Double pelvic fracture - recovery times?

Pretre

Managed to cycle into a parked cars boot at about 30mph on 10th April :shock: - saw it at the last second & turned the bike, to avoid a head-on, but slammed into the boot with my right hip, fracturing my superior & inferior rami - stable fractures, no op required & no other injuries apart from the absolute mother of all bruises on my hip, a very small graze on my left ankle & a small bruise on my right shin - bit of a result, considering the terrible state of other people in the hospital who had done similar things.
I was in hospital for 9 days, although the last 3 were a bit pointless as I was only waiting for the physio department to confirm that I could climb the stairs to my flat but they don't work the weekends.
I'm now on 2 crutches & fairly mobile, although sitting down for over an hour or so is very uncomfortable, even with some serious padding on the chair, & the short walk/hobble I tried after visiting the physio today & then dropping into the docs (total about 500m) was right at the limit of serious pain.
No-one seems able to give me any even wild idea of how long it's going to be until:
a) I can go back to work (desk job with hour long train & tube commute each way)
b) I can start cycling again

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

hopper1

Sorry, no idea, mate!
But, I do sympathise with you, and hope you're recovered soon.

ut_och_cykla

Gosh (what a lovely old fashioned word) you were lucky. My guess would be that bones of any sort take about 6-8 weeks to heal. The hip is a biggish mass of bone, well supplied with blood and nutrients so I cant imagine it woudl take unusually long. But I am just guessing! As cycling doesnt place teh same loads on the pelvis as walking does it may be you can cycle gently on a turbo/exercise bike before you can walk/commute to work. Or vice versa of course.
Surely the hospital and physio can give you some guidance on these matters??

Pretre

Thanks for the replies.

The hospital & the physio have given me some idea but as what I've done is, effectively, always associated with a great deal of other injuries (severe bleeding, massive internal injuries, etc.) which I just don't have, the estimates they gave me were, by their own admission, very likely wildly out.

Oh, well - just have to see what happens.

muchalls

try writing to that cycling magazine.....C+: one of the columnists is a bone doctor- Giles Croft.

guinea

Good luck.

My hip break which also didn't need pinned took 10 months before I was allowed back on the bike. I suspect if they had been bolted together I'd have been back quicker.

what I will say is that trawling the web you will see people being back on the bike in a month, and some in a couple of years. Everyone's different.

If your treatment is anything like mine you'll have trips to the fracture clinic every 2-3 weeks and be told to do nothing until the next appointment. Your next appointment will be the same. I was told not to walk unless I had to and don't lift anything weighing more than a couple of kilos. No exercise at all. Even sitting. The risk is AVN, which is the worst possible outcome of a hip fracture.

Anyway, anyone else's experience is almost irrelevant as it's your progress as defined by your x-rays that will decide when you get back on your bike.

Keep asking your consultant and ask your GP for a 2nd opinion if you think it's dragging on.

Pretre

Quick update - a lot more mobile recently, although still legs & back are stiff as a board from still being on the crutches. Almost went back to work, part-time, next week but physio said leave it another week as the 30 minute train & 15 minute tube commute is pushing it a bit too much, particularly as I would then be sitting down for a few hours at work.
I've been told to get some hydrotherapy (did it when I was in hospital but the hospital is not really practical to get back to) - anyone know of a hydrotherapy pool in Croydon or Bromley?

EX DH

Dont know if its any help but i dislocated my hip last april, only started riding again last weekend(could have been earlyer but new bike only came on sat). Docs have told me i should be back upto full strength in another year! Cant pedal while on the drops and hurts like hell when i lean too far forwards on the hoods, but at least im back on a bike.

I seriously never thought id be back on a bike.

Get well soon pal.

Pretre

EX DH wrote:

Dont know if its any help but i dislocated my hip last april, only started riding again last weekend(could have been earlyer but new bike only came on sat). Docs have told me i should be back upto full strength in another year! Cant pedal while on the drops and hurts like hell when i lean too far forwards on the hoods, but at least im back on a bike.

I seriously never thought id be back on a bike.

Get well soon pal.

Thanks for the good wishes.
I tried a gym bike at physio on Wednesday - managed to do 7.5 minutes before severe pain forced me off - felt like I was sitting on a very large, sharp stone! My knees were in a terrible state - cracking, etc. - due to not walking properly for over 4 weeks but it was great to actually do some exercise at last even though it still hurt a bit yesterday & so I only did 3 minutes on the bike at physio yesterday & none today.

Pretre

3D CT Scan of the fractures - stunning picture but a bit nasty..



There's a 3rd, non-displaced, one there as well according to the specialist

muchalls

Ouch! You want to get some WD40 on that pelvis though- I can see some superficial rust developing!
I can see the comminuted pubic rami fractures but where's the third one?

Pretre

muchalls wrote:

Ouch! You want to get some WD40 on that pelvis though- I can see some superficial rust developing!
I can see the comminuted pubic rami fractures but where's the third one?

Not too sure what the stains are but like the WD40 idea - any thoughts on how to get in to the site?

3rd fracture is "non-displaced right-side sacral" - Specialist & radioligist say it's there but GP & physio can't see it...