Despite the odds broke my hip

Meant to reply to this sooner - awesome news! So pleased you're back on the bike and you're feeling good!

Well done for persevering and make sure you keep up the strengthening exercises. Also, I reckon you could justify buying a new bike after everything you've been through - after all, if riding makes your hip feel better then it's basically medicinal, right? :)

I bet its the same plate as this,had it removed in 1983 after breaking my hip on a motorbike.after my premed,i asked them if i could have my scrap metal,when i woke up post op it was on my chest wrapped in tissue paper. heal up soon okwithmydecay

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This time last week, I had a very strange and unlucky fall breaking my hip in the process. It's strange given that I fell off a slow moving bicycle and I am a healthy 32 year old male but I think it's how I fell. Was a simple case of turning too sharply, losing balance and my hip hitting the kerb first as my feet were strapped in. However going by this case, it appears it's not that uncommon jmedicalcasereports.com/conte­nt/5/1/219

So far recovering very well, got a dynamic hip screw inserted holding the bone together, and am full weight bearing on crutches. Physio starts in a week and a half, and I think I should be able to start cycling from September.

Anyone else experienced this kind of break? How did you get back into cycling?

I could almost have written this, it's uncanny. So you were bearing weight fairly quickly. Interesting. I've been told no weight - but this could be because there are two breaks and I have osteoporosis caused by another condition. I have no desire to get on my bike any time soon. A walk to the end of my road would be amazing right now.

My outpatient appts start in a month - so 6 weeks after my fall. Seems like a long time!

Best wishes for a fast and full recovery.

Thanks so much!

Currently trying to convince myself that going out for New Year's Eve is overrated anyway :)

Weight bearing varies depends on your circumstances though I was under the impression that the dynamic hip screw generally means you can start weight bearing sooner.

It's now two years on from my accident and I am able to do everything I could before - cycling, yoga, swimming, pilates etc - though the most difficult thing has been getting my injured leg strong as it was for running.

Atrophy sets in quite quickly, and a physio will help with countering that. The best advice is to ask them to push you as much as they can, which involves doing lots of gruelling exercises which aren't that fun.

Yikes, well I obviously don't want atrophy. Though to be honest, I have been applying weight at times - it's just so hard not to - especially if I need to get up in the night (tend to forget when I'm bursting for the loo and half asleep).

I was given a few basic lifting and resistance exercises whilst in hospital but being weighed down with 9kg of water retention in the following days has made it REALLY hard to lift my leg even a centimetre. Did you get oedema too @okwithmydecay? I'm finding that as the bruising and oedema moves around my bad leg, it's causing a lot of random aches and tenderness, and I can feel the strain on my good leg and not fully mended collarbone the longer they have to carry me.

I'm trying to take one day at a time and not think too much about how long I will be broken and off the bike for, or what an idiot and a burden I am. I am very fortunate to have mum here and a lot of lovely friends who are visiting me every day - that is helping massively.

Hard not to get a bit gloomy when I wake in a sweat in the wee small hours, when there's no one around but a drawer full of pain killers to comfort me. [Cue violin music - ha!]

It will pass though.

Circumstances vary, it's true, but the misery should pass. I broke my hip at the end of 2012, three weeks before I was scheduled to start an 18-month cycle tour. The pain was colossal, and the aftermath was painful, tedious and frustrating. The exercises were a repetitive, uncomfortable grind with little tangible benefit, and you may feel that they're taking you nowhere with your recovery. But eventually, you'll notice improvements. Do whatever your doctors and physios tell you to do, however counterproductive their advice might seem.

I got back on my bike about six months after my break, very gingerly, and then set out rather nervously on the postponed bike tour six weeks after that. All of this was roughly in accord with the timeline that the doctors and physios had set out for me immediately after my operation. The tour is still ongoing, and my dynamic hip screw now has about 15,000 cycling miles on the clock. Modern medicine is amazing. Hang in there.

Thanks for your encouragement and insight @30miles. Can I ask where you went for physio?

My physio was based at the Homerton Hospital in East London; the consultant who operated on my hip at the hospital then referred me to their physiotherapy unit. Everybody at the Homerton was terrific.

Chin up Miss mouse,you aint broken youre mending,thats what a nurse told me when i was having a bad day in traction.Recovery is boring,but your femur is the strongest bone in your body thats why it takes so long.30 years since i broke my hip and orthopaedic medicine has improved greatly.

Thanks for the positive message @reculver. You're right, recovery is SO BORING! But it is what it is and short cuts don't help. I always push the boundaries at first, driven by uncertainty and frustration, but gradually accept my limits and focus on the present.

