Hey guys, I've been away for a bit, not that anyone noticed i'm not very active on the forums anyhow but I thought I'd share with you guys what happened and maybe I can get some advice from people having gone through similar situation.
I had a game last Sunday in which someone decided to follow up on their bad touch which I tackled away full force and kicked my shin from the side with all his force with the top of his boot. Unfortunately, both my tibula and fibula snapped and I spun around on my ass not knowing where to put my leg. There was crazy pain for the first 2-3 seconds which I screamed and then everything shut down. The other player actually only got a yellow but the main refree who was actually being assessed ended up failing for my injury scene in particularly as the assessor said that was a 100% red card.
Yes my leg looked like this lol
This is the original break x-ray:
I was admitted into the emergency room where they performed a quick operation lining up the bones once they put me to sleep, note this is to stabilize my leg and set it for the operation:
Anyways, once I was set up in the cast it took until Tuesday to have my operation during which my biggest issue at hand was urination more than anything. The morphine prevented my bladder from being active and the nurses eventually put in a catheter (tube into your penis hole all the way to bladder to pump out accumulating urine) instead of assisting me to pee against gravity and not on my back. By making their jobs easier, I had to go through a lot of pain and urinating was such an ordeal until a day or two after the surgery. If you are ever asked to put in a catheter, try to avoid it as much as you can, and if they tell you it doesn't hurt, that's false.
I got set up on Tuesday to go for surgery and this is what the doctor decided for me, to insert an IM rod into my Tibia. The video below does a good job of explaining the procedure in detail but basically they cut the area under your knee open, insert a titanium rod down the center of the tibia bone and screw it at top and bottom from sides once it is in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kSVyKnQIqU
After the surgery which took 3 hours, I talked to the doctor. He said it went very well and since it was such a clean transverse fracture he lined it up well enough so I can start bearing weight on it as much as I can which contributes to its healing process. The night of the surgery I couldn't sleep because of my bladder so I decided to take charge and told one of the nurses to just go and put me in a toilet and I sat there for an hour. For the first 50 mins, I got 50 cc and then it flowed and I let out a whopping 1000 cc which as ridiculous as it sounds was the best I've felt in a very long time. That pretty much fixed my urination issue and I asked to stop taking morphine and instead took oral painkillers. I only took five 2 mg morphine shots which was pretty much the least I could take with my pain. The day after my surgery I was determined to go to the Grizzly Bear concert which was at a theater so I started going off the ivy, started eating, got used to oral painkillers and passed my first physio by walking like 30-35 meters with a walker. I got my release and my friends put in the back of the car, we rented a wheelchair and drove me to the show. I'm so glad I made it as attending was a real moral booster for me. The next day (Thursday) wasn't too pleasant having really overworked my muscles the day before so I mostly slept and had to hit 2 painkillers at some points. It's Sunday now and I am getting better everyday, other parts of my body that compensate in positions I'm in are starting to tire a bit but I'll get through. The hardest part is still the nights, if I take two painkillers the pain goes away but I start having nightmares and wake up every 40 mins having to pee. If I don't take two, well then I have to sleep with pain and have spasms in sleep which hurt quite a bit. Daytimes are great, one painkiller for 7-8 hours and when I do a number two the world gets handed to me.
Anyhow, I have a check up on October 9th with the surgeon where they will look at the knee stitches and hopefully once they take that out I can start bending my knee which will allow for many new positions. I've read over 40 cases of similar situations and it seems the general consensus is 6-8 weeks for taking cast off, then 3 months to without crutches, then 6 months for rehab to lose limp and a couple of more months to return to sports. There is of course the complication of taking the rod out which by itself is a one month ordeal / operation but getting injured with the rod in could be very complicated so I'd probably want to take it out as soon as possible.
As for my recovery, I have already done all my regret crying at the field right when it happened and am now only determined to get back as soon and best as I can. I do not smoke or drink and really cater to my nutrition which I hope puts me ahead by 5%, I also have strong muscles on my leg and experienced a very clean fracture so I'm hoping that also gives me 5% of an advantage and finally I have the discipline to follow up on my rehab exercises which would give me another 10% reduction. All in all, I'm hoping I'll be able to recover 20% quicker than the average tibia fibula break case. Regardless, right now I'm setting short term goals and trying to achieve them one by one while keeping an eye on the big picture
Sorry for boring you guys but thought I'd share this with you guys since I might get some valuable advice.
For example, I wanted to know if anyone else has had a experience with painkiller and surgery pain because while I do not it at some points because of the pain, I would really like to get off of them as soon as possible. So I want to know is it normal to still be taking them a week after or should I slowly move onto Advil / Tylenol?
