 Poster: A snowHead
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Just signed up and you can guess the reason for my user name. 
Boot top tib and fib after a awkward fall on some sun baked wet cement on a hell trip. IM nail for the tib and a couple of plates in the fib. No weight bearing for six weeks etc.
I've now also been diagnosed with DVT! Yeuch.
These are my first ever potential "game changer" problems for an active guy in his 30's. Everything I've bust before has been inconsequential.
Interested in people's experience of both conditions and impacts on skiing (and other active life). Have done a search and read a lot of really helpful info. Have a surgeon telling me 12mos / never for running - at least a year to ski etc (so also collecting second opinions).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Broke the top off the Tibia, tore the MML and ACL. Despite a lot of physio it was still 18 months before I was back on ski's again. This happened at the beginning of March and I had to miss the whole of the following season. A few years later had a much worse accident with life threatening injuries, that didn't include any damage to my legs. Happened at the beginning of April and I was back on ski's by October!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You will be taking anticoagulants, at least in the short term, which will increase your risk of a serious bleed if you fall. Provided you aren't on them for life, you should be back skiing again. I wouldn't worry
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I broke the lower part of my left leg in March 2014. My tib was hardcore from 100mm above my ankle, my fib was snapped in 2 places and my ankle socket was broke in half. The op (in France) was to save my foot. I had a long plate in my leg, with all the bigger sections of bone screwed to it and bone graft material (like coffee granules of irradiated bone) packed around these pieces. The surgeon was working with 'bits of bone' and my top private UK ankle consultant said the op was beyond what he could have done. It worked, but I had quite a bit of outwards rotation on my foot (approx 25 degrees). This was better than amputation! No weight bearing for 4 months then 8 months taking it easy.
After 4 months, I started walking and cycling again. By 6 months I was getting some strength and flexibility back in my ankle and was riding 40-50 miles a day. Then at 7 months after the break, I put my foot down a pothole in the pavement. My leg was broken before I hit the deck. It had broken above the original break. Basically the veins hadn't regrown from where they had originally severed and my tib was a dead bit of bone in my leg. It snapped like a dry twig.
The second op was to insert an 11mm diameter rod from my knee to my ankle (tibial nail), including removing all the original metalwork. That was in October.
I first walked again the day after the op. Although this was very painful and I was leaving blood footprints around the ward, the rod was structural and had worked. Better still, my brilliant surgeon had corrected my foot rotation. I had planned to have this done anyway, but wasn't relishing being immobile for months again, especially not through choice.
Just after starting to make progress, we went to Ko Samui for our Christmas holiday. Not cancelling had been something that drove me on to get stronger. Walking across Bangkok airport, for our internal flight (about 1km), I wondered if I had made a mistake. I kept pushing myself and my brilliant physio guy really encouraged me to push even harder.
The swelling was always pretty bad and I lived in compression socks for 18 months. I still today get a bit of swelling if I am on my feet a lot or if I do a long bike ride but I'm pretty much back to normal.
Having a nail fitted makes all the difference. It let me start rebuilding my muscles and working on tendon lengths (flexibility) straight away. I still tape up my ankle if I do a long ride but last summer I rode the Pru 100 at an average speed of 19.4mph. That was a person best by some margin and made me a bit emotional at the finish. I knew then, that I had got through it.
I've also been told not to run again (due to the damage I did to my ankle socket) and that does irk me but in Feb I went snowboarding again. I was quite nervous for the first few hours and even asked myself what the hell I was doing putting myself in danger again. By the end of that weekend I started to feel good about it all. In March I had the most amazing 10 days in Val d' and Morzine. 10 days of blue skies and my riding back to almost as good as it was.
I doubt I will ever get completely as good as I was, as that involved some significant risk taking at times, but I'm loving being back on the snow and in the last few months we have bought a place in Val d'. That's commitment to it!!
Having a good physio is incredibly important to plan your recovery. If the NHS one isn't want you want (I had NHS on break 2 and he was excellent) then consider going private. The swelling will eventually go but take the drugs, wear the strongest compression socks (over the counter ones won't be good enough - if they are easy to get on they aren't strong enough) and do as much stretching as your physio person advises.
It's a long post, as I know what you are going through. Don't worry, the human body is incredibly good and mending itself. Just give it time (don't rush your recovery) and do what the experts tell you.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Thanks all, definitely some worse stories than mine so feeling lucky!
My DVT may have been partially as a result of going back to work a little too soon. I'm in a sales role with a significant bonus component and rushed back too soon. For the first time in my life I think I'm going to have to put health before $'s, could be an interesting experiment in itself!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@bar shaker, wow...I had no idea you had been through all that! What a great recovery!
