291–300 of 342 posts
My main take away from this thread is to never take up mountain biking.
Mountain bikers becoming injured isn't a question of IF, but WHEN. If you have a coworker in their 30s or 40s who is just starting to get into mountain biking (a common midlife crisis hobby), expect them to have a MTB related injury within the next year.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also shattered mine mtn biking (2022), and the surgeon scheduled surgery as soon as he saw the x-ray. I broke it twice as a teenager, and went through the sling route for both of those. The craziest part about the plate is how quickly the pain from instability was relieved. I could finally sleep and honestly could've used my arm at ~80% days after surgery. I still have the plate which causes some discomfort, but I li…
Do yourself a favor and don't wait too long to get rid of the plate: when you crash on that shoulder again, the collar bone won't be able to do it's job of being the predetermined breaking point that saves the shoulder ligaments from ripping. And the AC ligament, unlike bone, will never recover. Not even with the surgery that you'll then likely need to at least restore the other shoulder ligaments. Fractured collar b…
My theory is exercise, within certain limits of the injury, increases blood flow to the injury, allowing it to heal faster. If there is inflammation, that means restricted blood flow, so getting your heart to push more blood into those areas from physical activity makes sense to help recovery. No blood flow, no healing.
We can also only remove waste 3 ways. Urinating, defecating and sweating. Sweating is less 'efficient' from a waste removal perspective, but it does help regulate lactic acid and electrolytes. If you're riding the couch, you won't be activating this system. Increased blood flow from exercise throughout would also improve the other waste removal systems in your body, aiding recovery.
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…
Anecdotal but... Broke my femur neck on a mountain bike. Surgery, plates and screws. Surgeon said no weight on the broken bone for 8 weeks and no walking on it for 12. And then we'll see he said. In 4 weeks I was on a trainer (fork fixed to the trainer). Started easy with 30min sessions and then increased time and force applied to the pedals. After 2 weeks of "riding", started putting weight on the bone with short wa…
I had shoulder surgery last May. My surgeon told me no combat sports (BJJ, judo) for six months minimum. I was 40 at the time. I went back on the mats a week later. Started with only doing warmups and movement drills, worked up to gentle flow rolling (with my arm tied into my belt) at a month, then drilling techniques with well-chosen partners and conservatively rolling with those same partners at two months. This wa…
For me it took about 4 months to feel pretty comfortable with the shoulder(s) and about 6-12 months for skateboarding, weight lifting, etc
What was your surgery if you don't mind me asking?
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,…
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…
A friend of mine who is a doctor, osteopath a once played pro basketball in Austria said: if pro sports injuries would be treated like the general population is treated there would be no pro sports.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
this is such a wild take to me... it's impossible to quantity at what point something becomes a net negative for society. Smoking seems to be an obvious example, because it's addictive quality inhibits a fair decision to the smoker, and it's something with a lifelong pathology. But trampolines and mountain biking are both activities that result in ephemeral injuries. There is the rare case where a particular injury m…
> but how is that a drain on society, and not primarily the individual? There are two factors. The first is that a drain on individuals is a drain on society. That's why we outlaw risky behavior like lethal recreactional drugs, driving without seatbelts, driving without a driver's license, etc. We try to protect people from themselves in some of the worst aspects that we can. Second, of course, is health care costs.…
Citation needed. I don't outright disagree, but I do think you state this as if it's a much simpler fact of life then it really is.
> That's why we outlaw risky behavior like lethal recreactional drugs,
Outlawing drugs is a perfect example, that's something we've done in the US that has gone flawlessly. No one has any notes, complete unambiguous success.... oh wait!
You even elude to this, I assume, by restricting it to just lethal drugs. That's misleading at best. There is plenty of space to say this is more likely to harm the community, than it is to support the individual. PCP is a popular example where the misapplication directly causes said individual to become a direct danger to the community.
> driving without seatbelts, driving without a driver's license, etc. We try to protect people from themselves in some of the worst aspects that we can.
It's legal to drive a car without a license. You need a license to prove you're able to do it safely on public property. It's very different to say, you can't do X ever, and you can't do [something unsafe for other people], around other people who are being safe.
> Second, of course, is health care costs. Activities that constantly result in injury wind up raising the health care costs for everyone, since that's how insurance works.
> You already have to have car insurance, yes. And yes lots of kinds of guns are banned in lots of places.
> We draw the lines in different places.
Right, I'm aware, but prove that's actually a bad thing? That's what I'm asking. Is it sane to go "AHHHHH THAT'S RISK! All risk is bad for society! Quick, ban it!". Again, using "Non-lethal" drug, seem to suggest that the risks of banning something out weight the risks of that thing. We already learned that banning alcohol was a net-negative, and we seem to be figuring that out for marijuana now too.
> It is a pretty interesting thought experiment to wonder whether people shouldn't be allowed to engage in organized sports that are risky, without paying an additional health insurance premium? E.g. if you play professional football, then your league has to pay extra money into the health insurance fund to compensate for all the extra health care treatment their players need and will need.
Is this a good idea? Car insurance protects others from your carelessness. Sports insurance protects you from... you? Is it reasonable for society to subdivide itself like that? Should old people have to pay more money for insurance? Should people with diabetes pay more? Should women of childbearing age pay more? Or should we as a society, look down from a higher level view, acknowledge that healthy individuals are better for society, and decide that we're not going to treat individuals differently, that because everyone is in this game of life together, where nobody gets out alive, that we're all going to make it as easy as we can for everybody to be their best, while refusing to define best for any individual.
Anecdotal but... Broke my femur neck on a mountain bike. Surgery, plates and screws. Surgeon said no weight on the broken bone for 8 weeks and no walking on it for 12. And then we'll see he said. In 4 weeks I was on a trainer (fork fixed to the trainer). Started easy with 30min sessions and then increased time and force applied to the pedals. After 2 weeks of "riding", started putting weight on the bone with short wa…
How old were you?
A couple of weeks ago I went over the handlebars on my bicycle and broke my collarbone, needed 5 stitches on my forehead, got a little road rash on my hip, and an avulsion (?) fracture on one finger resulting in mallet finger. I'm 54 and have noticed that I'm healing much more slowly than I remember healing when I was a teenager.
Mostly, things are going smoothly and the only thing I'm really worried about is the mallet finger. I've been told to keep it in a splint for 8 weeks and if I accidentally bend it a little before then any healing will have to start over and I might end up needing surgery for it.
If anybody here has had mallet finger, I'd love to hear how it went for you.