Flexibility, balance, and fixing many joint problems by simple manipulation.

There's no real medical treatment for even a broken rib, except to let it heal on its own.
A chiropractor (a good one) will see if the fall created any other problems, and fix them, which may greatly improve your rib situation.

[harrisonreed]

Chiropractic work is real medicine in my book.

[Wilktone]

I always recommend that you don't get your medical advice from a musician's forum, make an appointment with your family doctor.

Regarding chiropractic, it's been found to be effective for lower back pain, but not more so than massage. That's basically it. Acupuncture is pure bunk and also has some risk associated with the treatment.

Speedy recovery with your bruised rib, EKTrombone.

[baileyman]

There should be some level of playing that can be done with a non-painful breath. In my experience, a broken rib takes about six weeks to be pain free, but less painful some time sooner.

[EriKon]

Thank you all for your advices and recovery wishes! It seems that I have been lucky and it's just a soft bruise, although I'm not sure whether it's really a rib or the breastbone. But it feels way better already and I'm already able to play again, which feels quite okay.

[mbarbier]

Acupuncture is pure bunk and also has some risk associated with the treatment.

Obviously always go to the doctor and get the help as much as possible. Acupuncture is extremely far from bunk. A good practioner will make life as a trombonist a lot easier. Regardless of what some people react with, in most places there's quite strict training and regulation involved (in addition to it being a practice that's been active and heavily documented for over a thousand years).

It's been a life saver over the last 15 years for the kind of soft tissue stuff wear and tear stuff that comes from playing a lot.

[timothy42b]

There should be some level of playing that can be done with a non-painful breath. In my experience, a broken rib takes about six weeks to be pain free, but less painful some time sooner.

Possibly a great many of us overbreathe. I recall Don Lucas at a panel saying it is not necessary to suck all of the oxygen out of the room to play. Maybe a rib injury would encourage a certain amount of very relaxed "conversational" breathing.

[robcat2075]

The National Institutes of Health reports some evidence that acupuncture can relieve pain, although the results of the numerous studies have an unencouraging inconsistency to them.

https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/acupuncture-in-depth

What do we know about the effectiveness of acupuncture?

Research suggests that acupuncture can help manage certain pain conditions, but evidence about its value for other health issues is uncertain.

Wikipedia is firmly in the "quackery" camp.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a pseudoscience;[4][5] the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientific knowledge, and it has been characterized as quackery.[6]

The NIH page on Chiropractic diplomatically states it is a licensed health care profession but carries no accounts of it actually being effective.

https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/chiropractic-in-depth


A problem for both acupuncture and chiropractic is that the canonical theories of how they work are mystical nonsense and no explanation that survives any examination can be presented to take their place.

[Doug Elliott]

I don't really need a scientific explanation to tell me why I feel so much better, am more flexible, stand taller, breathe better, and snore less when I go to my chiropractor regularly.

In my days of touring, I used to go to different chiropractors all the time just to see what techniques they used. All different, some definite quacks and some unbelievably effective. My roommates would be amazed at how my extreme snoring would stop completely for 2 or 3 nights.

[harrisonreed]

It's effective. Chiropractic work and massage, especially together, saved my back. Shell out and do a scientific test yourself.

[ArbanRubank]

I perfected the art of walking tall by watching Saru on Star Trek Discovery.

[BurckhardtS]

There are "quacks" in any field, including medical professionals, mental health professionals, etc. Weeding them out is just part of the process of finding a new provider you like.