Broken Foot Recovery

[Rich]

Hey, just thought I'd share my story so far, I've got a lot of time on my hands at the moment!

I broke my foot at the beginning of November, it was on my mountain bike when I went off a jump/drop and messed up the landing. I went off it to slow and instead of landing nicely on the downslope I didn't clear it and landed on the back end of it, resulting in a pretty big impact with my feet still on the pedals.

So I went to the hospital that evening and they told me after x-rays that I had a Lisfranc Fracture/Dislocation which would need surgery to correct and then a fairly lengthy recovery. Gutted. I had a couple of breaks at the joint of my 1st/2nd metatarsals and the ligament that normally holds them together had broken when they were forced apart. For anyone that follows the DH MTB its a very similar injury to what Josh Bryceland did in september at the World Championships, he has a Lisfranc Fracture as well. Check out the end of this vid:

So I had the surgery and got a couple of screws and a plate put in to hold it all together while it heals, heres some pics:

They were taken a couple of weeks after the surgery before I had the stitches taken out. I'm now nearly 6 weeks post-op and will be out of the cast on Xmas eve, moving into a supportive boot for the next few months. It's going to be quite a long recovery, from all I've read about it takes about 6months - 1yr to recover and regain most of the function/strength. I'm really missing riding so much and can't wait to get back into Trials/MTB again. It's so annoying, the day before I did it I got a big order from Tarty and built up a new front end with new disc brake, forks, front wheel etc and I've not even tried it out yet!!

Anyway has anyone else on here done anything similar, any broken feet/ankles/leg stories and how was your recovery?! It would be great to hear some success stories!

[Ali C]

That sucks, I had a Lisfranc fracture a few years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWwFBFO9r4g but fortunately I didn't need any surgery.

That still took a while to recover from, nearly a year to get pain free and riding good again, just be patient and take the advice youre given (I was a bit lazy with my physio).

[bing]

Yeah. I shattered my heel in March 2013 on the trials bike, I was 8 weeks in a pot and 4 weeks in a moonboot. My shinbone went through my heel, due to the force from above, tore a load of tendons, I was off the bike for ages. I still get twinges of pain now and again, but that's what happens when you break a bone, it's never really right again because of the soft tissue damge

[Rich]

That sucks, I had a Lisfranc fracture a few years ago but fortunately I didn't need any surgery.

That still took a while to recover from, nearly a year to get pain free and riding good again, just be patient and take the advice youre given (I was a bit lazy with my physio).

Oh right well that is encouraging if you had a similar injury and have been able to recover from it, from your last few videos it doesn't look like it holds you back at all!! I guess you can feel that it's still not perfect though?

Theres hope for me yet then, I don't quite ride to the same standard so hope to be hopping up kerbs in a few months. Will be patient and looking forward to starting physio.

That drop looked like a sickener!

Yeah. I shattered my heel in March 2013 on the trials bike, I was 8 weeks in a pot and 4 weeks in a moonboot. My shinbone went through my heel, due to the force from above, tore a load of tendons, I was off the bike for ages. I still get twinges of pain now and again, but that's what happens when you break a bone, it's never really right again because of the soft tissue damge

That sounds nasty, was that a big drop that went wrong then?

Yeah I accept its never going to be perfect again but hopefully it heals well enough....bring on the moon boot!

[bing]

Not particularly, I was trying an upto rear and my brake failed. It was probably only 2ft tall, but I was on the rear wheel on a 26", so,I was probably 4 or 5 ft up,with my actual foot. It was either go over the bars, or put my foot down. The foot got chosen as having a smashed up face kinda dents your sex appeal. The fact I weighed 16.5st at the time probably didn't help either. Just a combination of awkwardness and force. I was fairly lucky that it all stayed together and I didn't need surgery. I was none weight bearing for at least 9 weeks of it. The recovery has been hard at times, loads of physio and road biking. Tried not to ride trials too much, if anything it made me smoother, landing so it didn't cause any pain. It's not something I'd want to do again, I tell thee. It was mega painful, and I didn't get any pain killers until I'd been seen, which was 5 hours after the accident

[PMK]

My leg injuries were two broken fibulas at the ankle from severly twisting the foot outward and long ago I broke my left tibia and fibula basically folding my left lower leg in half.

All were MX or Hare Scrambles injuries on race motorcycles. The broken tib / fib was a pretty good stuff the front wheel into huge whoop at Southwick. The two broken lower fibs were from being stupid and not riding on the balls of my feet. Caught my toes rounding a rutted berm and bent the foot outward. Niether time involved a crash, with the last time being a Hare Scramble where I looked down, saw the foot was messed up and pointed outward, straigthened it will still riding and managed a podium finish seeing it was the last lap and mybe 4 miles until the finish.

All were not fun to heal as we get impatient to ride, and I did on the tib/ fib with a hard cast on. The first broken lower fib I wrote off as a sprained ankle,continued to ride mtb, even ran a bit. Three weeks later I got it x rayed.

The second broken lower fib I knew what it was. Went to the docs the next morning and got it tended to. Sadly, they wrapped the soft cast too tight, hindered blood flow and made the injury require a year to heal and probably two to be full strength.

MTB wise, one broken rib and a lot of scrapes and bruises.

This trials stuff on a real trials bike will be new. No plans for tall stuff and hopefully no injuries. Being old, I am considering riding with my Asterisk Cell motocross knee braces to save my knees.

As for yours, keep ice or heat on as needed. Push hard with therapy without being stupid. Unless removed be cautious / aware of the hardware. You may even want the hardware removed to prevent issues later.

All the best in your recovery.

PK