I have been pleasantly amazed by the multitude of immediate helpful answers
I got about my sore butt question. Seems what I thought was an unusual
problem, atleast in people who still ride bikes, is common. I only got
one "what do you mean you're rding a bike with a broken leg?" crack.
It occurs to me maybe a broken fibula isn't that unusual either. Doctor
at cast clinic at Brackenridge says he's treated thousands of them. It is
relatively unusual for the fibula, which is the small thin lower leg bone,
to break by itself - but it could be relatively common for people to break
it the way I did - by getting hit by a car while riding a bike. Fibula
probably took a direct blow, or conceivably some stress only broke the
smaller bone.
Doctors at Brackenridge said a broken fibula doesn't need much attention
because it is a non-weight bearing bone, and it is also a nonessential bone.
I have a complete transverse fracture a little more than halfway up the
shaft, but it set itself. They tried to put a temporary plaster splint on
it - and called it a cast - but when I realized it wasn't that serious a
situation I refused. Research on the Internet proved that was correct - a
fractured fibula is more often treated with a removable splint, or even
plain ace bandages. I understood it would be good to keep my weight off
of it; unfortunately my other hip wasn't having any of that idea. So I
ended up doing partial weight bearing with my removable walking boot that I
ordered on the Internet, and crutches, for about three weeks.
Doctor at cast clinic told me after two weeks I didn't really need the
splint - but when I tried leaving it off leg got so aggravated I put it back
on. It came off the day after I first rode my bike a week later, probably
because bike riding stretched and conditioned my joints and muscles. The
first day I carried it around in a large bag over my backpack, along with
both crutches on my handlebars, which was a major pain.
Leg and the bad hip are both very aggravated by long walks, and bus stop
alone is a mile from my house. Work is a mile from where the bus stops....
you get the picture.
So a week ago I got my bike back on the road.
Broken leg doesn't object to easy peddling on level terrain while I'm riding
it - but later it pretty much gets as aggravated as it did when I was
walking. I carry one crutch on my bike (on the handlebar) - but I use it as
little as possible because the bad hip hates even walking with one crutch.
When I do use it it is usually because the bad hip is so spastic and stiff
or whatever that I can't walk.
My intuitiion is that I'm better off getting around the way that doesn't
require bearing weight.
I'm doing alot more than I originally could in general - but my entire lower
body was sprained and badly bruised. So that isn't a wonder. Broken leg
is still doing alot of fussing and carrying on. It no longer is grossly
swollen, but much activity produces a grapefruit on the side of my leg.
A few days ago I missed a bus, had the next one a half hour later come by
wearing two bicycles, and rode my bike four miles, not fast or in high gear
or uphill or anything - and though the leg never said boo while I was
riding, once I got to work it soon proved to have been way too much. I
ended up with my leg up on a chair with a bag of ice.
I am still keeping it tightly wrapped in ace bandages.
Of course, the other knee, which has nothing apparent wrong with it, is
still swelling up like a grapefruit - and that interferes with the bad hip.
Tight bandaging it and knee braces don't help. It just blows up when you
take it off, and it turns purple to boot.
I am wondering what experiences other people with the same thing have had,
and what they did for it?
Oh - I couldn't get anyone at Brackenridge to physically examine the hip.
They did x-ray it - which could miss a fracture. Brackenridge is a trip;
they rushed me to the trauma center on a backboard in an ambulance, did a
head and body CAT scan and several X-rays, took urine and asked me if I had
my period - and never physically touched my body, except to insert an IV and
check my blood pressure. I mean they didn't feel to see what might be
injured or broken! They missed the broken fibula; I returned to the
emergency room later because I was feeling sicker than the trauma and the
not concussion could account for (I never bumped my head, but I did have
mild whiplash). . They had put the swollen knee in an immobilizer, told me
it was sprained, though they never examined nor did a single stress test on
it, and told me to keep it in the immobilizer and hop on crutches (on the
broken leg) for a full month. I soon realized I couldn't hop on crutches
on the (broken) other leg, and last two times I let anyone tell me to stay
off a sprained knee, when I finally got competent medical care, it proved
to be a serious mistake.
I had to go all the way to the executive director of Seton Hospitals to get
the doctor at the cast clinic to stress test the clearly badly sprained
ankle that goes with the broken fibula to see if the bone broke because the
ligaments and fascia between the fibula and the tibia had gone - which is
the most common way a fibula breaks by itself, and often overlooked in
emergency rooms. Good news is the "mortise", ie the ankle joint itself,
seemed rock solid - I guess we'll see.
--
Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, Texas
[email hidden]