I had a game last Sunday in which someone decided to follow up on their bad touch which I tackled away full force and kicked my shin from the side with all his force with the top of his boot. Unfortunately, both my tibula and fibula snapped and I spun around on my ass not knowing where to put my leg. There was crazy pain for the first 2-3 seconds which I screamed and then everything shut down. The other player actually only got a yellow but the main refree who was actually being assessed ended up failing for my injury scene in particularly as the assessor said that was a 100% red card.
Yes my leg looked like this lol
This is the original break x-ray:
I was admitted into the emergency room where they performed a quick operation lining up the bones once they put me to sleep, note this is to stabilize my leg and set it for the operation:
Anyways, once I was set up in the cast it took until Tuesday to have my operation during which my biggest issue at hand was urination more than anything. The morphine prevented my bladder from being active and the nurses eventually put in a catheter (tube into your penis hole all the way to bladder to pump out accumulating urine) instead of assisting me to pee against gravity and not on my back. By making their jobs easier, I had to go through a lot of pain and urinating was such an ordeal until a day or two after the surgery. If you are ever asked to put in a catheter, try to avoid it as much as you can, and if they tell you it doesn't hurt, that's false.
I got set up on Tuesday to go for surgery and this is what the doctor decided for me, to insert an IM rod into my Tibia. The video below does a good job of explaining the procedure in detail but basically they cut the area under your knee open, insert a titanium rod down the center of the tibia bone and screw it at top and bottom from sides once it is in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kSVyKnQIqU
After the surgery which took 3 hours, I talked to the doctor. He said it went very well and since it was such a clean transverse fracture he lined it up well enough so I can start bearing weight on it as much as I can which contributes to its healing process. The night of the surgery I couldn't sleep because of my bladder so I decided to take charge and told one of the nurses to just go and put me in a toilet and I sat there for an hour. For the first 50 mins, I got 50 cc and then it flowed and I let out a whopping 1000 cc which as ridiculous as it sounds was the best I've felt in a very long time. That pretty much fixed my urination issue and I asked to stop taking morphine and instead took oral painkillers. I only took five 2 mg morphine shots which was pretty much the least I could take with my pain. The day after my surgery I was determined to go to the Grizzly Bear concert which was at a theater so I started going off the ivy, started eating, got used to oral painkillers and passed my first physio by walking like 30-35 meters with a walker. I got my release and my friends put in the back of the car, we rented a wheelchair and drove me to the show. I'm so glad I made it as attending was a real moral booster for me. The next day (Thursday) wasn't too pleasant having really overworked my muscles the day before so I mostly slept and had to hit 2 painkillers at some points. It's Sunday now and I am getting better everyday, other parts of my body that compensate in positions I'm in are starting to tire a bit but I'll get through. The hardest part is still the nights, if I take two painkillers the pain goes away but I start having nightmares and wake up every 40 mins having to pee. If I don't take two, well then I have to sleep with pain and have spasms in sleep which hurt quite a bit. Daytimes are great, one painkiller for 7-8 hours and when I do a number two the world gets handed to me.
Anyhow, I have a check up on October 9th with the surgeon where they will look at the knee stitches and hopefully once they take that out I can start bending my knee which will allow for many new positions. I've read over 40 cases of similar situations and it seems the general consensus is 6-8 weeks for taking cast off, then 3 months to without crutches, then 6 months for rehab to lose limp and a couple of more months to return to sports. There is of course the complication of taking the rod out which by itself is a one month ordeal / operation but getting injured with the rod in could be very complicated so I'd probably want to take it out as soon as possible.
As for my recovery, I have already done all my regret crying at the field right when it happened and am now only determined to get back as soon and best as I can. I do not smoke or drink and really cater to my nutrition which I hope puts me ahead by 5%, I also have strong muscles on my leg and experienced a very clean fracture so I'm hoping that also gives me 5% of an advantage and finally I have the discipline to follow up on my rehab exercises which would give me another 10% reduction. All in all, I'm hoping I'll be able to recover 20% quicker than the average tibia fibula break case. Regardless, right now I'm setting short term goals and trying to achieve them one by one while keeping an eye on the big picture
Sorry for boring you guys but thought I'd share this with you guys since I might get some valuable advice.
For example, I wanted to know if anyone else has had a experience with painkiller and surgery pain because while I do not it at some points because of the pain, I would really like to get off of them as soon as possible. So I want to know is it normal to still be taking them a week after or should I slowly move onto Advil / Tylenol?
