I slipped on the ice here in MD a couple of weeks ago and went down full weight on my left side. My ribs hurt so badly that I still cannot take a deep breath, sleep, get out of bed, etc. There is no position--sitting, standing, laying down, that doesn t hurt. To top it off, I ve got some king of cold from my grandson and coughing, and especially sneezing, actually knocks me down. I d go to the ER but I was in the hospital for like 22 days last year and, while I have insurance, I still owe them a good deal of money. I also have insane sciatica pain in my right lower back and leg, don t take anything for it, but I m really stuck. If I try to shift weight from sciatica leg to walk, I get shooting pain up my left ribs. Very frustrating (as well as looking pretty weird) Long road to short question--assuming nothing is really broken, how long is this going to go on? Advil, aspirin and the rest are having no effect.