Have you ever broken a limb? How did you manage recovery?

[Anonymous]

I broke my leg today. I'm on a lot of pain medication right now, but it still feels bad. They said I have to stay overnight too, but I should be able to go home tomorrow.

I'm worried about recovery.

I've never lost use of a whole limb before. I've never used crutches, and the apartment I live in isn't wheelchair accessible. I have roommates—but they work during the day. And I can't go back to work for several weeks! I also can't get the cast wet, and a bunch of other things I have a list of so I don't forget...

Do you have any advice for how to manage during recovery for something like this? Or any stories from your own recovery or someone you know's? I'm trying to stay positive and plan ahead.

[Telekinetic-Potato]

I've dislocated my leg from my hip, fractured my ankle, gotten hit by a car, and torn my acl.

Remember that pain really is all in the mind. That's step one. It's electrical signals and your mind absolutely has the ability to ignore at least 70% of it, barring occasional shooting pains because your body's an asshole and wants you to learn your lesson lol.

But your attitude has everything to do with how bad the pain is. Take some deep breaths, don't move. Your body has trouble feeling two things at once so you can pinch your waist or squeeze your wrist, close your eyes and clear your mind, try to steady your breathing and focus on keeping your heart rate down. You'll be surprised how much it goes up just sitting there when the shooting pains randomly come back. Won't kill the pain completely of course, sometimes barely at all lol, but usually by enough.

Try to move as little as possible, ESPECIALLY in the beginning. Have the upmost respect for the healing process. You only get one body and in my experience, you can make an amazing recovery as long as you have the patience to do it properly. Keep it elevated for as much of the day you can tolerate/ what the doctor says, even if it feels funny. If it's getting mentally challenging to force yourself, think of it as a challenge. Like they say in the military: Embrace The Suck

Your goal is to stay as still as possible, I like to massage around the painful area, right on the edge of where the pain around the injury ends. Eat and drink a lot. Treat your body like a competitive grower treats a Marijuana plant: lots of nutrients and water.

As soon as the doctor clears you for physical therapy, do it. Ask the doctor if it can damage your body to do extra exercises through the day. If they say "well, you don't NEED to" or "it's not NECESSARY" make sure they're clear about this yes or no question. Keep in mind no matter what you read off the internet, your doctor has seen your injury possibly thousands of times already. You want to exercise as much as you can without slowing down the healing process by an amount that's noticeable for longer than a few hours. And if you do, take a break, let your body catch up.

Recovery in my opinion is all about patience and a willingness to put in the pt work. When I tore my acl which was my most recent injury where I made use of all these techniques I've figured out over time, all the doctors told me they almost never saw someone recover as fast as me. Some even asked me for basically what I'm writing here. I sent my surgeon my journal I kept of my recovery for example.

There will come a point towards the end where you are almost anxious to get back on your leg before the prescribed time. The guidelines the doctor uses to tell you when to put weight on it are from hundreds of studies which have been done many times over. But if you're really in a rush, I think one thing that helped me was to put very light strain on the injured body part. Like in your case it might be to sit on the bed and allow your bone to support just the weight of your leg while you sit, or doing calf raises without flexing the muscle to the point it's putting a lot of force on the cast.

The specific science to how bones heal is very interesting but a very simplified version is that, step one is the initial cohesion. (the part where the bones initially bind together in the beginning of your recovery) The main goal is to get the bone to heal as straight and seamlessly in place as possible. Your bones become stronger when they heal similar to muscle. This is why MMA fighters train by kicking hard things with their shins. It causes very small fractures in the bone and after this process is repeated many times the bone becomes nearly hard as steel. Seriously, look it up.

Once that cast is off, get active but stay careful not to over do anything. Keep doing the physical therapy even though it seems like you're fully healed.

Every day you sit in bed I think it's the equivalent of 1% of muscle loss. Which is a lot so now you want to recover what was lost. Only do so slowly and surely.

I hope I didn't miss anything, let me know if I can help. I'd like to feel I didn't go through all these injuries for nothing!

[exitseven]

I never had a broken leg but I had a totsal hip replacement. It was hard for the first couple of days but I got used ot it. I used crutches for a while and then went to a walker. Within three weeks I was walking with a cane.
I know you are uncomfortable now but the pain will subside. You will also learn how to use the crutches. Just do what the doc tells you to do. I think the cast stays on for 6 weeks? It will go by quick.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO😎

[Anemone978]

Never broke anything before I fell lots out of trees and stuff but never had a break..
My older sister broke both her arms when she was 15 and I had to wipe her bum for her for about a month LOL I think it took 3 months to heal and she used to just sit out side with her friends after school and chill..
For a bath just tape a bag on your leg or they do have waterproof cast covers you can buy.. uhh you can use crutches they are pretty good to use to get around shouldn't be too hard.. buy a ruler or something long and skinny you can put in your cast because you will get itches lol Besides that I think you will be fine once the pain subsides..

[CrimsonAngel09]

Nope, just dislocations so far.

[Iron_Man]

Ankle twice it was hell I needed help and got it if something happened now I will be all by myself.

[genericname85]

broke my lower arm bones once. i was quite young still, so after 6 weeks, i was done healing.

[Christoff92]

Yes. My right leg due of a major car accident. It was hard but overcame it. 6 months but hey did it.