Unknown Severe Rib pain

Work in the aviation industry and have been jobless for nearly a year, back in march 2021 (couple months ago) around the 5th, I had a lot of coughing fits. Smoking weed occasionally and borderline chain smoking cigs.

This coughing fit would happen often, due to the weed, but one morning I woke up and had rib pain. Wasn't too bad but it was noticeable, it got worse as the day progressed. The next morning it was full blown bad, the right side of my chest was a bit swollen, I couldn't breathe deep, couldn't move, couldn't cough, couldn't do anything without extreme pain. I assumed I fractured/broke a rib or damaged the Cartilage/damaged an intercostal muscle. So with this assumption I called healthline and they informed me that with ribs all you can do is take pain meds and bare it.

So I never went to the hospital, didn't want to waste hours just to be told to take some advil.

The pain was bad for a solid month, then started to die down. By the end of april (2 months in) the pain was still there but only if I moved in a certain way or did something dumb, otherwise it was beginning to become something i'd forget about.

Now I started work again, working a contract in Quebec, Canada. My rib area started getting sore again and I thought thats normal with the increased movement.

Well, about 4 days ago (May 25th) I played a game called "Beat Saber" on my VR, I felt a little pop and the pain was back. I had to stop playing, sat down in pain, thought "great here we go again".

Pain is a bit different this time, pain is shooting around to my back, my side and the front. The front of my chest is swollen again and its more painful now with basic movement than it was 4 days ago when something popped.

I CANNOT lose this job, I have to work through the pain regardless of what it is. So i've just been taking tylenol/advil and baring it.

My issue is that I cannot find a hospital that caters to english people, I tried to go to the hospital but the language barrier was far too large and they didn't understand what I was telling them.

Its back to the whole, deep breathes hurt, laying down hurts, moving hurts, etc.

Is it normal for a rib cage to go into pain like this after almost a full 3 months of healing? I don't know whats busted in there honestly, I had a coughing fit and the pain came on gradually over 2 days.

I don't feel any ribs misplaced, i've tried movements to see if my rib maybe "popped" out of place, but that didn't do anything. My assumption at this time is a torn intercostal muscle, but i'm no doctor.

I'm 33 years of age. My job has me moving around all day.

Thank you for your time.

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