UKC

Anyone ever ruptured their tibilias anterior tendon (the tendon on the front of your shin, used for pulling up your foot) and then gone back to climbing? My surgeon said it's a really rare injury, wondering whether it's climbing related and if anyone has experience of coming back to climbing after?

In reply to Nomics4sale: i didnt completely rupture it, but enough to put me on crutches for a wee while. did it playing hockey.

it happened a while ago and in my case although it limits the degree to which i can raise my foot (as in toes towards my shin) it hasnt caused me many problems. maybe an inch or less. i hope you get it sorted, my case was less serious than yours but it hasnt stopped me too much- i can still run and climb to a reasonable standard.

In reply to portlandclimber:

Good to know you've recovered and it's not holding you back. So how did it happen? Did you get a bang to your shin or something when you were playing hockey? Mine happened when I was pushing off my foot when I was climbing, something I'll have to do alot if I go back to climbing. I don't really want to risk it happening again.

In reply to Nomics4sale: was playing indoor hockey- the sticks are much, much thinner with the top of the head being thin as well. player went to slap the ball, stick rolled over the top of the ball and it hit the bottom of my shin/top of ankle. absolute agony ensued.it felt like i'd been shot. take rehab/physio very seriously- be on a mission to make it better.

In reply to portlandclimber:

Ah that makes sense, how it happened. Good advice re rehab, gonna be a long hard slog I think. Thanks.

anyone else??

In reply to Nomics4sale: Never done that!

... but completely shattered my heel bone 2 1/2 years ago in a climbing accident. A lot of people (Doctors, physios, friends and relations) said I would/should never climb again.

Two years on and I am climbing better than I ever have. Go at the physio like a mad thing, but be prepared for the long slog.

I don't have the same balance on my left foot as my right, can't stand as high on tip toe and if I am on a hold for a long time on my left it runs out of juice quicker.

What I found though was you concentrate more on technique and find ways around your limitations.

Good luck!

In reply to Nomics4sale:
I think i've done this, a few weeks ago by just walking along in the snow, felt something twinge then from the next morning on its been bl00dy painful. Might be a trip to the dr's to get it checked out for me now....
On another note, its fine when I'm climbing but walking around for more than an hour seems to set it off again, strange.

In reply to kilgore1080:

Sounds more like a tear than a rupture. The tib ant is the tendon on the front of your shin which is used to pull up your foot, is that the action which causes you pain? Anyway if it were me I'd get it checked out, having seen the effect of a complete rupture I'd rather get it sorted before it gets to that stage. And of course there's always the possibility that the doc will give you good news and you've just bruised the muscle

In reply to andybenham:

Hmm yeah I broke my leg 18 months ago and in fact the metal in my leg to fix the break is probably what caused the damage to the tendon. I had the metal taken out but seems it was too late to save the tendon.

I think you have to be a bit more careful with tendon damage, take it more slowly. With bones, once they've fixed then they're pretty strong but a tendon which is a bit weak is at risk of rupturing again until it gets stronger. I'm a bit worried that if I start climbing again on a weak tendon then the climbing is going to add stress to it and cause it to rupture. I expect I'll end up just going super slow and maybe leaving it a few months before I start climbing again.

Boring rehab... been there once already with the leg break... not looking forward to it again...

In reply to Nomics4sale: I pretty much shagged all the tenadons in the process so similiar in that respect...Calcaneum (heel bone) is the attachment point for the achilles for instance. The bone healed (no pun intended) pretty well but all the soft tissue around my ankle took an age - hitting a ledge halfway through a 40 foot wipper did some funny things not just to my ankle either. Back knees and hip all suffered a bit I reckon.
Other issue you have to deal with which you will know all about from breaking your leg is all the muscle you lose while you are out of action. My calf muscle looked like a bag of water hanging off the back of my leg after 6 weeks of doing nothing.

Its a pain but if you want to get back to it it will come round soon enough.

In reply to andybenham:

So do you think your tendons around your heel have healed completely? I get the impression that a weak tendon stays weak and there's not much you can do? My physio says that I just have to wait and see how it is after the surgery and hope that the tendon is fixed properly. If it isn't then it will probably rupture again regardless of what I do, climbing, running etc. And there's no real way of telling how strong your tendons are?

In reply to Nomics4sale:
Yeah I thought so too. Its my right foot/leg and while it does hurt a tad if I pull up my foot as you say its hurts a damnsight more if I do that then bend my foot inwards.
Went to the Doc's last night, he had a quick feel around (of my ankle before any of you perv's get any wrong ideas!), said he didn't think I'd done anything too nasty but that he'd send me for some physio. So now probably got another couple of weeks wait until I get an appointment for that to start.

On the subject of physio, I've never had it before so don't really know what to expect. Lots of painful stretching exercises i presume? If so, I'm not really sure how this is going to help if I've torn the tendon? Any thoughts anyone?

In reply to kilgore1080:

That sounds about right. The tib ant also has a inward pulling function so it does sound as if you have done something to it. To be honest I'm not sure what a physio can do with a torn tendon. Maybe they'll give you exercises to strengthen the muscle around it? Someone else on here might know...

In reply to Nomics4sale: Sounds painful, hope you get fixed soon. Just to let you know the Tib anterior is a muscle but muscle turns into tendon which then attaches to bone.

Good massage will help the healing process along with remedial exercises.