I fell here at home and fractured at least one rib* on Monday, December 1 around 9pm.
The pain was instantaneous and off the charts agonizing, paralyzing.
Long story short: I wasn't even able to get off the floor for about 12 hours and even then it was all I could do to drag myself a couple feet to my couch, where I spent the next day lying flat until I finally decided to try to climb the stairs and get into bed.
I succeeded — but the intense pain remained, exacerbated by even the tiniest movement.
By Thursday, day 3, I could move around the house, but even the smallest movement — and sometimes not even moving — was extremely painful, breath-stopping.
On Saturday, December 6, (day 5), intermittently I could think clearly enough about stuff other than the pain to wonder if there was some sort of heating pad I could buy: no way did I trust myself to try to get into the shower under hot water or into the tub to soak without a sudden blast of pain bringing me down to the ground with even more damage, but it seemed to me heat would make my ribs and side and back surrounding the fracture site feel better.
After spending hours searching online I settled on the Sunbeam Heating Pad Wrap pictured above and below: sure, you have to tether yourself to a cord but the fancy battery-powered ones cost upwards of $200 and more problematically for this TechnoDolt©®™ require you download an app to operate them.
The only thing bad about the Sunbeam pad — which I keep on every waking moment, removing it only when I go to bed — is the fact that even though I ordered it on December 6 with promised Prime next day delivery, it didn't arrive until this past Friday, December 12.
Sure coulda used it all last week but oh well.
* "at least one rib" — as is my wont, consistent with my avoidance of doctors etc., I didn't/haven't/won't be going in to get an x-ray, so I'll never know if more than one rib is broken. If I'd had trouble breathing indicating a punctured lung or seen blood I've have headed for the ER but neither happened so I never let my very wonderful neighbor across the street know about the events described above until a week after they happened.
I'm certain if I'd called her she'd have come right over and insist I go in to be examined, and I was in so much pain I didn't want to have to argue about that.
I'm 100% certain there's a rib fracture because I've seen enough of them since med school to recognize how they present, and my presentation was textbook.
If you think it might be nice to have a good heating pad around for whatever reason, this is the one to get.
Sure wish I'd had it before my fall.
FunFact: Proof that I practice what I preach/eat my own dog food when it comes to things medical: I didn't even look at my injury site until a week ago, six days after my injury: wow, really extensive bruising extending for about a foot from about halfway down my left side all the way around to the top of my hip bone.
Did I mention how good it feels right now to have the heating pad turned on to high?
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