It's now a month since my break, and I had my first physio appt today. It was actually my first outing further than the corner shop too, so strangely exciting/daunting.

Had to answer two surveys about my mood and how I'm coping, which kind of surprised me. Good that they do that though - I can absolutely see how detrimental to one's mood, the loss of mobility in a leg or back can be, especially if you live alone or don't have help and visitors.

I hoped to be allowed to start bearing weight from now on, but have to wait another few weeks as the orthopedic team haven't seen me yet. I've instinctively been flexing my knee, lifting the leg up and out, and stretching my ankle to reduce the tightness caused by the oedema and lack of exercise, and that seems to have been an good thing.

I've also started having epsom salt baths, using comfrey massage oil (aptly traditionally known as 'knitbone') and taking L-Glutamine, in addition to the multi-vits and calcium I already have.

Finding it hard to keep to a normal sleep routine or concentrate enough to read/study/draw/write but I expect that will change as I come off the pain relief. Doing a lot of one-legged cleaning and cooking though, and catching up with so many lovely friends. I'm super excited about @hats giving me a crochet lesson this weekend :)

Sorry if tl;dr - hopefully sharing experiences here helps others reading this in the future.

I'm super excited about @hats giving me a crochet lesson this weekend :)

Can we get orders in already? :)

I'm super excited about @hats giving me a crochet lesson this weekend :)
Can we get orders in already? :)

Sure! Fancy some leg warmers, perhaps a snood?

I will source some ethical yarns....if I manage to learn anything this weekend. I have already given up three times with knitting.

Meanwhile, do come and visit Oliver. I know I'm in SE London but it gets more hipster by the day and sometimes one even comes across a new area of filtered permeability. :)

Weight bearing varies depends on your circumstances though I was under the impression that the dynamic hip screw generally means you can start weight bearing sooner.

I theory yes, but the more I read about this and speak to friends with experience, and the team caring for me, the more obvious it becomes that each case is totally unique - so while for some it may be fine to walk almost immediately, for others that's a really, really bad idea.

Still, a few weeks on crutches has got to be better than the three months of bed rest that used to be prescribed!

Hang in there. It's been over two years since my injury and now I'm running in the park. I too initially had my physio at Homerton and when that finished I started seeing @bluerip00 privately.

@30miles do you still have your screw in or did they take it out? I find it doesn't give me much bother, it's just strange knowing it's in there.

Can you guys feel your screw quite distinctly, through the skin?

I can actually see mine, which is weird. Still, the scar is neat - hopefully it's doing its job and I haven't shifted it by being an overactive idiot (yes, I am being paranoid but it plays no my mind).
My first outpatient orthopedics appt in a week will hopefully alleviate that particular fear.

I can't see mine though, wouldn't say it bothers me too much, it's more like an occasional itch I can't scratch. My scar ended up stretching a bit but everyone scars differently.

Meanwhile, do come and visit Oliver. I know I'm in SE London but it gets more hipster by the day and sometimes one even comes across a new area of filtered permeability. :)

Oooh, can we go and look at some pretty modal filters?

What about next week?

I can't see mine though, wouldn't say it bothers me too much, it's more like an occasional itch I can't scratch.

It sounds as if you're OK with your decay. :)

My dynamic hip screw is still in there. I don't notice it and I don't think I can feel it - my hip feels different to the touch, but I've always assumed that it's just a by-product of the incision rather than the DHS, as there's a definite indentation along the line of the scar.

Hope it all goes well next week, @Miss_Mouse...

My scar dips in as well along its length,it was worse when i first came off traction,but itll get better when you building the muscle up again.@miss mouse follow the doctors and physios ORDERS,if they say no WEIGHT BEARING its for a good reason.

My scar dips in a bit too but then it's huge, so they cut through a lot of, well, everything (I know cos I saw the pictures... what's seen cannot be unseen). The scar used to be very itchy and sensitive but I spent months prodding at it and now it's fine. I can't feel the pins and annoyingly can't even use my hip as a weather barometer or anything.

Dip is there because they have to get all your muscle and everything else out the way to get your broken femur halfway out of your leg,so they can hit it with hammers,drill holes in it.. screw it back together,feed it to your surgeons rottweiler and when hes finished with it wash it off and stick it back in your leg.My scar itched like mad,felt like someone was sticking pins in it

It's pretty crazy to think about what they do. I once meet some radiologists who had watched the procedure and they said some of the surgeons used to play rugby, using all that strength to hammer the pins in.