Forum menu
Brief history of [s]time[/s] [i]TINAS' arm[/i]
Dec 2011 - Mid shaft Galeazzi fracture, plated
June 2013 - periprosthetic (distal) fracture, old plate removed, new plate installed
November 2013 - Galeazzi fracture, in the same place as the June frature. Plated again, and a bone graft from my hip taken and put in the 'gap'. The consultant said the 'healed' bone was a malunion and non-vasuclar (no bone marrow/blood vessels) so was never going to be very strong (hence why a small fall broke it.
Leaving asside the fact that getting back on the bike 10 days after the break in June (cast came off very quickly!) may have played a part in the malunion (apparently some execrise is good for stimulating bone growth, more is not apparenly better!). So this time I'm resigned to absoutely nothing for 2 months at least while it starts to heal, and I've been told cycling (with he associated risk of falling) is a definate no. But how long before the bone graft is strong enough for other sports, I'm thinking of getting back into Dinghy sailing, so very physicaly demanding and requiring a lot of pushing/pulling but very little chance of broken bones as there's not much to hit other than water/the boat!
I'd ask the consultant but due to the efficient way the NHS works it's built around minimising time with him, so I'll ask a question, get an answer, then forget the next one and not have time to think up a follow up question to the first before he's moved on! And I won't see him untill into the new year and it's bugging me that I can't even begin to plan anything!
1) How long before I can get on a rowing erg or lift weights at the gym?
2) How long till I can get in a dinghy and risk the occasional fall or being thrown onto the sail in a capsize?
I'm guessing the answer to both is "longer than you gave it last time"
Sorry to be boring but ask the surgeon. No two cases are ever the same.
Be patient - a lifetime with a bad arm is not worth it for short term fun - be patient and let it sort itself.
Jet
Orthopod.
Apologies if that sounds blund but the only worthwhile opinion is that of the person treating who has all the information...
Yes, me. It involves them making an incision over the crest of your pelvis. They then use a hammer and chisel to knock the knobbly bits off your pelvis (there is a reason that most orthopedic surgeons look like rugby players(or carpenters)), which are then lovingly stuffed into the bit of bone they want to grow (in my case the collar bone). Hopefully the growing bone knobbly bits continue growing and plug the gap. They will then insert a drain and sew up back up. Removing the drain the next day stings a bit. 😯
You are then left with a very sore hip, stretched muscles and generally the feeling that someone has been attaching you with a hammer and chisel (which is true). The site of the original injury was much less painful.
After that it's a waiting game to see if it takes, in my case it was 8 weeks in a sling. Happily it worked...
I've had the opperation, just in the uncertain waiting bit now (2 weeks so far).
I was told it was more about scrapeing and scooping up some marrow from inside the bone than actually lobing bits of bone off. Still ached though!
Yeah had a bone graft it was 12 weeks before I became partial weight bearing and a further 12 before I became full weight bearing.
12 weeks!
they're going to have to section me 🙁
i had a bone graft on my tibial plateau in 2006 in canada. i was riding 4 weeks after surgery although they said 12-18 months for metal work and bone graft to be 100%
12 weeks!they're going to have to section me
24.
Just seen him to ask those questions. Cast for 6 weeks, no exercise for 3 months, no weights for 6 months 🙁 And thats provisional on the graft having been a success.
Not so much the winter ruined for cycling, thats the summer gone too for all sport!
Mine was a graft on my femur after a removal of a bone tumour and some metal work attached.
I was on an exercise bike during physio sessions within a few weeks of the op.