Is it a cracked rib or muscle strain pain in back and shortness of breathe?
You may have a cracked rib (sometimes not even an x-ray can detect it; other imaging may be required to confirm it). But whether you do or not, a doctor will, most likely, treat it the same, i.e., with various-strength pain medication. When the ribs are injured, breathing can be very painful because the muscles used for breathing pull on the injured rib. When three or more neighboring ribs are fractured in more than one place on each rib (flail chest), that section of your chest can’t hold its shape when you take a breath. This leaves less space in your chest for your lungs to inflate and air to flow in. It also causes the muscles to work less efficiently, so it’s harder to take a breath. What are the symptoms? Fractured ribs are painful in the area of the fracture, with the pain ranging from mild to very severe. Breathing is often very uncomfortable. If your breastbone is pushed, especially while you’re lying down, you will often feel pain at the fracture site, rather than where your
