Chest Injury

by Denise
(Scottsdale, AZ)

I'm a 45 YO female, top physical shape (a personal trainer, boot camp instructor, fitness competitor) and have had my share of injuries in the past (i.e. torn labrum, torn tendons of elbow and a hole in the forearm muscle both surgically repaired and good recovery).

On Sat July 5th, I took a fall directly onto my chest. I was being pulled behind a boat on a 3 man raft with 2 of us on it at about 25 mph. The raft overturned and I flew from about 15 feet in the air directly onto my chest. It felt like my sternum was pulled totally backwards when I hit. The pain grew increasingly worse and is on the left side of my chest. I went to urgent care on the following day - negative X ray. Given Vicoden and sent home and told should get better every day.

Day 4 pain is worsening and meds don't help at all. I called urgent care to see if they could call in a muscle relaxer but they preferred I go to ER because they felt I should have a CT scan to show contusions or a muscular tear and so I could be given appropriate diagnostics and a possible shot to relieve pain.

Pain is a 7-9 when I cough, bend over in a certain way or do certain activities. The pain is deep into the chest wall on the left side. I'm a personal trainer and I can't move any equuipment or do anything light or heavy to assist my clients without feeling significant pain.

I went to the ER day 4 upon recommendation and was only given an X Ray, physical exam & questions by PA and seen by the dr for 3 secs who said I bruised my muscle and did not need a CT scan? That's ridiculous to me. He prescribed me Darvocet and a muscle relaxer and told me it should get progressively better each day.

Day 5 same as day 4 and very very little relief from meds. Why wouldn't the ER doc have just gotten the chest xray out of the way? Now I'm likely going to have to go to my orthopedic surgeon and still have the CT scan at some point I'm going to bet.

Suggestions?