Purpose
This page is a picture journal of my experience breaking my leg mountain biking. I will share pictures of my leg throughout the entire process, literally from the first hour of the break through to my first ride when I'm fully healed. Most importantly, this page will give me one more thing to do in order to keep me busy while I can't walk or drive :).The Story
On July 8, 2007, I was mountain biking in Truckee, CA on the Hole-In-The-Ground trail with a friend and a group of people I had met that morning. Towards the end of the ride, right around mile 16 (five miles from the car), I wrecked. As I went down, the pedal on the drive side of my bike trapped my leg between the bike and the ground. With the force of the fall and my weight, my leg twisted until it broke both the tibia and the fibula. Thankfully it was a closed fracture (meaning it didn't break through the skin) so I didn't have a severly increased risk of bone infection (it's the little things).It turned out that the group of people I was riding with were experienced with helping people with injury (one is a medic, one was law enforcement) and within two minutes of the crash, an off-duty EMT happened to ride by. Everyone helped to get me comfortable while we tried to figure out how I'd make the five or so miles back to the car. Just then, the owner of the road we were (legally) riding on drove up on a quad. He's a very kind man and he rode his quad home, got his truck, came back and ferried my friend and I (and our bikes and gear) back to my car, helped load our stuff in to the car and helped carry me to my car.
From there we went to Tahoe Forest hospital in Truckee, CA and were immediately admitted in the ER. The people there were very friendly and helpful and got me comfortable, xrayed, cleaned (bristle brush to the road rash) and splinted within about an 90 minutes. At the request of my health insurance provider (and my own) I was then transfered home to Sacramento. My friend drove us down in my car (I refused ambulance since I really wasn't hurting) and got me in to the ER locally.
I stayed two nights in the hospital as they evaluated my leg and prepped me for surgery. Due to my external injuries, the doctor wanted to wait a week before operating to give my leg a chance to heal some to see if he could do the surgery he wanted, which involved internal plating on the tibia and fibula. They put me in a removable cast, gave me a bunch of pain killers and sent me home for a week to clean the wounds and sit on the couch. My parents and sisters came to visit and my sisters lived with my wife and I for a week taking care of me so my wife could keep working. They were a huge help and took great care of me. They made a really bad situation a little better and easier to deal with.
A week later, I got my surgery. The external wounds didn't heal enough for the plates on my tibia so I ended up with a plate on my fibula, multiple screws and an external fixator to hold everything together. The external fixator involves a bar that was inserted through my heel, two threaded bars inserted through my tibia and then a framework to connect everything and completely immobilze my leg. This device does have some benefits over a hard-cast though. For example, if my leg itches I can scratch it. I can get the device wet, so I can take showers without bagging up my leg and having to worry about getting trench foot. Also, because it so completely immobilizes my leg, healing is supposed to be faster than plating and hard-casting. The downsides are that it's sort of gross (seeing bars and pins going through your leg is rough the first few times you look), I bump it in to things constantly, and when I went outside people looked at me like I was a freak. I guess it did sort of make me a freak, though. Whatever.
Following the surgery, I was in the external fixator for six weeks. I was casted for four weeks and in a darth boot on the 28th of September. From there it was some PT to increase blood flow in my leg to help healing, start getting flexibility back in my ankle and rebuilding leg muscle to help with walking, and ultimately cycling again. My PT involved a lot of stretches, strength exercises and of course cycling (on an indoor trainer at first, then on my road bike outside). By the 28th of November, I was allowed to start riding outdoors again. At first only on my road bike, but by February my doctor was ok with me doing some light mountain biking. I recovered pretty quickly once I started mountain biking; it's amazing how quickly you get strength in the legs from this sport. My ankle flexibility started coming back in a big way, my legs started getting stronger almost immediately, and before I knew it, the day of my final doctor visit had arrived. The day was March 26, 38 weeks, or just over nine months, since the break. I had xrays, and the doctor was thrilled with them, said I was 100% healed and released to all my normal activities! How fantastic is that?
Now that the story has its conclusion, I'd like to add a section here of things that I think helped me recover as quickly as I did. Recall that originally I was told to not even consider riding a bike again for at least nine months. Even if the doctor was being very conservative with this estimate, I have made a remarkable recovery. Below are some things that I feel helped significantly.
- Positive Attitude: I never let it be a question of if I would heal, but when and how fast.
- Supplements: I already was taking a daily multi-vitamin when I got hurt. I added a calcium supplement (calcium + vitamin D 1200mg/day) in addition to yogurts and cheeses, as well as significantly upping my protein intake (with protein bars).
- Bone stimulator: I don't have any hard data representing my leg and growth with or without the device. However, data on the device, the Exogen 4000+ supports that it helps stimulate bone growth. As far as I'm concerned, even if it didn't work but my brain thought it was, and I got some positive placebo effect, I'll take it.
- Most important: Doing what the doctor said. I made a deal with my doctor up front. If he said to do something, I promised I would do it. If he said not to do something, I promised I would not do it. I kept this promise all the way through, regardless of the difficulty of the task. I stayed off my leg until he said to do it, I started putting weight on it immediately, through the pain when he said I should, I kept myself off my bike, and off the aggressive trails until he approved of me upgrading. I cleared any supplements (like the calcium and protein) through him first, etc, etc. My doctor has the education and experience, I just have the broken bone. Thanks to his guidance, and my following it, I don't have a broken bone anymore.
- The website MyBrokenLeg.com. There are discussion forums there, FAQs for living with the break and being more comfortable, etc. You'll get a ton of emotional support from the forums, talking with people who are going through exactly what you are. Everyone there is fantastic, and they helped me considerably.
Latest (final?) Update
7/8/2008: Well, one year has gone by. I'm doing great; my leg feels like it did before the accident. I can run again (I never liked running before so I haven't done much of it, but I know I can), I'm riding a ton, my weight has come back to what it was before I got hurt, etc, etc. After I broke my leg, I set a goal of riding the trail where I broke it on the one year anniversary. Well, I did it, and completed the ride today. It was an awesome ride, and I've added some pics to the gallery.Thanks for reading this. Please feel free to email me with any questions you may have, and thanks for all of the support I received while recovering from this injury.
Updates Archive
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