Bruised ribs and carrying stuff

My grandmother got hit by a bus - apparently much safer than being hit by a car because the big, flat front helps to spread the load.

It sounds like your character has a milder injury since my grandmother was in hospital for several days, and then required weeks of care and convalescence with my parents.

I have a faint memory that she may have actually cracked few ribs - but this was 30+ years ago so I may have muddled the details.

From what I recall of that, a back-pack would probably not be feasible.

How does he know he bruised his ribs and not broken any?

Reason I ask, I had a rather tough uncle. (He had one arm.) Earlier in his life he had a few motorcycle accidents, seldom saw a doctor, and got pretty good at 'self-diagnosing' himself, or so he thought. (He eventually lost an arm in an accident.)

Later in life he fell off a ladder, said he'd only bruised his ribs and sort of hobbled around in pain for a few days. Eventually he had difficulty breathing so the family forced him to go to the hospital and he had broken two ribs.

So how does anyone distinguish between bruised and broken without seeing a medical professional?

(Could he go to a free clinic, lie about his name, use a fake ID or something?)

I got kicked in the chest by a horse. Caused major bruising. Carrying books or anything across chest was painful but using a back pack was not, relatively speaking. Course that was just me and my injury, others may be different.

This may be of use http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/rib-injuries/pages/introduction.aspx

Some of the comments at the end of the page may also be of use.

It would depend on exactly where the bruised area was and how badly bruised. I don't know how badly my ribs have been bruised, but when I broke a rib I could lift and carry things just fine, as long as nothing bumped against the place where the break was. The other things that were difficult were laughing and sneezing. Similarly, when I have bruised ribs only direct contact bothered it. I'm glad no one decided to slap me on the back.

I had bruised ribs once and could still carry things. Mainly it hurt to take deep breaths, cough or sneeze.