Recovering from an injury

[#lazy]

Hi guys and gals , I’m 5 weeks in on breaking my leg and the more I learn the more worried I’m getting . My break is a TPF (Tibia Plateau Fracture) which is a fracture on the tibia joint behind the knee-cap . Luckily I didn’t need surgery but it’s still going to be a long process to even get weight bearing let alone walking properly so I can get back to earning a living . I’m self employed and this is not what I need , again I’m lucky to have a great family support behind me so will get what needs to be done .
My cast if coming off tomo and will have a brace that will have a angle set which hopefully will be changed every few weeks and the rehab will begin .
I’ve not got much advice from the hosp so googled TPF break and was shocked , a good chance of arthritis and a high possibility of a knee replacement within 10 years !
This break (TPF) apparently is we quite common with biking sports so has anyone else been through this and has any advice ?

 

[RustyMTB]

Not that particular injury but broke my arm at the very top of the shoulder joint two years ago. If I were to offer one piece of advice that I failed to follow to my own cost is to keep up with any physiotherapy offered. I thought I woudn't need to & consequently it's still knackered now.

 

[#lazy]

Yeah a few friends have said that to , I’m 100% committed to whatever I need to do . Not sure when I be able to ride again but thinking the ebike could help the recovery , not dirt jumps and road gaps just easy rides !

 

[ilostmypassword]

I would see a physio vs advice from randoms online. Best of luck with your recovery.

 

[Paulquattro]

Get well soon .

 

[#lazy]

I would see a physio vs advice from randoms online. Best of luck with your recovery.

I get you , ok maybe not advice just some experience’s people have had dealing with recovery .

 

[Jimbo Vills]

Not the same injury mate, but i destroyed my lower leg, ankle and foot. Tib / lower Fib Breaks. 4 metatarsals. dislocated toe in a big bike crash about 8 years ago. Highsided at Donny and the bike landed on me breaking my leg and foot peg went through my foot.

The cast coming off is horrible, you'll want it back on. I had the moon boot after which really help the transition. I done the physio but not enough.

I was at work with the cast after 4 days and done too much too soon, was racing again 3 months. Didn't look after my recovery enough and just 'cracked on'. As a result I have about 60/70% movement in my ankle, pain every day, still swollen and like you concerns for the future state of it. I suspect i'll need surgery etc in the next few years.

Biggest advice. REST and physio! As much as you can get hold of and the exercises to get the movement back! keep moving. The more active I am the better my leg feels these days. e bike really helps

 

[Jamze]

Think of the long game would be my advice. Don't rush back out on the bike, find some low impact/lower risk way of keeping fit while getting physio.

Nowhere near as bad, but I separated a shoulder this summer. 6 weeks rest as advised by the doc. Then started 'easy' rides and had a silly low-speed fall and fell on the same shoulder again. So I'm sticking with walks and the elliptical for a while. I'd rather be 100% next year than have ongoing issues.

 

[#lazy]

Not the same injury mate, but i destroyed my lower leg, ankle and foot. Tib / lower Fib Breaks. 4 metatarsals. dislocated toe in a big bike crash about 8 years ago. Highsided at Donny and the bike landed on me breaking my leg and foot peg went through my foot.

The cast coming off is horrible, you'll want it back on. I had the moon boot after which really help the transition. I done the physio but not enough.

I was at work with the cast after 4 days and done too much too soon, was racing again 3 months. Didn't look after my recovery enough and just 'cracked on'. As a result I have about 60/70% movement in my ankle, pain every day, still swollen and like you concerns for the future state of it. I suspect i'll need surgery etc in the next few years.

Biggest advice. REST and physio! As much as you can get hold of and the exercises to get the movement back! keep moving. The more active I am the better my leg feels these days. e bike really helps

Cheers jim , “the cast coming off” I get , feeling vulnerable . Was like that when I broke wrist a while back !

 

[Mikerb]

Only advice I would give is non medical! Don't let it dominate your life and worrying or worse getting depressed about it is not conducive to well being. So focus on adapting and planning. I know any injury tends to come back to niggle at you when you get old and yes broken bones often leads to arthritis later in life ......hence why I wear trainers rather than shoes most of the time now having broken bones in my foot a couple of times! It's the price we pay for an active life. But 5-10s are still comfy so no big deal.

