Expert: Robert A. Arnone, DC - 6/18/2007

Question
i was wakeboarding this weekend and landed funny and i think i might have dislocated a one of my left ribs.  when i laid down and put my arm over my head the rib seemed to "pop" back into place.  since then the area has been a little swollen but no bruising. and it hurts a little bit to put pressure on my left arm. it also is sore if i laugh or breath hard but the pain is not very intense.  i currently have full range of motion and no pain unless i put pressure on my left arm in certain spots. my questions are, 1 how do i know whether or not the rib is dislocated, 2 what should i do to treat this,  and 3 how long do these things take to heal.

Answer
Noah,
If a rib is out of place, it is almost always very uncomfortable, and even more so when breathing, laughing, coughing, or sneezing it would be intense pain.  If you are doing all of those things with only a little bit of pain, then you will probably be ok.  Especially if it seems like the pain is lessening each day. Now you may have injured some muscle tissue as well and this takes some time to heal, especially because those muscles and the ribs are constantly moving to aid in breathing and so it takes longer for them to heal up.  I would give it a week and monitor it to see if it is getting better or worse.  If it concerns you further, then seeing a general full spine doctor of chiropractic would be able to look at it and determine if it needs to be re-aligned.
I hope that this helps you, let me know if you have any further questions regarding this matter.
Yours in Best Health,
Dr Rob Arnone