[DrBazza]

On the other hand, I'm 6 weeks on from 3 fractured ribs, and still no exercise. I'm sure there are a few medical people on here that will tell you that ribs are a special case.

If I were to breathe too deeply during the first few weeks, there was a good chance that I'd re-fracture them; sneezing is known to do this. And for what it's worth, despite what you might see on the TV, broken ribs are no joke.

Recovery time is, apparently anything between 6 and 12 weeks. The first 3 weeks were the absolute worst. I'm finally at the 'it feels like a bruise' stage. As a sporty person I know that if I 'feel fine', I need to add at least 2 weeks on that before I actually start any sports again.

[Foobar8568]

I had a small rib crack when I was teenager, laughing was a pain, as it was winter, flu was going around.

I had to use the maximum dosage of codeine for two months, school was fun...

I don't even want to imagine the pain with 3 fractured ribs.

[sandos]

I probably broke a rib, or damaged some cartilege last summer. I never went to a doctor because it was "fine", also our 1177.se site even says not to go unless its very painful and so on.

Week 2 was worst I would say. I was sneezing a lot for some reason.

The weird thing though, it was fully healed (it felt like) week 4, but then suddenly several weeks later the same exact pain came back, without me having done anything similar to the first fall from a MTB. It did go away again though, so its all good now!!