12 month rib injury STILL not healed
A year ago I injured several ribs after being thrown hard onto the ground at an MMA class. I couldn't get out of bed the next day. After several weeks I went to see the doc who said nothing was broken, and that I likely just had bruising.
After taking some time off to recover, I went to a BJJ class. I found that I could not tolerate having a human's body-weight on top of me without severe pain in my ribs. I took more time off to recover.
I started doing the SS novice program at the end of August. I've been taking things quite slowly to avoid aggravating any of my accumulated injuries. Today I experienced the same kind of pain during my bench press that I experienced during BJJ.
The pain occurs in the posterior and distal rib region on the left side. I think it's from around the 8th pair down?
Here are my current numbers.
Squat: 172
Bench: 154
Press: 85
Deadlift: 225
Three days ago I attempted a 242 deadlift, which I managed but felt some movement in the affected area. It hurt a little bit but didn't seem like a big deal.
Today I attempted to bench 158 but it was too painful. I did a few reps before dropping the weight to 132, which was more bearable but still hurt a bit. Then I did my deadlift at 225 which was a little painful, but nowhere near as bad as the bench.
My plan is to reduce weight on the bench to a comfortable level, then slowly work back up as this thing heals.
But why is this taking so long to finally heal? Should I be concerned that this injury has persisted for a whole year? I thought ribs were supposed to fix themselves after just a few weeks! Is it worth going to the doc and asking for an x-ray or something?
On the bright side, the squats have eliminated knee pain that I've had for five plus years so that's good :)