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Radial Shaft Fracture Recovery

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johnnyBuz
Posts: 1438 - Karma: 1,270
Sup gents,

After suffering no major injuries my first season freestyle sking last year I was not so fortunate this year. On my second day on the mountain I suffered a radial shaft fracture requiring surgery and a 3.5mm metal plate and pins/screws to hold everything in place.

I shouldn't have been so reckless. I was hitting a hip for the first time and had no experience landing down to the side like that. I should have been going half speed but I was hitting it full speed. I hiked it about 10 times prior to my injury and on my final run I tried a lincoln loop going way too fast. Brought it to my skis but the sideways momentum carried me to my left and I tried breaking my fall with a lot of downward force on basically flat ground. I think if it was a nice downslope I wouldn't have even gotten hurt. From here on out I'm sticking to traditional jumps and not weird hips that shoot you completely vertical into the air.

Anyway, here's a picture of the break. Anyone that has broke this bone before, what was your recovery like and do you feel just as confident skiing now that the injury is behind you? If I leave the metal plate in does that leave me much much more likely to break the bone again? The doc mentioned leaving the plate in causes "stress risors" or something along those lines. I don't really want to have a 2nd surgery to remove the plate but if it is gonna cause me to likely break the bone again with a minor f all I may need to.

Click for larger image
Jan 21 2014 9:51AM
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BigScaryLarry
Posts: 1448 - Karma: 2,732
thats a fuckin gnarly break dude. feel better
Jan 21 2014 10:12AM
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teamdummy
Posts: 1189 - Karma: 2,605
In 1998 I shattered my foot racing motocross. 13 different fracture points in my right foot. Ended up with 6 screws and a stainless steel plate in my foot. Everything is still in there today and I have zero pain (knock on wood, haha) If you heal up good and straight and the hardware doesn't cause any discomfort or pain, just leave that shit in live your life. Especially if your young, bones do an amazing job at healing themselves.
Jan 21 2014 10:57AM
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johnnyBuz
Posts: 1438 - Karma: 1,270
What about the screw holes though? I heard the holes cause bone weakness and the metal plate leads to demineralization/weakening of the bone since its not forced to fully support the body.
Jan 22 2014 9:25AM
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HuckNorris44
Posts: 1025 - Karma: 2,393
i could be completely wrong but i thought that the screw holes strengthen the bone because new bones will fill them. I just say this because my buddy broke the ball part of his shoulder. He had surgery and some screws and such put in place. Part of the surgery was they drilled a bunch of holes into the bone on his shoulder. They said all the holes will grow in with bone, adding new bone and strengthening his shoulder. Im no doctor but thats my experience with surgeries like this.
Jan 22 2014 9:36AM
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mattyb.
Posts: 6042 - Karma: 2,197
I feel like the only time I post on NS, it's to show off my xray photos. Shattered my leg landing in the middle of a channel gap.

Little over 3 months in the hospital, 16 surgeries, 5 rods, 21 screws. I started skiing again 20 months after the crash. However I've never hit a jump or rail since that day. Coming up on 4 years this March.

I got 2 rods and 9 screws taken out 2 years ago after they got infected, and plan on leaving the rest in unless there's a problem.

Click for larger image
Jan 22 2014 9:39AM
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Iraq_Lobster
Posts: 1866 - Karma: 4,904
holy shit, that looks like a frickin robotic leg now
Jan 22 2014 9:49AM
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NEGRO_CYCLOPS
Posts: 88 - Karma: 434
OP, that's not too bad of a break. The hospital probably told you 6-8 weeks, and that sounds about right for the bone to heal. You'll probably need some physio after that to get your wrist moving 100% again. I broke my radius and ulna a few years ago and required 3 surgeries, but I was still only out for about 3 months total.
Jan 22 2014 10:01AM
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johnnyBuz
Posts: 1438 - Karma: 1,270
Damn dude impressive. That's pretty much exactly it.

Stage 1) Plaster splint for 2 weeks post-surgery until swelling goes down

Stage 2) Hard-shell cast for 4-6 weeks until bone is fully healed

Stage 3) One month of physio until surrounding muscles, tissues, ligaments are back to normal strength and can resume normal activity

Since you had a similar injury I'd like to hear your opinion. How do you feel now? Or better yet, do you think I'll heal up fine 100% and not be limited in further skiing? (except for my own mental inhibitions).
Jan 22 2014 10:56AM
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NEGRO_CYCLOPS
Posts: 88 - Karma: 434
I'm using mobile, so I hope to god these pictures work.

My break was a fair bit worse, as I broke both bones in my forearm and a small bone in the wrist.
Click for larger image
Click for larger image

Those pictures were after they already tried to set it, as originally my hand was perpendicular to the rest of my arm. I needed 3 surgeries and 2 pins to fix everything to close enough to 100% (my broken wrist is still thicker than the unbroken one).

The pins came out about 3 weeks later and my final cast came off about 9 weeks from the injury. I almost passed out when they took the cast off, and apparently that's really common with hand/wrist injuries, so be ready.

I did about 2.5 months physio afterwards and the stretches physio gives you will really help. I just tried to stretch it whenever I could after they gave the go ahead to.

After all that, I have about 95% the range of motion of my unbroken wrist with it, and it actually feels really solid when I fall on it. This was about 5 years ago now and I haven't had any long term issues yet.

You probably won't have any long term issues after to take care of physio. Clean breaks where the other bone is still locating everything heal nicely. I broke my radial head in my elbow about 4 months ago and I was back riding hard 6 weeks later.
Jan 22 2014 2:47PM
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johnnyBuz
Posts: 1438 - Karma: 1,270
Do you have a metal plate attached to your radius though? That's what I'm worried about. The screw holes in the bone and the metal plate acting as a stress riser and impact point for the bone.

Basically if it normally takes X amount of force to break the radius, now that I have the metal plate it will only take Y% of X to break the bone again where Y is some % between 1-100%. I have no idea what the % is that's what I would like to figure out from my doctor.
Jan 22 2014 3:48PM
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HuckNorris44
Posts: 1025 - Karma: 2,393
That is fucking brutal. Makes me feel queazy.
Jan 22 2014 7:21PM
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johnnyBuz
Posts: 1438 - Karma: 1,270
Bump it up.

So I get my hard cast off in two weeks which will be 6 weeks removed from surgery (assuming everything looks alright). Doc says I'll need to do a month of physical therapy but that month is before I'll have the strength to do push ups and pull ups and all that shit.

Do you guys think I'll be able to ski and maybe just stick to rails and small jumps or an airbag if my mountain has one? I wouldn't even mind just working on air bags for the rest of the season till I go to MHSSC this summer fully healthy ready to tear ish up.
Feb 13 2014 9:31AM
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JmckR
Posts: 1283 - Karma: 5,911
mattyb.I feel like the only time I post on NS, it's to show off my xray photos. Shattered my leg landing in the middle of a channel gap.

Little over 3 months in the hospital, 16 surgeries, 5 rods, 21 screws. I started skiing again 20 months after the crash. However I've never hit a jump or rail since that day. Coming up on 4 years this March.

I got 2 rods and 9 screws taken out 2 years ago after they got infected, and plan on leaving the rest in unless there's a problem.



Mega thread revival- just to say holy shit, that is gnarly as fuck.
If you still use this forum, how you getting on with your leg?
Aug 9 2018 9:38PM
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