Broken Bones

[olyclimber]

How many bones have you broken climbing (or hell, non-climbing breaks too), which bones were broken, and how long till you were climbing again?

 

Other than this current situation, I broke my femur when I was 5 (my brother rode me back to the house on the handlebars of his bike), and they are telling me 6 weeks before I can wieght my leg...I'm just trying to understand how long. Anyone climbing with pins or pieces of metal in their shin bones (or other bones?)

 

[ClimbingPanther]

i had a hairline fracture in my radius (big forearm bone, about 1 inch from the wrist) when I was about 12 rollerblading. It was about 5 weeks. The worst part was the muscle atrophy. Good luck mending!

[Alpinfox]

... The worst part was the muscle atrophy.

 

I figured the worst part about rollerblading would be telling your parents that you were gay.

[Alpinfox]

 

 

badum CHING!

[ClimbingPanther]

I was gay when I was 12, but that's because I thought it meant "happy"

[scheissami]

I had a jones fracture of my left foot (5th metatarsal along the outside of the foot) playing soccer a couple of years ago. Needed to be pinned because they have a high rate of non-union if not surgically fixed. Now I have a shiny piece of titanium in my left foot. I wasn't able to bear weight for 6 weeks, and it took me about three months before I could really push myself physically (running, hiking, climbing). Find an exercise that doesn't stress the bones too much (maybe swimming in your case?) and go after it as soon as you're cleared by your orthopedist.

 

Good luck, by the way.

[rob]

broke my collarbone as a kid (my brother suplexed me into the fireplace mantle). It took forever to heal, and has never been the same.

[W]

Porter,

 

A long time ago I broke the medial malleolus of my tibia (i.e.=ankle). It doesn't sound nearly as serious as what you have (I didn't do the fibula). But I did have 2 screws surgically placed, which sped up the healing and ensured a proper set. Spent about 5 weeks on crutches, the latter part of it in a walking boot with some light weight bearing. I was back rock climbing almost exactly 2 months later- although sticking my foot in cracks was not so successful at first. I went ice climbing 10 weeks after the surgery, but the bigger boots gave good stability. I also had the screws removed about a year later, because in addition to some skin irritation, I feared that a repeat of this injury (a common one at that...) with these screws in there would likely pulverize my bones. So if you have the option to remove your hardware down the road, it might be worth considering.

 

In a separate incident, I also broke my heel with 3 fractures, luckily all of them shallow and not displaced. I was back climbing 5 weeks later; climbing was easy, but walking/hiking was not for a month longer, and the prospect of falling and landing hard on any ledges also was a bit dodgy until some time had passed. In retrospect, I probably pushed my return a bit too fast on this one- I started walking 2 weeks after the break (against doctors orders) and a week later went back on crutches because of the pain.

 

Best advice I can think of is to work on flexibility while you're unable to bear weight, and get some massage/lymphatic tissue work done, which will keep moving the edema out of your foot where it likes to collect. Although I'm not sure how extensive your fractures are (shattered? or clean?) I'm sure you're aware that the broken bones you have are probably the least of your concerns with recovery- it's the soft tissue and tendon/ligament damage with lower leg injuries that will require ongoing attention. Good luck! You'll be back before you know it.

 

[marylou]

1986 Split the tip of R radius. Pin still in place. Took a fall in an alley and landed on elbow.

 

1990 Broke 3rd Metatarsal right foot. No surg/hardware. Slipped in rain and dropped motorcycle on foot.

 

1996 Calc/Talus right foot, 4th Met L foot. Two screws to stabilize calc, removed in 2003 to increase flex in bone, it did help. Lead fall on bolts.

 

1999 Split head of R Radius again. Required very little as original hardware still in place. Bone broke in exact same place as last time. Slipped on black ice crossing street.

 

2006 Sprial Frac of R ulna. 4 screws, coming out soon. Work accident.

 

2007 having screws removed from wrist and a bunch of bone spurs removed from talus.

 

Climbingwise, I'd say bones with hardware in them don't bend quite right under stress (metal's more rigid than bone), they can be more temparature sensitive (metal/cold) and more barometric pressure sensitive. At this point I would always be inclined to remove hardware after one year even though it means more surgery.

 

I have brittle bones and I'm a bit of a klutz so my stats are higher than average.

 

 

[i_like_sun]

... The worst part was the muscle atrophy.

 

I figured the worst part about rollerblading would be telling your parents that you were gay.

 

 

[i_like_sun]

1993 - broken left pinky toe: Fat kid step on it in gymnastics class. Walking boot, 3 weeks.

 

1998 - proximal right humerus fracture: backflip attempt on snowboard. Landed on ice upside down with arm out stretched. Wore sling for six weeks.

 

1999 - distal tibia and fibia fracture. Broke growth plate of tibia: slid into second base wearing metal cleats, cleats caught the bag. SNAP! Freshman year of high school. Tibia required two screws. 10 weeks till walking and hiking. Another year till fully solid.

 

2003 - fractured right triquitrum bone. Dove down a bunch of stairs after fucking up a BMX double peg grind on a handrail. 12 weeks of cast time, 12 weeks of muscle rebuildig.

 

2005 - fractured left triquitrum bone, left scaphoid bone, left pisiform, and right 4th 5th & 6th ribs. BMX dirt jumping; went "super man" over my handle bars and dove to flat ground from 20 feet in the air. Left scaphoid required open reduction and closed fixation with one titanium screw. 13 weeks of full arm cast, and another full year until fully recovered.

