Trauma, possible injured rib or injured lat?

7 days ago my room mate and I were horsing around. I ended up getting pushed through the sheet rock wall in kitchen. The next morning I awoke with pain on my right side. The pain lines up PERFECTLY with a lower portion of the hole in the wall that did not give way as much as the rest. Sort of like an obtrusive corner of the hole. There is no visible bruise or discoloration on me. The pain initially seemed like back/lower lat/side pain. I went to my chin up bar and tried to do a chin up. I felt fine free hanging. Upon doing an actual chin up I was able to do about 60%-70% of the exercise before feeling fairly intense pain under my lat and above my oblique. If you were looking a side view of me, I would say the pain is 8 inched below my armpit and 4 inches towards my back from the centerline split of my body (sorry mechanical engineer here). I can complete a chin up and all of my strength is present, but the pain kicks in at the top portion of the exercise.

The pain only kicks up when doing similar movements. While walking it can tend to mildly hurt on the back stroke of my swinging arm. I suppose this movement mimics a seated row style exercise (elbow moving back). It has been a week since the trauma. I ran a mile to the gym and had minor pain similar to when I walk. At the gym I was able to perform chest and bicep workouts with minimal irritation. Any irritation came from movements that slightly resembled something involving a back exercise.

I also feel pain when leaning to my left side, as to stretch my right side. The pain feels like it may be a rib. It feels as though it is under the surface of my skin, yet on top of the bone surface. The pain seems to stay in the same spot, even when my muscles move. It feels as though maybe the muscle are aggravating the rib. My back muscles are pretty large. I rowed crew and also dabble in body building, so I am hoping that it isn't anything muscular. The last thing I want is a major athletic set back (although it would be my own fault). Could it be a bruised rib?

The pain has not become worse, but also has not become much better. I still have similar problems with chin ups, where the pain is present during a portion of the exercise. I have been taking IB profin, and I also iced it for the first time after the gym last night. I don't have much time to get to the dr's. I am just wondering what it could be so I know how to watch what I do and whatnot.

[sarah_used_to_smile]

You prolly bruised your rib. In my experience (of being extremely clumsy and unlucky) I have found that in most cases where ribs are involved, there isn't much they can do. Whether it's a bruise, a sprain or even a break, more than likely they will tell you to do exactly what you are doing. rotate 20 minutes of ice and heat, take it easy for a while and take ib pro as directed. i would say if it gets worse, you notice bruising or experience any tingling in any of your extremities to see a doc. Other than that take your mother's advise and stop horse playing in the house!

[Les534]

After I fell and bruised my ribs, I tried cold, heat, and rest.  Nothing helped until I did the following hot/cold routine, which I found on this site:  http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081107143009AAbiPJz  I also figured out how to roll out of bed without using my chest muscles, which helped by preventing reinjury.

"Moist heat is the best, however it must be applied correctly. Use a Thermaphore, moist heat for 3 minutes only, then an ice pack for about 30 seconds. This proceedure should be repeated about 8 or 10 times. Beginning and ending with the heat. The heat dialates the capillaries so more blood can enter (three times as much), then the cold shrinks the capillaries down again causing the massageing of the tissues involved on the molecular level force feeding the damaged muscles removes debre, waste, and hystomine that makes swelling and edema, increases encephilans, endorphans (pain medicine that the body makes) and basically speeds up the healing process about three times faster. As we all know all healing is done with the blood flow. This is what I have found with most of the atheletes that I treat in my clinic."

They also recommend "wrapping the ribs till the pain level diminishes would help with" but I did not do that, so I can't comment on it.