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Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#181

Post by osmano807 »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #67
wkirby wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suffered a very similar break playing soccer. ER surgeon asked if I fell off a roof. 3 metal plates and 15 screws later I was non-weight bearing for 14 weeks. I lost almost 5 inches in circumference from my left thigh while waiting to put weight back on that leg. My post-break recovery has not been as good as yours sounds. Almost 3 years later and I rate my ankle at 75% of what its sibling is capable of. I had foll…

I wonder how and when they choose to remove plates, vs. leaving them in. They left mine in, and when I originally asked them, they mentioned that there was significantly more risk in removing it than leaving it in. 20 years on, and it's still hanging in there.

Unless we have a clear indication, plates are not meant to be removed. For example, plating children we usually remove the plate as to not interfere with growth, or in some cases a fibula plate can irritate the tendons and should be removed, or in cases of infection.

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#182

Post by adammarples »

akudha wrote: post #167
ehnto wrote: post #3

The pathology for broken collar bones was changing right as I took up mountain biking, and subsequently shattered my collarbone. It was hotly debated at the hospital, if my specific case should be operated on or not. Each time I had a checkup, one doctor would say "wait and see" while the other was saying "I can't believe we didn't operate on this". At any rate, the outcome was as good as if they had operated on it,…

When I was a kid (not in the U.S), I remember village elders diagnosing all kinds of illnesses simply from checking one's pulse, without asking any questions or even talking. These are people with minimum education, minimum or zero exposure to science or labs or modern medicine. Now we have all kinds of powerful, fancy machines and drugs and procedures and today's doctors still misdiagnose, mistreat even relatively s…

I get the impression from the second part of this that you think the village elders were correctly diagnosing things?

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#183

Post by Panzer04 »

treetalker wrote: post #172
Panzer04 wrote: post #169

I broke my ankle 15 weeks ago, and decided to weight bear early against the advice of my doctors. In my experience, it caused me no issues and prevented my calf from atrophying further. My foot was also super tight, and I can't imagine that would have gotten better by staying off it. I think a lot of medical advice is based on what doesn't go wrong, rather than what might give the best outcome. I'm sure there are doc…

Primum non nocere

It's certainly an understandable view. At least there is more research showing that at least some of these measures aren't meaningfully reducing harm anyway.

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#184

Post by dwedge »

Last year I went to the hospital with a suspected broken foot. They xrayed it and told me it was just a sprain, but that "interestingly" I had an extra bone in my foot. I walked as much as I could for two weeks, went back for a second appointment and was told it wasn't a sprain (or an extra bone) and was in fact broken in three places.

It's good to know they accidentally gave me good medical advice.

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#185

Post by burnished »

wiether wrote: post #101
alistairSH wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know that "normal" mountain biking is any worse than cycling in general, or sports like tackle football. A lot of the injury risk when mountain biking is reasonably easily mitigated by controlling your speed and walking the bike through terrain that's above your skill level. There was a report out of British Columbia a few months ago about injury rates, and they were high, but BC is also a major downhill trai…

> I know more people with major injuries from being hit by cars _hit by drivers_, you meant?

I think I like what you're getting at (placing blame on the human not the object), but could you tone the attitude down? This read to me as an almost snide correction, I genuinely think you'd convince people if you 'invited' them instead

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#186

Post by burnished »

adammarples wrote: post #182
akudha wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a kid (not in the U.S), I remember village elders diagnosing all kinds of illnesses simply from checking one's pulse, without asking any questions or even talking. These are people with minimum education, minimum or zero exposure to science or labs or modern medicine. Now we have all kinds of powerful, fancy machines and drugs and procedures and today's doctors still misdiagnose, mistreat even relatively s…

I get the impression from the second part of this that you think the village elders were correctly diagnosing things?

I wonder how likely that is? I suspect their understanding of their diagnostic technique is flawed, but beyond that, would a small enough group have a similarly small pool of common afflictions such that you could develop a useful body of medical lore?

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#187

Post by AngryData »

4ggr0 wrote: post #30
ghaff wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general, "society" deciding what activities are too dangerous to routinely allow is a really nasty slope. Yes, there's some special insurance offered through private organizations for things like higher altitude mountaineering. But it's not that big a step to rule that any contact sport, for example, should require special insurance. I'm sure the insurance companies wouldn't mind.

One thing which comes to mind is - why should we stop at sports, then? we'll immediately be at the point where smokers, alcoholics, obese people etc. should pay more, after all, their way of life statistically causes higher costs. (i don't think either of those things should result in higher insurance prices, just continuing the thought.)

I don't know about alcoholics, but smokers and obese people actually cost less in medical care because they usually die before age-related diseases takes hold which are the most expensive, they most often die of heart attack and stroke which are the cheapest deaths, and being fat or a smoker disqualifies you from many procedures and operations that they otherwise would do without hesitation.

On top of that for smokers, the amount of sin taxes they pay on cigarettes over their lifetime almost always exceeds their entire life-time medical costs.

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#189

Post by wingofagriffin »

This is interestingly relevant to me right now as I just fractured my shoulder this weekend. Urgent care gave me a sling despite the chip being small, though everything I'm reading online is saying to use it and to not take pain killers to let my body do the healing naturally. Talking to my primary care now to see what the recommendation is.

Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

#190

Post by imroot »

In the 90's my grandma had her knee replaced. She was bed-bound for 2 weeks before they'd start physical therapy to get her knees back in order. (Ironically enough, her first knee was recalled...so she had a total of three knee surgeries Left, Right, then Left again) over a span of 11 years.

In 2018, my mom had her left knee and right knee done at the same time...and they had her up walking the halls of the floor the next day and was back at home less than 72 hours after her surgery, and she's walking just fine these days without any assistance.

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