[Fiend]

Broken: 10/05/05

Doctors estimated healing schedule:

2 weeks from injury: Xray to check bone calcification.
3 weeks from injury: Bone should be healed, can start weighting front part of foot, subject to pain and in stiff shoes.
6 weeks from injury: Should be able to walk normally.

Currently able to hobble on my heel, and have not experienced pain since the first day of injury, swelling is now fairly minimal.

So, that sucks  :freak:

Does anyone have any advice on dealing with this, like... Dealing with the actual injury, stuff I can do / avoid / eat etc to help it heal? Dealing with not being able to do much physical stuff given I can't walk properly, like keeping fit and stuff? And dealing with the general pissed offness of starting getting strong and fit and psyched and then being made a temporary cripple and losing all of those gains?

Thanks in advance  :wink:

[Carnage]

Dylan's your man, I expect.

[dave]

better hit the fingerboard for a while. every cloud.

[JR]

having been injured for well over a year now, and only just starting back climbing i reckon 6 weeks is a blessing!

Anyway you wont lose all that much fitness over 6 weeks unless you are an athlete or you go and drink, smoke and party to make up for being injured.

Chin ups and press ups crunches are all possible.  Eating red meat and green vegetables wont do you any harm, nor will taking calcium supplements, but it might not do that much noticeable good either!

[account_inactive]

2 ways you could look at it mate:

1. Time to relax party and get fucked while all the other niggles on your body heal

2.  Go hardcore for some training to starve off the boredom.

When I fucked up my legs I gave up smoking and getting fucked (apart from the morphine).  I started taking industrial strength supplements, mainly glucosamine(with condrotin) 2000mg, Multi-vits, extra vit C, Cod liver oil and calcium.  I also trained like a bastard on a campus board and pull up bar.  In 6 months I could knock off several one-armers (not that I can now) whilst also loosing a significant amount of leg muscle.  Hey presto I was back to climbing quicker that I expected.  

Try not to stop climbing, go to the gym and do some top-roping gay as it maybe you learn ways to cope even if it is only one legged.  i was climbing with this fucker on my leg in Australia which raised a few eye brows.  

Before you watch it remember this is 2 days after the accident, I'm fucked on morphine and no I don't always sound that posh

[SA Chris]

What did you do? Hope it was something worthy, and not a dumb trip. Have you got a pot on it, or is it just left to heal. I managed to break 4 toes at once and they healed pretty quickly.

More importantly, how was the south africa trip?

[tommytwotone]

that looks nasty...still 6 weeks to be walking again ain't the end of the world - when I busted my arm I was told that it'd be nine months till I'd be able to climb again, if at all.

I got back after 7 of the most boring months of my life though, here's what i reckon helped:

Used to smoke - stopped that straight away

Started eating a lot healthier

Doing the physio helped get mobility back if nothing else - I got told that most people who break humerus won't be able to fully straighten their arm but i can.

I also joined gym and did lots of cardio / generic non-arm stuff - if nothing else it got me a lot more generally fit which can't have hurt

Even if you can't climb I'd say keep getting out there, it'll keep you psyched and you'll have a tick-list for when you get back and strong.

I kept on going out on the Peak - I couldn't climb but I could walk about, take photos, explore crags I've been meaning to look at for ages etc.

As for getting back to full potential, I got back in Nov 2003 after 7 months out and I reckon that now I'm getting back to the level I was at before.

I've had to adapt my style and also admit to myself that there are some things that will be harder as a result (eg I find "bear-hugging" moves particularly painful at the weak spot), that said the whole thing has made me a lot more driven and I've got a phat scar to show off as well!

[Fiend]

Thanks a lot for the advice guys, useful stuff.

I think what I am probably tending towards is semi-active rest, with regular but gentle gym and indoor top-roping sessions (when I can motivate myself), but avoiding hardcore training, as Dylan suggested, to let any other niggles settle down.

JR - I knew this would be a topic for you =).

Dylan - lol at that video, still wearing a beanie eh! What happened to take that bad a fall?

Chris - I did it sandboarding, fell over and wrenched my foot in the bindings. Dunno if that's worthy or not but it was pretty fun until that point... SA trip was going great, good climbing and travelling, but we're back a month early due to this, bletch.

TTT - cheers for the tips.

[SA Chris]

Sandboarding? Extreeem dude. Looks like fun though, might give it a go when I am next there. Where were you?

[Fiend]

XTREEEEEM! Jeffrey's Bay, gf was surfing so I tried that instead. Never snowboarded but I found it pretty reasonable to get started sandboarding, and got a bit carried away. My recommendations would be to wear some solid shoes despite what the guy advised me, and be aware that a lot of people seem to hurt themselves doing it...

[clm]

what did dylan do??

[a dense loner]

sandboarding, i have no sympathy fiend. it's like jim tryna warm up on mono's first day in font :roll:

[Fiend]

To be fair (to me, not to Jim), dense, I was trying to be quite careful and I wasn't made entirely aware of how dodgy sandboarding can be, even when I specifically asked what one should do with one's lower limbs in the case of a fall... Something to learn for the future I think. Well other than the obvious moral to avoid any other activities that aren't climbing

[Falling Down]

To be fair (to me, not to Jim), dense, I was trying to be quite careful and I wasn't made entirely aware of how dodgy sandboarding can be, even when I specifically asked what one should do with one's lower limbs in the case of a fall... Something to learn for the future I think. Well other than the obvious moral to avoid any other activities that aren't climbing

What I find hard to believe is that you turned down surfing at J-Bay to f*ck around on a sandboard... that's like... erm... going to Font and going Mountain Biking... get well soon though.. you'll be reet soon enough

[erm, sam]

I have to agree. The root of the problem is an allmost unbeleivabely bad descision in the first place.
I think you will find the opportunity to not climb every 2 days quite refreshing. Its not actually that bad once you get over the withdrawl.
Have a month off and then start on getting massive arms.
Hope you are not too depressed.

