Costochondral Injury?

**joecos** · Posted On: 12/10/2008 8:59pm

Last night while rolling, my opponent came down with the point of his elbow on my rib, right at the sternum connection, as he swept me. Instant excruciating pain, lessened somewhat initially but came back with a vengeance later.

Went to the Dr. this morning (GP) who diagnosed a Costochondral cartilage tear, probably not a full separation. My pain is manageable except when I cough, hiccup, or sneeze, and of which can almost make me pass out.

Anyone have experience with this? The Dr. wasn't very helpful, I'd probably have to pay an ortho for more specific info and an MRI or CT scan for better information.

Specifically, how long do I have to wait for this to heal enough to start rolling again? (right now, I can't imagine having anyone on me in side control or mount -- I'd probably pass out).

**TheRuss** · Posted On: 12/11/2008 10:39am

Originally Posted by joecos

how long do I have to wait for this to heal enough to start rolling again?

*shakes magic 8-ball*

Probably until it doesn't hurt? I'm sorry for the shitty answer (as if being hurt isn't bad enough), but I don't know that you're going to get a better one. These guys (PDF) seem to think that a CT scan is the way to go with cartilage injuries, although I'm uncertain how much it'll tell you if you know there's no dislocation. The big lesson to take away from it is that cartilage damage may not show up on normal X-rays.

This article may have information about your particular injury... I can't say for sure, though - don't have a subscription to that journal. Perhaps some kind soul (nudge, nudge) who's currently enrolled in university will check it out and report back?

**CoffeeFan** · Posted On: 12/11/2008 2:13pm

My girlfriend actually had the same thing happen to her and found the doctor to be most suckage in his advice:

"Stop doing stuff till it heals"

He had her taking Ibprofin to help bring down the swelling. It took her a few weeks before it stopped hurting enough to train. Of course after she would roll it began to hurt again and didn't go away for about 2 months or so.

I would say take some anti inflammatories, give it a week of rest, then roll GENTLY and try not to have people scarf holding you and stuff. If it hurts, stop and give it another week. You may want to avoid stuff that will aggravate it for a while (throws, grappling heavyweights, etc.)

**TheRuss** · Posted On: 12/11/2008 2:19pm

My vote is for significantly more than a week without rolling (or doing anything else that aggravates it)... cartilage takes a while to repair. Perhaps a week or two after it no longer hurts to sneeze.

**benonmsn** · Posted On: 12/11/2008 2:38pm

I had the same injury in my sternum, but closer to a full separation. i took 3 months off, went back, and recreated the same injury, but worse. i then took another 3 months off, and hurt it again. i think took 6 months off, and was fine. As you can see, if i just took 6 months off, i would not have lost more months of training, but telling the future is hard sometimes. I guess the moral of the story is take plenty of time off.

at this point im pretty good, but some days getting out of bed, or moving my trunk oddly i can feel the shift in my chest, and i have to stop what im doing before i shift it to much and tear it up again. its a bitch. I almost fell down and cried many times for months after i first hurt it from pain

**joecos** · Posted On: 12/11/2008 5:25pm

Thanks for the input -- I went to class this am, but only did some warm up and drills from guard, passed on the rolling. Didn't bother me too much, iced it and I'm living on the IB for the next couple of weeks.

I just don't want to re-injure the thing and have to start the healing all over.