The Big Break

[contesstant]

I am thinking about staring a new thread about my recent discoveries on how the soft tissue injury that occurred with my TPF 9 years ago has had a pretty big impact on my skiing to this day, which I was blaming on boots but am finding, now that I'm in a boot that does work incredibly well for me, the lack of stability from my torn LCL that occurred that day is why I really don't like skis wider than 90 under foot, and have a hell of a time in crud.

So, for those of you with this horrible injury, my heart goes out to you. And do NOT ignore the soft tissue injuries and any rehab. My next step is to possibly get an MRI to determine the extent of the damage and decide if I should opt to repair it. The custom knee brace I have for it is not helping.

 

[Martha]

I am so sorry, Martha! I hadn't heard this from any of the regulars. I plan to be back next year and was already the slow skier who talks to herself about being braver! I'm sure you'll be back skiing past me again!!

Hi Abbi! So sorry I forgot to tell you! I will write you an email. You and I will ski together next year. I have a long way to go. But I’ll get there. I keep whispering little prayers that I’ll succeed.

 

[alxs1205]

Well, after 30 years of skiing it finally happened. I had a skiing accident and badly broke my tibia plateau of my left leg. Now recovering from surgery and have a fine assortment of hardware piecing it all together again. Now facing 12 weeks of non-weight bearing.

I miss skiing. I miss moving. I miss being outside. I'm afraid I'll be afraid to ski again next winter, even though my surgeon says this type of break heals well and I should be able to rehab once I get back to weight bearing (on May 7, not that I'm counting days). I loved skiing trees, bumps and the ungroomed stuff and I don't know if I'll ever get back to that due to the fear (I was taken down on an ungroomed black run).

Has anyone else had a bad break and bounced back, so to speak? Anyone else had this particular type of fracture?

So sorry to hear this and I hope that by now you are well on your way to feeling a little bit better every day. Everyone’s healing process is individual but I just wanted to share a bit of hope for your recovery. I’m in my 40’s, have skied most of my life. I fractured my tibial plateau/non-displaced minimally comminuted ACL avulsion fracture this year on January 9th while on a race course. I was able to avoid surgery. I started PT two weeks later, way before I was even close to weight-bearing. I went 2x’s per week and did my exercises faithfully, icing and elevating above heart level a few times a day and always just before bed. It was definitely not easy. In fact, it was frustrating as hell. Aside from the physical interventions, keeping in touch with ski friends was very helpful. Also, listening to pod casts about WC racers (almost all of which have gone through awful injury and recovery) was the best mental therapy ever and kept me focused on my goal. I would particularly recommend interviews with Lyndsey Vonn, Sofia Goggia, Wendy Holdner…to name a few. Anyways, once you ditch those crutches, it’s a whole new world. Recovery starts moving a lot more quickly. Fast forward exactly 11 weeks and two days after the injury…I skied again for the first time since my injury in the same season on March 28th - this year. I skied about 15 runs on green and blues. Slow, not a lot of edging or tipping. But darn it, I skied!!!! It was the best feeling I’ve had in such a long time. I am so much more grateful to be able to ski after having this experience - it made all the pain worth it. The only thing that bothered me was walking in my ski boots. Otherwise, I hardly had any pain at all. I know my story probably isn’t typical but it IS possible. You will recover. Keep up the hard work. Never ever give up.