[Fiend]

ROFL @ you two. As incredulous as you may be, I don't actually have any interest in surfing. At all. Not even the slightest bit. Although retrospectively I should have done it instead anyway, but still...

[tommytwotone]

prolly a good idea you didn't - i nearly drowned in Lanzarote a few years back messing about in the breakers on a boogie board, one of the scariest experiences of my life...

[Falling Down]

prolly a good idea you didn't - i nearly drowned in Lanzarote a few years back messing about in the breakers on a boogie board, one of the scariest experiences of my life...

Serves you right for boogie boarding ;-) (sorry Chris)

It's much scarier than people think.  I've certainly had more 'Oh my God I'm about to die' moments out surfing than climbing...

[Paz]

You're just not trying hard enough then.

[saltbeef]

did you get to rocklands whilst out there? any cop?

[Fiend]

Yes and Yes Mr Beef. A truly magical place, we both loved it, it's so peaceful and beautiful and there literally is rock as far as the eye can see. You could go off exploring and bouldering and they wouldn't find your remains for years if not decades. Spent most of the time doing routes (which are also excellent) but dabbled a bit with the old pads when we joined a global group, and had great fun doing that too (actually in the area shown in Friction #2).

[saltbeef]

are the routes trad or sport? were there many people out there?

[SA Chris]

Serves you right for boogie boarding ;-) (sorry Chris)

Hey, it's all good. Haven't touched my sponge in about 2.5 years, since I bough my minimal. Would get out on it again if the waves were big enough though.

Fiend, I am intrigued about this sandboarding accident. Were you strapped into snowboard type bindings with ordinary shoes? Surely alarm bells went off somewhere in your head?

And when do we see pics?

Saltbeef, Rocklands is bouldering and mostly sport routes, the rest of the Cedarberg ( a MASSIVE area) is predominantly trad, with some sport in a few spots. With untouched boulders everywhere.

Fiend, would like to see your ticklist at some point.

[Fiend]

Surely alarm bells went off somewhere in your head?

Yerrrrsssssssss. Okay the deal was: While the girl went to get wet, I went for a 3 hour sandboarding lesson with a guy who was recommended in the Lonely Planet and in the J-Bay info centre. I asked the guy if I should have sturdy footwear, and was told no, it was best done barefoot. I've skiied a lot but never snowboarded, and skated a little when I was just out of single figures. Apparently it's very different from snowboarding tho. The board is a lot shorter and you have simple padded straps over your feet.

Anyway, I get started on some easy slopes, this guy gives me some advice on what to do. I asked him specifically what I should do in case of a fall - just try to fall into the slope and use my hands to guide me down, fair enough. I asked again what I should do with my legs and feet in the case of a fall (considering that I know skiing falls and snowboarding falls work very differently as to what your lower legs do) - he said there was nothing specific you try to do. He did mention that people can hurt themselves, especially if they are trying to sandboard like they snowboard.

I did several runs and found it okay, got used to it pretty quick although turning is a pain in the arse. Took a few falls which were also a literal but quite mild pain in the arse. Sand is quite hard though. Near the end of my session, I got a bit more ambitious, went down a few steeper bits. Last run I got carried away, ended up in this little bowl, lost control, and because it was a bowl, couldn't fall easily. During the non-easy tumble, my foot got wrenched out of the bindings, and the force of that against the lower binding must have snapped the bone...

In retrospect, at first I thought, well, WTF, I didn't do anything wrong, I just got a little bit carried away and had an unfortunate mishap. But on further reflection I think I would do things differently...

- I would have asked firmly about the potential dangers involved.
- I would have found out exactly why barefeet were recommended before just accepting that (I think wearing shoes would have prevented the break).
- I would have been more cautious bearing in mind how much I really didn't need to break something halfway through a major trip.

...I do think the guy was too vague about the dangers and also didn't keep a strict enough eye on what I was doing given he was coaching me. I guess I didn't think enough about that at the time =/. I mean normally one just trusts it's okay as most of the time one does these adventurous things and it all goes fine. So this has been a bit of a lesson really.

Sorry, that was rather long, oh well.

Ummm not many pics, Ef's sorting those. I will have a ticklist at some point, will take a little while.

[tommytwotone]

Surely alarm bells went off somewhere in your head?

In retrospect, at first I thought, well, WTF, I didn't do anything wrong, I just got a little bit carried away and had an unfortunate mishap. But on further reflection I think I would do things differently...

- I would have asked firmly about the potential dangers involved.
- I would have found out exactly why barefeet were recommended before just accepting that (I think wearing shoes would have prevented the break).
- I would have been more cautious bearing in mind how much I really didn't need to break something halfway through a major trip.

...I do think the guy was too vague about the dangers and also didn't keep a strict enough eye on what I was doing given he was coaching me. I guess I didn't think enough about that at the time =/. I mean normally one just trusts it's okay as most of the time one does these adventurous things and it all goes fine. So this has been a bit of a lesson really.

careful Fiend, you can choke on a pint of hindsight you know  :wink:

seriously, rumination don't help (I should know, I tried!)...these things happen...we are where we are...at the end of the day...when all's said and done...these aren't the droids you're looking for...or something.