Ireland Broke My Rib

In Ireland, I happened to pick up a bug and come down with a cold.  It was like a typical cold -- fatigue, sore throat, headache, enlarged anterior cervical nodes, runny nose -- except that the cough was worse than normal.  It wasn't a mild-and-will-go-away-in-a-week cough.  It wasn't an annoying-itch-in-your-throat cough.  It was a drowning-in-your-own-secretions cough.  (Gross, I know.  Sorry.)  If I didn't sleep sitting up, I would soon be practically falling out of the bed, curled unintentionally into a coughing fit of a ball because my abdominals were tightened to the point that my chest was nearly touching my stomach.  I've never had this bad of a cough in my life, not even when I had whooping cough.

I felt bad for the guy that had to sit next to me on the plane.  If I could make it 5 minutes without coughing, I considered it a miracle.  I sucked my way through an entire bag of Jakemans Throat and Chest "Soothing Menthol Sweets" (the British version of cough drops, unfortunately with quite a strong anise flavor) in less than a day.  When I got back to the Bronx, I finished off my bag of Robitussin cough drops, then stole some of my roommate's Ricola drops until I could make it to the store to get my own.  I tried NyQuil and DayQuil, to no avail.

Almost a week after getting sick, my right lower ribs began hurting when I coughed.  Sore, annoying, but livable.  Two days later, as I was studying in Manhattan (still coughing), it suddenly got worse.  Much worse.  I coughed, and it felt as if something had popped; my ribs gave me excruciating pain.  I didn't know what to do.  What could it be?  Muscles?  Ribs?  Liver?  Gallbladder?  I had no idea, except that it hurt.  I walked to the Beth Israel ER, where the doctors were incredibly nice to me (I told them I was a med student).  Without doing much more than a simple feel around the area, they diagnosed it as a muscular issue, so they simply prescribed me some extra-strength Motrin and shooed me out the door.

A week later, I had my follow-up appointment.  By then, it still hurt, but it was different.  When I pressed on my rib, it clicked.  Click.  Pop.  Click.  (Ow.)  Diagnosis: cracked rib.  From coughing.  Treatment: nothing.  Let it heal on its own for 6 weeks.  When people hear cracked rib, they become concerned.  When they hear it's from coughing, they laugh.  And then they ask me, the girl who goes through a half-gallon of milk, several cups of yogurt, and ounces and ounces of cheese in a week, if I have a calcium deficiency.  Don't be silly.  But also -- for now -- don't touch my rib.