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@bar shaker, er...small question...how did you do that, exactly....? ie the original injury...
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@OneLeg,
DVT and anticoagulants shouldn't stop you skiing.
Leg break obviously depends on the nature of it, discuss with surgeon
Maybe avoid dropping cliffs if on anticoagulants though but for normal skiing shouldn't be a problem.
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Shouldn't be on them by next winter in any case if it is a one-off event.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Quote: |
Shouldn't be on them by next winter in any case if it is a one-off event.
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very true
@OneLeg,
To expand on my post above I looked at this fairly closely this season because I got a DVT just before the ski season started and was on anticoagulants and am currently still on them.
Exercise in general is considered to be a good idea for DVT's .
Heavy contact sports such as boxing are generally not recommended if on anticoagulants.
There is always risk of haemorrhage however it is hard to quantify and probably not that high. It has not as far as I can see been much studied in sport and most of the work refers to head injuries where the risk appears slightly raised but no one knows how much. The work also largely refers to warfarin which most people are not put on now. The newer drugs have the advantage that they are probably less variable in their anticoagulant effect and wear off much quicker but have the distinct disadvantage that the anticoagulant cannot be reversed until they wear off.
My insurance company was not bothered about me skiing and just raised the excess slightly for associated problems. My GP and hospital doc weren't bothered about me skiing.
Personally I also avoided anti-inflammatory's which could increase your risk of bleeding further .
Hope the above is useful
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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When i had my little fall which including the slight knee damage and the retrofitting of some meccano and adding some pig bone, when i did it i had to inject myself each day a few times with warfrin before i could fly back.. Only took me 10 months to ski again,,, so the others on here put me to shame as mine was not as serious as the theirs .. Still had unpleasant time
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| Quote: |
To expand on my post above I looked at this fairly closely this season because I got a DVT just before the ski season started and was on anticoagulants and am currently still on them.
Exercise in general is considered to be a good idea for DVT's .
Heavy contact sports such as boxing are generally not recommended if on anticoagulants.
There is always risk of haemorrhage however it is hard to quantify and probably not that high. It has not as far as I can see been much studied in sport and most of the work refers to head injuries where the risk appears slightly raised but no one knows how much. The work also largely refers to warfarin which most people are not put on now. The newer drugs have the advantage that they are probably less variable in their anticoagulant effect and wear off much quicker but have the distinct disadvantage that the anticoagulant cannot be reversed until they wear off.
My insurance company was not bothered about me skiing and just raised the excess slightly for associated problems. My GP and hospital doc weren't bothered about me skiing.
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I also got a DVT just before a ski holiday this year. My doctors were adamant that I shouldn't ski while on anticoagulants because of the risk of a head injury (and I couldn't fly for 6 weeks, or run for 4 weeks because of the DVT). Thankfully my travel insurance have paid out for the cancelled holiday.
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You know it makes sense.
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I fracutured my femur in January 2014. When I came home, my GP put me on Clexane injections to stop a DVT forming. At first, the district nurses were doing this, but then I was shown how to do this myself (basically an injection of Clexane into your abdomen). I was off work for 6 months and had 14 months of physio after my injury. I've not been skiing since then (a bit scared to be honest), although I have recently taken up Road Cycling which is fun (well, fun once you get the hang of clipless pedals!).
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| cavegirl99 wrote: |
I also got a DVT just before a ski holiday this year. My doctors were adamant that I shouldn't ski while on anticoagulants because of the risk of a head injury (and I couldn't fly for 6 weeks, or run for 4 weeks because of the DVT). Thankfully my travel insurance have paid out for the cancelled holiday. |
Interesting, the risk of head injury when skiing is pretty low and although I wouldn't have felt like running straight away with my DVT as my calf was pretty uncomfortable as far as I was told there is nothing to say you can't.
Also told I could fly straight away, my first trip was about three weeks after diagnosis.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@T Bar, I know of a couple of other snowHeads who were advised the same.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Hells Bells, Same as me or same as @cavegirl99, ?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@T Bar, same as @cavegirl99.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I think it probably like anything else, depends on the doctor involved in your treatment how much risk they deem to be acceptable.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Hells Bells,
You're probably right, I do think Doctors should inform people about the risk and then leave it up to them.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@OneLeg,
My ski boots are fairly elderly and not really close fitting but I had no problems. This season a bit of a lack of fitness and knee probs (which probably lead to my DVT) were a bit more of a hassle.
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FAQ
What an incredible story. Well done on such a great recovery. Puts the fact that I have to have a tooth out tomorrow (and will then have two gaps for at least 6 months) rather into perspective. 
