Lower leg broke in two places Help!

janner1

Having a bad day yesterday breaking my leg I'm interested to hear from anyone who as suffered similiar injury ..and their road to recovery. New bike this spring now laid up for 12wks

P_Tucker

janner1 wrote:

Having a bad day yesterday breaking my leg I'm interested to hear from anyone who as suffered similiar injury ..and their road to recovery. New bike this spring now laid up for 12wks

Er, every leg break is different - suggest talking to your doctor

janner1

Back in to hospital on Tuesday to see the doctor and more xrays to determiine if a op is nessacary on the lower break fingers crossed. Should know more then,I guess I'm just looking for some thing up beat from fellow cyclists that have been through similiar injuries.

Herbsman

How did you break it?

janner1

Tree trunk versus lower leg not a fair competition

TheEnglishman

I fractured my tibia (and radius and bones in both hands) last winter. I ended up with a right leg 8mm shorter than it used to be and a bend in my lower leg which means my knee joint is out of kilter. The doctors recommended strengthening my leg muscles to help stabilise the knee joint. The hope is I won't need a new knee joint in the years to come.

Running isn't an option anymore as its bad for the joint and painful! So I tried cycling.

I got on my old touring bike out after the all clear and riding it hurt like hell. I had back pain, knee pain and it obviously just wasn't right. But then I heard about bike fits and I went for a Specialized BG Fit.

All I can say I it was money well spent. I've just come back from a 30 mile ride and everythings just fine. No back, hip or knee pain just the standard muscle fatigue from a decent workout.

I have to work on tight hamstrings and core stability, but that is all to be expected according to those in the know

So IME I'd definitely say you'll be fine but get help from the professionals as it could all go horribly wrong if you have a badly set up bike or try too hard etc etc

Take care and good luck!!

dw300

Really good diet, plenty of rest and I'm guessing lots of calcium, just check how much you can take, and try and distribute it evenly throughout the day.

Perhaps try doing some upper body exercises to keep the weight off you so you're not fat when your leg is healed.

janner1

Thanks for that ,missus as already dug the old weight bench out ,haven t done free weights 20yrs but needs must.

Alex_Simmons/RST

janner1 wrote:

Having a bad day yesterday breaking my leg I'm interested to hear from anyone who as suffered similiar injury ..and their road to recovery. New bike this spring now laid up for 12wks

Had a leg break from a nasty crash, resulted in lower leg amputation. Came back to beat my previous best power output, win A-grade races, set a national record in masters Team Pursuit, race at UCI Road World Cup Paracycling and be fastest Aussie in the TT.

Have patience and persistence. Serious injuries take time to recovery from. The more serious the injury, the longer it will take.

napoleond

Broke my lower right leg in thre places, had a pin put in.
4 weeks later I was on the turbo with flat pedals doing about 3 minutes in bottom gear.
The next year I won clubs season long TT championship.

However I had a bike fit at http://www.cadencesport.co.uk which made a world of difference as I had a leg length discrepancy and knee tracking issues.

sassse

Hi

I broke my tib/fib on July 10th 2011. My fracture was an open fracture and so involved 2 operations and a plate and 10 screws to put it back together. I was in a cast for 6 weeks, then a removable boot for another 4 weeks and then on crutches for a long time. My break took 9 months to unite, so was not able to ride on the road for 9 months.

That said I was back on a turbo indoors at the 10 week mark and able to swim and do closed chain exercises until my break healed. I have been back on the bike since April and am now, commuting into London one day a week and doing 2.30 - 3 hour rides into the surrey hills, I have also been back on my mountain bike. The only restrictions from my OS are no big jumps or dropoffs.

You will get back to riding, but don't rush things, listen to your OS and make sure you get some physio to make sure you get proper movement back and build your muscles back up fix the imbalance that will develop form being on crutches.

Fingers crossed for you, I hope you are back up and riding soon.

Sarah

janner1

Thanks for the last three replies makes me feel a lot better . Alex sorry to hear about your amputation I can only admire your achievement. Hopfully tomorrows hospital visit will not lead down the surgery path and the breaks are clean and self repairing, they certainly sounded clean breaks. Never been I lover of the turbo trainers but I guess needs must I'll have to scoured the classifies.

me-109

I broke my tib and fib 4 years ago skateboarding. That led to the tibia being pinned, which is far better than plating in terms of recovery. It means it is weight-bearing (at least partially) from the off, so you can do more sooner.

Do as much physio as you can handle - little and often. It's the soft tissue damage around the break site or from the operation that takes more time to recovery and build strength. I got out on my bike quite early, even effectively pedalling with one leg just soft-tapping or unweighting the 'broken' one. Rough surfaces really jar and hurt and you may find you can't stand up on that leg. It took a good while before mountain biking didn't constantly hurt or leave me with a sore leg for days afterwards. Initially I couldn't even lift myself out of the saddle on my motorbike for speed bumps. I've had a couple of attempts at getting back into running but it tends not to take long for the bad leg to complain.

Long term, I still get pains in the knee from the op more than the break site, but it is true that the weather affects it. 'I can feel it in my bones' is true of the cold days.

janner1

No desision on surgery today due to swelling but gone to a half cast so everything feels 50% better. Doc said the upper break will sort its self out without the upper cast and the lower might get away without an op. So after reading about all your breaks I'm feeling a bit more up beat just hope it all goes well next week and thank you all for your input.

sassse

Glad to hear that things seem to be going okay for you.

Fingers crossed you heal up quickly and are back on your bike soon.

janner1

Thanks I think I'll speak to the consultant and take NapoleonD advice and start small spinning sessions when I can now I'm in a half cast.

janner1

Just to keep anyone interested updated or someone with similar injuries .
Week 3 still in cast tried the turbo 5 min light spin caused me a lot of pain for 2 days so decided to leave it and messaround on the weight bench for the time being.
Week 6(Tuesday) cast taken off and given a air cast basically a big inflatable boot. Ankle still swollen but I'm free to take the cast off when I want and try and increase the movement in the ankle and also when I'm in the air cast I can weight bear asand when pain allows(improving all the time).
Been on the turbo 3 x 15 mins absolute bliss aching leg in a good way. I've miss that ache.