muscle or cartilage tear? Need Advice

Question:

A few weeks back during range practive I tore a muscle or cartilage near my ribs under my right arm. Now everytime play or hit the range I re-aggravate the pull/tear. I’ve taken up to 3 days off but it must not be able to heal 100% in that timeframe. Any information on what I could do to help this would be appreciated. I don’t want to take a long break as I’m just learning the game. Thanks Chris

Response:

Here’s an idea. Take more than 3 days off. My guess is 3 WEEKS would do the trick. Don’t worry you’ll suck just as much after the break as you would have without it. I’m not a doctor, but I play one on RSG.

Response:

I did the same thing. I read somewhere that it is actually micro stress fractures of the ribs (although it felt like rib cartilage to me), occurs on the right side with right handed golfers. Hurts like hell, and you really need to bite the bullet and take a couple of weeks off. If it is indeed rib cartilage (I’ve done that too, not golfing), you may need up to six weeks rest to let it heal. Mine hung around for about 8 weeks (every time it felt ok, I’d try and play or practise straight away), and only went away when I completely stopped golfing for about three weeks. You’ll be happy to know it has never reccurred. McBain

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – A few weeks back during range practive I tore a muscle or cartilage near my ribs under my right arm. Now everytime play or hit the range I re-aggravate the pull/tear. I’ve taken up to 3 days off but it must not be able to heal 100% in that timeframe. Any information on what I could do to help this would be appreciated. I don’t want to take a long break as I’m just learning the game. Thanks Chris

Response:

Same has happened to me several times. I suggest you take few weeks off and start gentle exercises to strengthen the muscles (I had torn the muscles between my ribs, would hurt even when I was breathing). After reoccurrence, I have found a machine in gym that works the exact muscle groups. I don’t know what it is called but you sit and put your chest against a pad with adjustable angle and turn around your torso by pushing the pad which is attached to adjustable weights. You’ll find it useful to work out muscles on your chest as well as side abs. Best Wishes, Turgut

Response:

I’ve had this a few times several years ago. Interstitial muscles between the ribs. Easy to re-injure as they heal with less elasticity than before the injury. It’s a vicious cycle. When you re-aggravate the pull/tear, you not only undo the healing that took place, you expand the area of injury and risk tearing other locations that take up the load. I went to several doctors over a period of time and the concensus was that I do whatever flexiblity exercises I could do without re-injury, chip/putt, etc. until I was absolutely pain free as that was the body’s signal that everything had healed. Of course I returned to playing golf as soon as possible each time and reinjured everything. This and an injury at work led to cartilage seperation and two cracked ribs near my sternum that crippled my golf swing for a bit over a year. I’ve since returned to golf but am nowhere near as flexible as I was two years ago. If cartilage is injured, it takes much much longer to heal than bone or muscle because there is very little blood flow in cartilage. Suggest you see a doctor for a detailed diagnosis. aloha, jim this one for years) – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -A few weeks back during range practive I tore a muscle or cartilage near my ribs under my right arm. Now everytime play or hit the range I re-aggravate the pull/tear. I’ve taken up to 3 days off but it must not be able to heal 100% in that timeframe. Any information on what I could do to help this would be appreciated. I don’t want to take a long break as I’m just learning the game. Thanks Chris

Response:

Chris, The first thing I’d do is visit the sports Dr…get x- rays and DON’T ASSUME you know what’s happened, unless of course you’re a doc. Recovery time depends on your age, conditioning and chemistry, and the almighty "self-control", allowing the time. Take care, patience and if you don’t handle it right, it could plague you for a long time. G

Response:

If you tore it, it’s going to take more than 3 days to heal. More like 3-6 months. But what do we know. Go see an Orthopaedic doctor. Get checked. -Mother T-

Response:

I feel your pain.. or rather, have felt your pain! I suffered a similar injury last season which took 6 weeks before I was pain-free again. (In my case, it was an intercostal muscle tear). With reference to the area of pain you’re describing, the most likely cause is a muscle tear in one of the following: 1) Intercostals (these run between the ribs) 2) Serratus Anterior Less often, micro/stress fractures in one of the ribs can also give rise to similar pain – this condition is described in some medical references as "Golfer’s Rib". There is no cartilage in the rib area which is "under (the) right arm". The rib cartilages are at the anterior part of the rib bones where they articulate with the sternum. Thus, the pain you describe is unlikely to be caused by cartilage injury (which, incidentally, is a real PITA as cartilage takes ages to heal due to poor blood supply). In cases such as yours, any competent physician/surgeon should be able to make the diagnosis of either rib fracture or muscle tear from a clinical examination alone. A chest xray costs $, exposes you to radiation and is a poor diagnostic tool for micro/stress fractures of the ribs. At any rate, it’s a moot point whichever is the cause, since the treatment is the same. Rest and analgesia, then physiotherapy once the worst of the pain subsides. If you want to do a little home diagnosis, you can palpate the area of tenderness – pain maximal when prodding on the rib suggests bony cause. Similarly, pain maximal when prodding between the ribs suggests muscle tear. A further technique is to run your finger forwards along the rib in question to the front of your chest at about the nipple area. Pressure on the anterior part of the rib here will cause the rib to bow – if you have a stress fracture, you’ll elicit tenderness despite exerting the pressure at a distant part of the rib. Here’s wishing you a speedy recovery. Unfortunately, these things tend to heal in months rather than days. I found that after 3 weeks, I could make full effort practice swings without pain; but striking balls still hurt like hell. Just goes to show that my practice swing is only a fair representation of my real deal at best. Just as the others have advised, it’s a good idea to let it heal completely even if it means giving up 3 months of golf. The worst thing that could happen is further aggravation and turning an acute injury into a chronic one. Kind regards, JJ Hcap 9 Resident in Plastics & Burns PS: Pardon the rather long response!

Response:

How do you know you tore a muscle or cartilage, did a doctor tell you after taking X-rays, and MRI or another diagnostic procedure? If that is how you know, then didn’t the doctor tell you how long it would take to heal and what you should do to avoid aggravating the injury? — Dan Driscoll Member USGA, NCGA RSG FAQ: http://ttsoft.com/thor/rsggolf.html RSG Roll Call http://rec-sport-golf.com/members/?rollcall=driscolld

Response:

I had this problem as well, and it turned out to be something completely different than what you expect. My pain was at the bottom of the rib cage, under the right arm, as you describe. After bitching about it for some time, one of my buddies suggested that I see this chiropractor he knows, who is also a massage therapist. I have always classified chiros as right in there with TV psychics, but insurance covered it, and it hurt like hell, so I went. This guy felt my back muscles, pushed and prodded a bit, and announced that a muscle on the back side of my rib cage was in spasm, and was causing the pain to radiate around the side. Long story short, he dug in with his thumbs on the muscle for about 5 minutes, which hurt much worse, but the pain went away immediately. We did two more sessions over the next 5 days, and the pain is gone, and has not returned. What was apparently happening is that the muscle learned how to go into spasm, and needed to be forced into extension. Scott showed me how to do it myself, with a hard rubber ball, if it recurred. If you want to try something yourself, try finding a hard rubber ball, about the size of a handball (just smaller than a tennis ball. Lie on a hard floor, and roll the ball between the floor and your back, just to the right of your spine, towards the bottom of the shoulder blade. If this is the same as what happened to me, there will be a spot that hurts. A lot. Push on that spot with the pull, fairly hard, until you feel the pain relax. Then go hit balls. If you happen to live in the Seattle area, the guy’s name is Scott Fetty, and he’s in the Bellevue phone book. He’s a god. Golfs, too, so he knows your pain.

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