Motorcycles

Ribs too? ouch, I broke a collar bone and slashed an ankle. Played world of warcraft for five weeks, not moving much until they knitted helped, lost a lot of weight. Never played WoW again after. You shouldn't be in so much pain in about three days after the swelling goes down.

Ribs seem to take a long time to heal. I highsided in the dirt a few weeks back and it still hurts to breathe deeply.

Buy a Steam Deck and try not to think about breathing? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Drugs. Take painkillers. Meditation works for some people. Stay distracted. I played FTL on an iPad for weeks when recovering from several broken bones.

As difficult as it's going to be, when the time comes, be absolutely consistent in your physical therapy exercises, for the short term and in years to come.

This crap will come back to haunt you later in life, so the more consistent effort you put into it going forward, the less it's going to be an issue.

That said, I've found 2 things have really helped with similar injuries - a very good deep-tissue massage therapist (sessions should be like PT, challenging to do), and yoga.

What people never explain about yoga is why it's effective: because each exercise is a combination of stretching one set of muscles while complementary muscles are stabilizing.

Uff ribs are brutal, and assuming the collarbone is no walk in the park either. Can you talk to your doctor about a prescription for pain meds until the surgery?