Injury recovery time - is 4-6 weeks really necessary?
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Wanting some insight into what others have experienced with injury recovery time. Athletes are the worst patients, right? |
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If I was you, I'd wait two weeks more and wait to get the docs pro opinon. Two weeks will go by quickly. It would be terrible to (1 do more harm than good (2 find out that things are worse than first diagnosed. |
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Took about 6 weeks to get back to climbing with mine. TR only. Could hobble about 1/2 mile to the crag ~3 month posts. Was back to climbing hard/taking falls in about 5 months. Took a couple very large falls ~7 months out. One where it felt tweaked. Took it easy from there till about 12 months out. Throughout, I had swelling. Iced + elevated + did rehab. At 13 months I got surgery to repair my taular dome and reattach the torn ligaments (Guessing mine was a big worse than yours). From surgery to back to running, skiing, surfing, heavy packs was about 6 months + rehab 2/week. |
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Not being snarky. But are you kidding me? Every injury is different. Yours seems complicated. None of us on this website know anything about your injury. |
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Russ Keane wrote: Not being snarky. But are you kidding me? Every injury is different. Yours seems complicated. None of us on this website know anything about your injury. This. |
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Doctor knows best. Explain your ambition and goals and seek his advice. nothing wrong with getting a second,medical opinion. Us guys on the internet know zilch about your fracture. |
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Callie |
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I'll tell you what I tell myself and friends: wait another two weeks as recommended, or possibly wait forever (or at least lot longer than two weeks) because you got impatient and stressed it before it was completely healed and now it's messed up permanently. |
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An orthopedic specialist told you something you don’t want to hear so now you’re looking for random people on the internet to..... |
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It took me 6 weeks for a similar sounding injury. |
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Lets see, you could trust the opinion of someone with multiple years of specialized medical education and experience, someone who has been able to look at the injury, including detailed images of it, or you could ask random strangers on the internet what they think. |
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Two options: listen to the expert (your doc) or even get a second opinion (likely to be the same given the fracture you described) and just suck it up for two more weeks and then ease back into it or, ignore the expert, do your own thing and risk displacing that fracture which will put you worse off, in need of a surgical repair, and another full 6-8 weeks non-weightbearing minimum. |
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Just go climb and send me all your gear when screw it up worse and you can’t climb anymore. You can trust me. I have been to the doctor before so I know what I am talking about. |
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A hard catch broke your Fibula? |
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Thanks for the two sort of helpful comments, and thanks to my friend Andy who actually texted me his own experience with surgeons/ortho docs.. |
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ED doc here. That’s a bad injury. If it were a simple fracture, maybe you could push it a bit, but those ligament injuries sound pretty serious. Listen to your orthopedist. A repeat tear would be a real bummer. |
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I've had lot's of ankle problems with them healing at different rates. Realize that their recommendations are just numbers. Everybody and every injury heals differently. I've been on both sides of the coin with a "5 week" ankle sprain taking 8 weeks and a "12 week" full ankle reconstructive surgery taking 9 weeks. IMO once it stops hurting work it out a little and see how it does. The key is to stop using it when form collapses not when it gets "tired". If you have to compensate anything in anyway then you are just doing yourself a disfavor. Usually this means taking things really slow but builds the correct muscles. Again stop when form collapses not when it starts to feel weak if that makes sense. Anyways there's only one person that truly knows your body and that is you. Plus the only one that has to accept the consequences in the end. |
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Callie Callaway wrote: Thanks for the two sort of helpful comments, and thanks to my friend Andy who actually texted me his own experience with surgeons/ortho docs.. Yep. Really. You are asking for medical advice on a website/app of strangers who you don’t know their background. And some dont know their backside from a whole in the ground. You don’t know they even exist really. I could ask you the same thing. Really? 4-6 weeks is not much for a fracture or any injury. I was hoping you caught the sarcasm and realized you could live another couple weeks without exacerbating your injury. Common sense brother. Hope you are doing better. Listen to your doctor. Hangboard. Campus. Whatever you got to do but why risk further injury? Really? |
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They call it practicing medicine for a reason because many times doctors don't really know how long some conditions will take one to recover from but in breaks, tears, sprains they know exactly how long recovery will take. Broke the same bone in the same leg in different places and different severity of breaks and both doctors told me recovery time and they were exactly right. So go ahead and push it and see how it feels in 20 years. |
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I wouldn't push it. Work on your core, campus board. Rehab some smaller injuries. Damaging things before they're fully healed is a serious bummer. I have a fractured lateral malleolus that I neglected to rest, and neglected PT for and now it continues to bug me 2 years after the accident. |
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Listen to your doctor. If you don't do that then at the very least listen to your body. Dont push it and end up in worse shape requiring even more recovery time. |