Hey all,

Following on from the metal work out after 11 years thread, I was wondering what the variation in recovery from a major injury might be.

I’ll define a major injury as anything that has forced you to significantly change your life and no marriage, kids or excessively demanding job don’t count!

I’ll define a major injury as anything that has forced you to significantly change your life

As in a longterm change or conversely just not being able to go to work for a few days?

my dislocated shoulder plus complications had me off work for 6 months, i had to give up boxing and stopped going to the gym. I did however find that I could still ride (road bike only) so started taking my riding more seriously and less for granted. trained properly, completed a few big sportives and me my goal of riding to my mums house in France.

The next time I dislocated my shoulder I couldn’t afford to be off for 6 months so I changed jobs from an operational role to an office job, still cycling lots but no gym work again.

Its now a year since my shoulder has last been out of its socket. I’m back onto gym work but focussing much more on general health rather than size/strength. I have applied to join the army reserves as it turns out I missed the excitement of boxing more than I realised and I fancy a new challenge whilst I’m still young enough to get there! I still struggle with riding a mountain bike and haven’t tried since august, though I’m on a road bike/fixie/CX most days.

I didn’t notice at the time, but apparently a major injury had quite poor effect on my mental health, things are looking up now but my life lacked focus, and as is so often the case, being unable to do the things I wanted to do for the last 2 summers caused me to do very little but sulk, which is never healthy.

If the shoulder comes out again then it will be a surgical repair and this will require a further 6 months recovery off work and will put an end to my Army dreams. As such I should be being careful with my shoulder, however, building up strength through easy weights routines etc risks bringing it out, but also builds muscle that helps keep it in place, I decided to live normally and deal with the consequences as and when they happen (easier now I have other qualifications meaning if I can’t do my job I can be promoted to a different office based role).

Next target is getting back on the trails. I’m never going to be rad to the power of gnaaaarrr! but I quite fancy going back to “big days in the hills” riding like we used to do back in the 90’s/00’s. With Maps and cake and hard tails.

Keep healthy chaps/chappesses, being broken sucks!

Full thickness tear of my L5/S1 disc at the age of 27 stopped me playing rugby, a significant part of my life until that point. It was 6 months of intermittent bouts of sharp pain, sciatica, muscle cramps and sleeplessness before things started to settle. That was 14 years ago. As a consequence, my daily routine to this day starts with stretching and core exercises. Biking for general fitness, and as an antidote to a desk-bound job.

I was thinking long term change.

I was wondering what the variation in recovery from a major injury might be.

Vast.

Whilst not an injury as such I was diagnosed with a condition called guillain-barre syndrome in oct 2002. It affects the central nervous system and in my case lost me the use of my right arm and leg. I spent 9 months off work, 4 of those I was in a wheelchair. It brought my rugby playing to an abrupt halt and I went from being 16 st to under 12 st in a matter of a few months.
The biggest thing was trying to regain muscle in my right limbs and I still have problems with coordination on my right side (as Monday night pub ride members will testify to by my regular unplanned dismounts)

All in all I reckon it was 2 years before I felt fit enough to do any kind of sport.

3 broken arms in 2 years, took between one and two days off for the operations on each. Plus physio for a couple of hours a fortnight. Which actually meant I came out averaging below the average sickness in our company! (2.1 days/year).

Only current ongoing issue is my radius is now longer to try and compensate for the loss of rotation (I couldn’t put my palms out flat to do a bicep curl otherwise), which interferes with other finer movements so I’m probably never going to play piano, although it should get more controlled with time, at the moment when my brain thinks it’s making a w****** movement it sort of gets half way then rotates and pulls the wrist back.

More of an everyday reminder than life changing.

Currently off the bike with a fractured humerus (OTB), but haven’t taken any time off work (except for a few hours to attend fracture clinics). I am hoping to make a full enough recovery for it not to have much long term impact, but only time will tell I guess.

Not being able to drive placed a major strain on normal life, but that’s just short term.

My ex had a major car crash, intensive care, long recovery etc I’d say the biggest effect was on her personality – it completely screwed her up, her confidence never recovered and she has been on an endless variety of anti-depressants. The chap who caused the crash (18 year old driving recklessly) got off pretty much scott-free.

My knee injury is the first one I’ve had which has stopped me from working or having significant independence and I’m finding that it’s starting to really bother me.

I’m lucky that my parents have taken me back in, living on my own wasn’t really an option according to the phyios that discharged me.

Was just in the process of going into self employment having finished a fixed term contract and (finally) handed in my thesis. So I’m sat around just waiting to heal! When I should be out working with clients. Alas the sort of work I was going to be hired to do requires me going to a clients site and since i cant drive… It’s very frustrating.

I’ve got ‘poor quality cartilage’, and my knees have been shot since my teens. I had to give up Tae Kwon Do, and I’ll never be a particularly amazing biker – I can get off the saddle freewheeling downhill, but as soon as I have to pedal it’s bum on saddle time. To get up hills, I sit and spin. Slooooowly. When walking, stairs are often uncomfortable, occasionally painful, and steep downhill slopes are nigh on impossible. It’s been like that for nearly half my life though, so I just kind of accept is as normal. Three operations so far, probably a fourth in the next ten years or so.

from down under here is one of the victims of a collision last weekend, an SUV rear ended a group of riders at high speed

this lady calmly talks about her probable 2years to recover just some use of one of her hands, her husbands injuries are more severe

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-cyclist-loses-function-in-hand-after-collision-with-car-20140319-352wm.html

I guess some people just get on with life