Re. Cam Akers injury:
I separated some rib cartilage back in college, and I can tell you it hurts. (I got hit playing rugby... what a crazy-ass sport. Tackle football without pads!)
For me, it hurt to laugh, hurt to cough, hurt to breathe, hurt to sleep... basically everything I did freaking hurt for a while. Took a good month to settle down.
Anyway, can’t imagine playing RB in the NFL with separated rib cartilage. That would hurt like a MF’er. Glad they have powerful pain masking medication, but still...
You are correct sir - I can relate ..
I had a rib injury years ago - separated cartilage. My doctor told me that I’d have been better off breaking a rib. The story is somewhat amusing today some 47 years later, but at the time the injury was anything but.
Back then I’d only been on Maui for a year or maybe two, and lived in an old single wall cane house. No electricity, just gas for a stove and hot water. I slept on a futon on the floor which was comfortable enough, but after a painful encounter with a large centipede, I decided to construct an elevated wooden bed frame/platform waist high above the floor for my futon. I had only finished constructing it a couple of days before the following incident and was not really accustomed to it fully.
In those days I was an ardent Muhammed Ali fan, and opportunities to watch him were few and far between on Maui. As it happened on the day of the injury, I had a very nasty cold and my neighbor Mike (also an Ali fan) suggested a quick cure his grandfather swore by: brew up a pot of tea, dump in some honey & lemon juice and top it off with a half pint of whiskey. Stir up the brew – then chug it down all at once. Immediately after consumption get into bed & cover up with blankets – sweat it out overnight and in the morning I’d be cured!
I followed the advice to the letter. I’m not sure if I fell into a deep sleep or simply passed out. However, sometime later that evening I awoke groggily to Mike’s yelling: Tom! Tom! Get up! Ali’s on, hurry up! (Mike had electricity and a tv). Still half asleep I stood up and lurched quickly towards the bedroom door entirely forgetting I was 3 feet off the floor. The room was completely dark as I had extinguished my kerosene lantern when I went to bed. The next thing I knew was a terribly painful blow to my ribs and my head banging against something hard. I felt around in the dark not really knowing where I was. It felt like someone had beaten me up. Mike by this time had run back up to his house, and I was on my own. Astonishingly I did make it up to Mike’s house to see Ali, but the pain was really intense, and to this day I have no recollection of who he was fighting or who won or whatever.
The next day I was able to piece together what happened. I had simply walked off the bed (thinking I was on the floor), fallen forward in the pitch dark and landed ribs first on the old fashioned ceramic doorknob of my bedroom door, and richochetted into a corner wall hitting my head sharply.
It took a good month before I could laugh or cough without pain. It was tender for a long long time. Hopefully Cam will rehab quicker than I did although I was only 26 or so at the time.
When my doctor asked me what had happened, I was too embarrassed to be entirely forthright, and told him I fell out of my avocado tree trying to pick an avocado. I really did have an avocado tree ..
