Recovery After Broken Leg

[warrior37 0]

im 22 and it took me about one year exactly to be back to where i was when i broke my leg

[Dare to Dream 1980 0]

YES its very normal to have swelling and touchy spot in your leg after you get your cast off- you might have swelling for another month-month in a half still and your touchy spot SHOULD go away by the time your leg is completely healed. So if your worried dont be because its not unusual and keep your leg elevated and apply ice to the swelling spots 24/7 trust me it helps alot.

[Hazard14 0]

Did your PT ask you to do cold/warm dunks (if your incisions have healed properly)?

If not, ask him/her about this; it was what I did to bring down the swelling, once a day for a few weeks after the cast came off:

(i) dunk the lower leg in a bucket of warm water for 30 secs;

(ii) dunk the lower leg in a bucket of cold or ice water for 60 secs;

- repeat (i) and (ii) a few times.

When I went to work I used a neoprene compression bandage, and I raised my leg whenever possible.

i never had any incisions, no surgery required. at the PT Office i do heat therapy, infared therapy, some laser therapy, and get a nice foot massage (which feels nice). it hasnt been very long since the cast was taken off so hes taking everything slowly, but promises that i can be back walking in 2 weeks. he also said that when i sleep i have to apply some patch (used it/something like it on my back, works wonders, litteraly went from not being able to turn my arm, or my neck without being in excrutiating pain to back to normal overnight) and told me to keep my leg elevated when i sleep

YES its very normal to have swelling and touchy spot in your leg after you get your cast off- you might have swelling for another month-month in a half still and your touchy spot SHOULD go away by the time your leg is completely healed. So if your worried dont be because its not unusual and keep your leg elevated and apply ice to the swelling spots 24/7 trust me it helps alot.

yea i asked my PT today and he and another one said that its completley normal, since the injury isnt completely healed yet.

[Fire0nIce228 1]

I just want to throw out there in the swelling department that I got my pins and cast off my hand about a month ago and after I play hockey my hand still swells up. I played pretty fast paced pickup last night,4 on 4 for an hour and a half with no stopping and my hand was so swollen it felt like my glove didn't fit anymore.

Things take time, just take it easy and do what they tell you to.

[Hazard14 0]

im just wondering if anybody had this time of treatment for PT, its a type of heat treatment where there is like a chinese herbal medicine that is in the shape of a stick where whatever is inside is ignited and it is placed next to affected areas to heat it, didnt have the chance to ask him what it is, so im wondering if anybody else here has used it

[Wolverine 0]

Please update us on your status.

- your weight bearing status

- gait deficits

- current ankle & knee range of motion

- pain response

- muscle strength above & below knee

Please also include EXACTLY what you are doing in PT for:

- ROM exercises

- strengthening exercises

- proprioceptive drills

- modalities for pain

- home exercise program

Include your response to treatment. Please update us with what you did after every treatment session.

Yes, this is important. Especially if you want to successfully get back on the ice in a 'respectable' amount of time.

Thank you.

[Hazard14 0]

ok currently i am :

-No Weight Bearing for 2 more weeks,

-as for my gait i can move my foot enough so that i can walk with close to proper form

-i have full ROM with my knee, and pretty close to full with my ankle

-there is one spot on my ankle that when pressure is applied there is slight to moderate pain

-above knee stregnth is pretty damn good, as for below the knee i will be working on it after i finish my ROM PT

Right now i am going to be going about 5 times a week, and if not more because i want to go as much as possible. ROM is what i am currently doing, along with heat therapy, laser therapy, and massage therapy. all is working out very well so far, the swelling has decreased pretty dramatically, and the pain as well.

[nni 0]

just dont rush it. i am finally hitting the ice after 6 months of rehab, and while the wait sucks, doing the rehab right was worth it.

[Hazard14 0]

i really hope that i can be cleared to play before september, as the season will start then for me. but at least i will get this season for free, since i broke my ankle right after the start of a spring season my team has

[Hazard14 0]

ok tommorow is 2 weeks since my cast has been taken off, and my physical therapist said that i should start putting pressure on the leg that is broken, since i cant walk on it unless i put pressure on that leg, but the orthopedic specialist at the hospital said no weight bearing until atleast three weeks. my dilemma is who do i listen too, for some reason i trust my PT more than the ortho. but i dont want to reinjure it

[ju87 0]

I didn't really listen to my ortho about weight bearing. I tried to put as much weight on it as I could to push it along.

In my experience, I did not have the strength in my broken leg required to walk when the cast came off. I wore a brace and still used crutches, but I gradually tried to put more and more weight on the leg.

