My counter anecdote I fractured a bone in my leg. Kept walking on it for a year. Only healed when I finally got in a boot.
Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks
191–200 of 342 posts
Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks
#192I broke an arm and the emergency room couldn't see it on the x-ray and gave me a sling to wear. A couple days later I got to see an actual bone doctor and he got the x-ray and immediately pointed to the fracture. What surprised me was that he said not to use the sling, because it would lose my range of motion. "Keep moving your arm, use the entire range of motion, and let pain be your guide."
Remember, "Pain is weakness leaving your body".
Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks
#193The 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,…
Apropos of nothing in particular, when I first started mountain biking, a guy I was riding with told me: "You can divide all mountain bikers into two groups: the ones who have broken their collarbone, and the ones who are about to break their collarbone." Knock on wood, 20 years later I still haven't broken a collarbone, but I've had plenty of scrapes, bruises, cuts, etc, a couple of concussions, a torn rotator cuff,…
Is there padding or gear sold that can reduce the likelihood?
Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks
#194The 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,…
I shattered my collarbone - and I do mean shattered, ~8 pieces - in a mountain bike crash September 2023. I went over the bars after the back wheel of my hardtail caught a berm. Landed on my head and shoulder and compressed it laterally inwards by about 2 inches. Even with this mess, it was hotly debated for around two weeks whether I needed surgery. A good chunk of my collarbone was trying to push through my skin an…
I also broke mine in a crash, had surgery, but have not bothered to get the plate removed and it's fine?
The only time I really notice it is if someone pushes on it or if I'm doing front squats with a bar.
Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
I shattered my collarbone - and I do mean shattered, ~8 pieces - in a mountain bike crash September 2023. I went over the bars after the back wheel of my hardtail caught a berm. Landed on my head and shoulder and compressed it laterally inwards by about 2 inches. Even with this mess, it was hotly debated for around two weeks whether I needed surgery. A good chunk of my collarbone was trying to push through my skin an…
Shattered mine mountain biking as well (6 pieces). Ortho took one look at it and scheduled surgery for the next day. It wasn't a 'standard' break since it included my AC joint and coracoclavicular ligaments which needed a special type of plate. Ultimately it took 2 surgeries (ORIF, then plate removal). Total recovery was 9 months. My arm/shoulder is as strong as it was before, and it looks anatomically correct. My sh…
Almost everyone I know that mountain bikes, had broken their collarbone.
Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks
#196I’ve had a handful of broken bones and other ailments over the years, and some fairly awful back and spine issues. I’ve noticed the change from “rest avoid weight and keep the fragile bones away from danger” to “don’t overdo it, but try use it” over the years. It makes me wonder how much of our “rest” when sick is really the best course of action. I’m not suggesting weightlifting with a flu, but instead of being bed bound trying to get out walking, etc.
Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apropos of nothing in particular, when I first started mountain biking, a guy I was riding with told me: "You can divide all mountain bikers into two groups: the ones who have broken their collarbone, and the ones who are about to break their collarbone." Knock on wood, 20 years later I still haven't broken a collarbone, but I've had plenty of scrapes, bruises, cuts, etc, a couple of concussions, a torn rotator cuff,…
Is there padding or gear sold that can reduce the likelihood?
For collarbones specifically? Nothing I'm aware of. At least if the explanation that was given to me for the high prevalence of collarbone injuries is correct, that makes sense. Someone explained it to me as "when you start to fall, you instinctive tend to reach our towards the ground to try to break your fall. So your hand is the first thing that hits the ground, and all the energy of the fall goes up your arm and into your shoulder / upper chest area. And the collarbone just happens to be the "weak link" there and so tends to break."
Now maybe that's just folk wisdom that isn't really true, but it sounds plausible to me. And if we reason by analogy a little, it's not too far off what my surgeon told me when I tore my rotator cuff. I fell and came down on my elbow, and he explained that the energy from the fall pushed my humerus up into my shoulder, and pinched my rotator cuff between two bone heads, which is what caused the tear.
So yeah, not much padding can do about stuff like that I guess.
Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks
#198I’ve had a handful of broken bones and other ailments over the years, and some fairly awful back and spine issues. I’ve noticed the change from “rest avoid weight and keep the fragile bones away from danger” to “don’t overdo it, but try use it” over the years. It makes me wonder how much of our “rest” when sick is really the best course of action. I’m not suggesting weightlifting with a flu, but instead of being bed…
I had a chipped right kneecap in 6th grade, around 1980. At that time the practice was to put the whole leg in a brace and baby it; I don't remember for how long.
Being a kid and wanting it to heal, I took that advice to heart. But of course I still wanted to do stuff... even riding my bike pedaling with only one leg.
This was highly detrimental. There was no mention of physical therapy or rehabilitation of the knee. The favoring was so quickly ingrained that it continued unconsciously even after the brace came off; now my formerly-injured leg is longer than my other one, leading to mild scoliosis and a lifetime of asymmetrical foot and/or leg problems. I can see (although the casual observer probably wouldn't notice) that my whole body developed to put more weight over my left leg.
It's infuriating. This blunder during a child's growth years can be a disaster. Even as an adult I experienced doctors dismissing this entire sequence of events as the source of measurable deformity. WTF?
I experienced a minor brush with a similar mistake much more recently. A falling basketball fractured my finger by jamming it dead-on from the tip. My general doctor put it in a splint, where it was to remain for a while. I noticed that the swelling and color were not improving over an extended period, and went to a hand specialist. He immediately removed the splint and had me flexing the finger as hard as I could every day. He said if I'd left it in the splint I would have permanently lost some range of motion.
I believe in medicine, but even with access to "good" care it's a minefield. Even a relatively informed and interested patient can't dodge all the harm from incompetent, ignorant, and outright corrupt healthcare and drug purveyors.
Don't even get me started on the serious harm visited upon people by corticosteroids and fluoroquinolones...
Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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
Nah. Decades of politeness have failed, it's time to get more aggressive about people deciding it's ok to kill other people as long as you do it by driving a car into them and aren't drunk at the time.
Re: Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks
#200The 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…
when my grandma was a kid she remembers the village doctor telling her she has ghosts in her blood and she should do cocaine about it