 

Its too bad this forum doesn't want to know about soft tissue injuries. Because that is where shit gets super interesting! Who cares about broken bones, they heal perfectly! All my climbing injuries are tendon related.

[Dechristo]

I've never broken any bones, that have been confirmed by x-ray, but I've cut and blown a few off.

[chesterboo]

Oly, You will be fine. You will heal. Start getting your mind set ready to rehab and strengthen your body when the doc gives you the go ahead. Talk to some Physical therapists, find a good one near your house that you can go to when you get the cast off etc....Consider this fall a wash for climbing. Get it into your mind that this will not hold you back and set a goal of the first of the year you come back strong and with a purpose. You will succeed if you lay back, heal, and then come back strong. Good luck!!

[jaee]

I have a screw in the left ankle from a spiral fracture of the fibula. From time to time this screw binds and causes a pretty severe shooting pain, but it's infrequent.

 

I have a plate in the upper half of the right tibia w/ 7 screws. Other than being uncomfortable kneeling I notice it during fast descents with a pack. It gets sore and my guess is the plate flexes differently than the bone when pounding on it.

 

It was 12 weeks before I was back on my feet without crutches. After that it took a few months of PT and focused exercises before everything was working fine.

 

So total, 6 months to get back to my previous capabilities. You could probably cut that down by 6 weeks or so if you hit it hard as soon as you can. You might be able to shorten that some more if you do everything you can while you're healing, such as work on range of motion in the injured leg and exercising the uninjured leg.

[marylou]

Jaee, why not have that stuff taken out? You're spot on about the hardware being more rigid than bone. Personally I have found surgery to be totally worth it to get hardware removed.

 

 

[ken4ord]

How many bones have you broken climbing (or hell, non-climbing breaks too), which bones were broken, and how long till you were climbing again?

 

Other than this current situation, I broke my femur when I was 5 (my brother rode me back to the house on the handlebars of his bike), and they are telling me 6 weeks before I can wieght my leg...I'm just trying to understand how long. Anyone climbing with pins or pieces of metal in their shin bones (or other bones?)

 

So are they still using metal these days? I thought they now have screws that disolve over several years and are replace by bone as they disolve. Maybe they are not used for breaks?

 

[jaee]

Jaee, why not have that stuff taken out? You're spot on about the hardware being more rigid than bone. Personally I have found surgery to be totally worth it to get hardware removed.

 

Marylou I plan to get the plate out. I have to research the screw a bit more. The orthopedist I liked the best when I was recovering said that the screw will keep the fibula from rotating in the future. He said he's had two cases where the screw was taken out and the fibula just spun back out of the sloppy old ankle joint. Scary.

[olyclimber]

How many bones have you broken climbing (or hell, non-climbing breaks too), which bones were broken, and how long till you were climbing again?

 

Other than this current situation, I broke my femur when I was 5 (my brother rode me back to the house on the handlebars of his bike), and they are telling me 6 weeks before I can wieght my leg...I'm just trying to understand how long. Anyone climbing with pins or pieces of metal in their shin bones (or other bones?)

 

i had titanium rod put into the tibia. i don't know what else they did.

 

So are they still using metal these days? I thought they now have screws that disolve over several years and are replace by bone as they disolve. Maybe they are not used for breaks?

[marylou]

So are they still using metal these days? I thought they now have screws that disolve over several years and are replace by bone as they disolve. Maybe they are not used for breaks?

 

Ken are you joking? That would be awesome, but no, they still use metal.

[ericb]

I think they are now using dissolvable screws for some soft tissue attachments (ACL reconstruction for instance) but I would assume metal on metal with plates.

[Kat_Roslyn]

How many bones have you broken climbing (or hell, non-climbing breaks too), which bones were broken, and how long till you were climbing again?

 

Other than this current situation, I broke my femur when I was 5 (my brother rode me back to the house on the handlebars of his bike), and they are telling me 6 weeks before I can wieght my leg...I'm just trying to understand how long. Anyone climbing with pins or pieces of metal in their shin bones (or other bones?)

 

4 metal rods the size of sharpie pens in my pelvis and one goin through the sacrum. Makes me a send-bot.

Broken arm snowbboarding when I was yittle.

and messed up ankle and they stuck it in a boot for two months after falling very gracefully while climbering rocks.

 

[el jefe]

i broke the talus (bone that forms the bottom half of the ankle joint) in 1990 and spent 14 weeks on crutches with strict orders to avoid weighting my injured leg. the muscles atrophied but came back after a time, and best of all my ankle healed perfectly. i haven't had any problems with it since the injury, which is good as i was told at the time that i would probably end up needing to have it fused.

[gt5816v]

Tib/fib/ankle from a biking accident. Tib was spiral and nasty. My foot was pointing the wrong direction. Fib was completely separated mid span and jammed against the skin on either side of my calf. Tons of collateral tissue damage. Amazingly they did a closed reduction. The doc said to give up sports completely cause best case I might be able to walk. WTF?!? Guess I showed him That was a long time ago but the atrophy was the worst part indeed. When they took the hip cast off my leg just folded up and I could not straighten it. Eventually I had a walking cast and then a remove able. Prob ~20 weeks of rehab.

 

A friend of mines son had a very similar break recently and they did an open reduction with pins and his recovery time was much faster...

 

I've broken my collar bones a couple of times. My nose, many toes and many fingers.

 

So what happened to you Porter, sorry I missed it

 

[olyclimber]

Fell from top of Coach's Crack at UW Rock, broke both my tib and fib as shown here:

 

Got a ti rod put in my fib, with screws down by my ankle:

 

and up by my knee:

[gt5816v]

Ouch! Did you land on your feet?