 

[RickBullotta]

Find a physiotherapist who is focused on athletes, not just "regular folk". It matters. And make it clear what your objectives are in terms of recovery - don't be afraid to be ambitious. You'll have tough days and lot of sweat and soreness during your rehab, but you'll see real progress. And if you're fully committed, you will surprise yourself with the results.

 

[Interpaul]

I had a similar injury almost 5 years ago, snapped my ACL completely and fractured the head of my tibia - skiing

I chose not have surgery as the ACL rebuild is brutal and would have meant missing two ski seasons as they would not operate until the fracture was healed, so I wear a brace now. You can scare yourself reading others peoples stories, and people usually only want to tell the worst case scenarios.

Concentrate on your own recovery and don't worry too much about others - Physio works. 6 Months after I did my knee I skied at the local Dry Ski slope and was back on my MTB after only 4 months. You will be surprised how quickly things move.

 

[Interpaul]

I echo @Jimbo Vills message about exercise, as long as I keep regular on the eMTB my knee stays good.

 

[Jimbo Vills]

I had a similar injury almost 5 years ago, snapped my ACL completely and fractured the head of my tibia - skiing

I chose not have surgery as the ACL rebuild is brutal and would have meant missing two ski seasons as they would not operate until the fracture was healed, so I wear a brace now. You can scare yourself reading others peoples stories, and people usually only want to tell the worst case scenarios.

Concentrate on your own recovery and don't worry too much about others - Physio works. 6 Months after I did my knee I skied at the local Dry Ski slope and was back on my MTB after only 4 months. You will be surprised how quickly things move.

Totally agree with all this. The only thing I would add though is don't take progress for granted. Keep working on it. I thought I was fine as I was up and about and the rest would sort itself out but it never did. I regret that quite a lot.

 

[#lazy]

I had a similar injury almost 5 years ago, snapped my ACL completely and fractured the head of my tibia - skiing

I chose not have surgery as the ACL rebuild is brutal and would have meant missing two ski seasons as they would not operate until the fracture was healed, so I wear a brace now. You can scare yourself reading others peoples stories, and people usually only want to tell the worst case scenarios.

Concentrate on your own recovery and don't worry too much about others - Physio works. 6 Months after I did my knee I skied at the local Dry Ski slope and was back on my MTB after only 4 months. You will be surprised how quickly things move.

Cheers for the positive post and feel abit better now , I shouldn’t have spent last night googling it !

 

[Interpaul]

Cheers for the positive post and feel abit better now , I shouldn’t have spent last night googling it !

No probs, I went through the exact same issues. I read a load of horror stories on Snowheads about ACL injuries and the high failure rate of ACL surgery.

Took a ski friend who had snapped his MCL to come round to explain the benefits of physio and how you can survive post injury.

As @Jimbo Vills says, keep on the physio and accept you may have to go back for treatment for a while to keep you on the right track - find a good local physio that understands injuries. A lot don't.

I snapped my right humerus on my Motorbike 10 years ago, that still causes bother due to metal work and pins but I go to the physio every few months so she can fix me.

It will be all good!

 

[Zimmerframe]

You haven't mentioned - is the bike ok ?

I broke a finger nail once, you hear horror stories, but in reality it wasn't that bad. Maybe I was lucky ?

Ok, so in the name of science and general interest - completely unconnected with me being crap but having the desire to ride faster than I'm capable of, I've had a few off's over the last 3 years .. Ignoring most of the boring bits, that's meant a fractured pelvis, most ribs, both collar bones and various different fractures/breaks/tears to each shoulder.

Basically only agreeing with what the others have said - Rest and sleep are vital. Not doing anything too soon and too stupid because you can just make things worse - but also finding the fine balance between still doing things and staying active where possible as all this seems to help with healing.

Really important seems to be keeping positive. My last year has been quite negative for various reasons and seemed to result in far slower healing/drive to work things/overcome pain/re-gain movement and in turn a longer recovery time.