My rule of thumb was that if it doesn't hurt, it's ok, if it hurts, stop. Your body will tell you what is ok and what is not.

[Hudson14 0]

Hey dude i broke my leg last season in a hockey game, leg broke on a post frozen to the ice. Before you stare working out get all your mobility back. It will greatly help you to not experience as much pain when trying to regain the strength you once had. Also I had a cast up above my knee, your knee will be in extreme pain once you get your cast off so try not to move it and bring a knee brace if this is your case. Work on streching our your thigh and your calfs too, cause almost every morning when you wake up, you are going to take that morning stretch and get a charlie hoarse somewhere in your leg. Good luck coming back, its a long and hard road.

[Hazard14 0]

tomorrow is the day i should be able to walk once more without crutches. been going to lots of PT, but that has only helped. Hudson i hear ya man, keeping my leg bent to keep it of the ground really hurt my knee. all the best to everybody else on this site with breaks

Good luck with the rehab. Do all the exercises the PT tells you to do, and do all the rest days the PT tells you to do too. Get plenty of sleep and eat properly.

If you're doing the electro-stim, try to endure higher twitch frequencies and contraction strength (voltage?).

ahh electro-stim, it feels nice and extremely weird at the same time. the worst part though is when my PT is trying to find the right voltage thats not to high/low he went a little to high. god.

[Hazard14 0]

god today was by far my worst visit to the PT, i did the electro-stim, and got a massage everyhting was fine, until i had to do some excersise that invloved pushing with your hands against the wall then appling pressure to the broken ankle, and after than having to be my knee down, i will illustrate it for you

normal way first

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp...oot-outside.jpg

the way i did it the third time around

http://mrl.nyu.edu/~hertzman/painting/foot-poi.jpg

(these are just random pics from image search)

to put it simply my foot was supposed to be flat, but instead it was bended upwards, and when i put my body wieght on it, damn, i think it was the worst physical pain i have ever experienced, hurting like 2x more than the break itself

[ktang 34]

It's to restore range of motion; I had trouble with that for a year. But, I did it every day, and now both feet can flex the same amount.

[Hazard14 0]

kevin i know its for ROM, but its just crippling pain. right now my feet can flex just about the same amount

[bill33 0]

Its been a while since I have been to this thread.

Last year I broke my femur just above my knee. Had the surgery through the knee. Broke the femur in October, started skating very lightly end of March, off and on since then and the last three weeks have been able to skate without any pain. Im so excited, Im not skating at the same level yet but I am skating without any pain, and I can fully weight it while shooting and stopping.

Give all your attention to PT and continue to do as much work at home as you can. Also it seemed to really help me once I could really start streching the muscles. It feels very good to skate again but dont rush it, it will come back. Now I just have to get over skating towards the boards I keep pulling up short.

[ktang 34]

kevin i know its for ROM, but its just crippling pain. right now my feet can flex just about the same amount

You're lucky that you have the same ROM, or maybe it's because I had hardware inserted and you didn't. Anyways, keep it up and try to do some extra work at home.

[Hazard14 0]

i just remembered that while at the PT's office i had too walk to the room with my crutches which was across the hall, my PT decided to take my crutches while i was getting up, so i was forced to grab onto the wall and walk to the room (wow that was an experience). even though that excersise hurt like a bitch, ill learn to live with it, and continue with it so i could get back to playing as soon as possible

[shawn o 0]

I broke my fib at the end of January (spriral fracture) at practice. Collided with a teammate and slid sideways into the boards and my left skate slapped the boards 1st.

Was supposed to not put any weight on it for 6 weeks but after 2 weeks I started doing a bit of walking in the "boot" I was wearing. A week after that I was walking around the house w/o the boot on a limited basis. At the 4 week mark I was taking the boot off at work for about 4 hours a day or so.

I was working out the whole time on a daily basis.

At the 6 week mark I played in my 1st game again and was at about 90%. I had alot of calcification around the break so wearing my skate hurt a bit for a month or so after that.

When I went in for my 8 week appt with the Orthopedist and was walking totally normal w/o the cast he couldn't believe it. An X-Ray confirmed it was more than healed.

My left leg/ankle still feels a bit weird now and then. Not really pain or anything....more like the feeling you get sometimes when you feel you need to crack your knuckles...???

[Hazard14 0]

well today i began to walk, for some reason i just decided to start today, actually felt alright with almost no limp and almost no pain, after a couple hours of walkin i went with the fam to eat, and right when we got there the pain began, well its back to crutches for a while

[Hazard14 0]

Well, its about a year and a couple of weeks after the initial fracture. All is rather good, with my hockey being alot better since that time (with the copious amount of work i've since then). I hope to only improve from here, knock on wood.