Mizblog

Finally my Navy service gave me something I wanted – free access to a BJJ seminar on July 4th!

The first series of moves we learned were the fireman’s carry takedown to knee-on-belly, then following that up with a D’Arce when they try to push your knee off. Then you can finish it on the side, or by transitioning to mount, or if they push you over you can finish it in the closed guard. That’s as far as I got before, as I was being pushed over from mount, I rolled over my belt knot and broke my rib.

The rib popped when I was on top of Chris trying to choke him (right arm wrapped around his neck) and he rolled me over onto my back. The drill was to practice finishing the choke even if you get rolled onto your back like that, and I had just executed it correctly and was doing it again. The last time, however, I rolled over onto my belt knot and *pop*. It didn’t hurt, but it felt so weird! I could feel a protrusion under the skin of my lower right rib. I was very surprised and pulled off my gi to examine this oddity. TJ got me some ice and I sat down with that for a few minutes. I kept playing around with the rib to see if I could figure out what the separate pieces were, but it just felt like there was a bump on it. I could at least breathe normally. I could even breathe deeply with a little discomfort.

Then the adrenaline started to wear off…

Over the next few minutes, the pain started to build up. I decided that I should probably go to Urgent Care and get an xray, so I packed up my stuff and went to my car. Driving was painful, but not that bad. Jamming my messed up toe was probably 50x more painful, but it only lasted a minute before it got better. This was getting worse.

At the Urgent Care facility, I expected to have to wait for a while, but the place was empty of customers. I got straight in to the xray room. The doctor then talked to me before looking at my xray and telling me he thinks I cracked a rib. He asked if I wanted to see it, and of course I did, so we went into his office to the computer. On the bottom rib there was a dark line, which could be a crack or could be the shadow of my diaphragm. He said he’d send it to a radiologist to see what they thought, but that he thought it was broken.

I kind of think he’s wrong and that the rib just separated from the cartilage, but that might be wishful thinking. Recovery time for a separated rib can be half that for a broken rib.