Eat correctly, don't drink too much - it's not going to help. Don't worry about crap you can't do anything about.

If you can find a sports physio or some therapist with previous experience this will also help, physically and psychologically.

If you can get back on the bike, great, but don't set any expectations. If you just end up plodding on trails, look around, enjoy it. I made the mistake of getting movement back, confidence back, feeling and ability back and then pushing too soon and joining the grown ups again when I wasn't ready. My arm locked out on a turn which resulted in the second broken collar bone.

Looking at new bikes will also help, they increase in price so quickly at the moment that you'll soon realise that your own physical state will be the least of your problems !

 

[#lazy]

Great post zimmer I’m used to therapy as been going to a Chiro for 15 years for a mx injury .
The world is my oysterish

 

[DS.]

fractured my talus in cast for 6 weeks sort of walking again after 7 weeks but I did go back to work this week so I was of for 8 weeks in total but people are right don’t do to much last week tried doing sum DIY and ended up back in my boot and on crutches for 3 days so it was touch and go whether I went back to work this week but it has been easier to ride my ebike on the roads than walk about can’t stand up on it yet tho

 

[Swissrider]

Lots of good advice on posts above. I fractured my wrist over 30 years ago. It was badly set and had to be reset and pinned by an orthopaedic surgeon. He warned me that I would have arthritis later in life but now I can’t tell the difference between my wrists (apart from the scars).

 

[Swissrider]

Lots of good advice on posts above. I fractured my wrist over 30 years ago. It was badly set and had to be reset and pinned by an orthopaedic surgeon. He warned me that I would have arthritis later in life but now I can’t tell the difference between my wrists (apart from the scars). I also have a knee replacement and I’ve done over a thousand kilometres of mountain biking this summer, work as a mountain guide and can really not the difference between my knees when I ski, which is most days in the winter. The body does have an amazing ability to heal and I know several people who’ve really smashed themselves up an

 

[#lazy]

Got the brace on today but can’t start physio for another 5+ weeks !
Ps leave the dog outta this

 

[steve_sordy]

The "see a good physio" is very good advice.
Years ago, I tried to tough out a shoulder injury and it seemed to be working because it was slowly feeling better. But eventually it stopped improving. There was no pain but I couldn't get my arm out of the car window! I went to the physio that was at the same practice as my Pilates class. She gave me a right bollocking and told me that the longer I left an injury the harder it was for her to fix it and the more painful for me. She told me that the fact I had no pain was because my body was restricting normal movement in order to avoid pain. In effect I had learned a different way to move in order to avoid pain. I now had to retrain, and that was going to be painful. And it was!

I had thought that seeing a physio would be too expensive. It's not cheap, but it is great value for money if you value retaining your usual range of movement and getting back to full fitness asap.

 

[#lazy]

Blow the scooter motor this morning going up a hill , had to disengage it and freewheel back down which got abit dicey with no brakes then ask a stranger for a lift home as left phone on charge . Effing nightmare !

 

[#lazy]

Alls good though, they’re sending my a new one tomo

 

[Jimbo Vills]

Blow the scooter motor this morning going up a hill , had to disengage it and freewheel back down which got abit dicey with no brakes then ask a stranger for a lift home as left phone on charge . Effing nightmare !

I know we shouldn’t laugh. But this cracked me up today mate

Hope the dogs ok

 

[#lazy]

Here’s a pic of the 1st ct scan !
Good news today , doc was shocked I didn’t need a op and looks pretty much healed but still a bit swollen so still on the brace for 3weeks set from 30-50 to 90 degrees and can use exercise bike , go swimming and can weight it with crutches so a good day

 

[irie]

Won't go through my list of injuries but the best advice is to get sports physiotherapy and do what they say.

 

[#lazy]

I asked doc today about that and he said cos I’m active I wouldn’t need physio . I’ve got private med cover through the mrs so might check that out

 

[irie]

I asked doc today about that and he said cos I’m active I wouldn’t need physio . I’ve got private med cover through the mrs so might check that out

Absolutely check it out, willing to bet you'd make a faster and better recovery with physio. Many doctors are old school ...