UKC

Hey folks, I broke my ankle really badly in march, I had to have plenty of metalwork put in. I'm just out of a cast and starting to try and walk again. While im sure I'll always be a climber to a greater or lesser degree I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever Boulder again.

Have any of you folks any experience of this? I know folk that have had less serious fractures and have returned to full Boulder capacity within a year or so but no one with as serious a break as mine. (My non climbing Physio said that jumping off stuff may never be possible- I have very restricted movement in my ankle joint just now though I'm sure this will improve) Is it time to hang up my mat and start polishing my nuts?

In reply to Beardyman:

I'd listen to you're physio he/she knows more than anyone here especially if they've actually examined your ankle.

In reply to Beardyman:

Very early days to be even thinking about bouldering I think. I broke, shattered my ankle fairly comprehensibly last June & am back now to climbing as well as running & may consider bouldering maybe next year.

You will know when its right for you, but personally I would concentrate fully on getting full movement, mobility back as well as your muscle mass so as to be able to support your weight in case you have to jump off.

My range of movement has nearly returned to what it used to be but has taken lots of effort, work & determination, stick with it & I'm sure you will be bouldering one day again.

In reply to Beardyman:
Physiotherapists are always conservative in their opinions obviously they deal with a wide spectrum of people but remember your a climber your not joe fat slob who doesn't do the exercises they give him,eats a bad diet,smokes,and was in pretty poor condition in the first place.all you can do is put the work in,take it one day at a time and keep your focus on what you wanna achieve.positivity is the key looking at the things you can do today that you couldn't do last month instead of looking at the things you still can't do,try to set small goals and have something to work towards,and most of all keep smiling

In reply to Beardyman:

Yes you will. Believe it and just do it. I was told I'd never climb or fell run again. Good job I never listened to that guff. Do the physio and get out

In reply to Beardyman:


Probably not what you want to hear but I don't see you've any choice but to do your rehab exercises and be patient, see what you're able to do once it's better healed. Until you've lived with it for a while I'd take everything with a pinch of salt.

jk

In reply to Beardyman:

One of my climbing partners who is a very experienced physio, says that your mental attitude plays a big part in how much you will recover. At one extreme, people use an injury as an excuse to never do things again, at the other extreme she's seen people significantly exceed the established recovery norm. As others have said, take it stage by stage and take note of how your body feels. You will need to see as time goes by what you can do, mild pain means you're approaching your current limits, severe pain means you've probably pushed things too far at that recovery point.

I badly dislocated my right elbow years ago falling off a boulder problem and fresh out of the plaster it wouldn't straighten much beyond 100 degrees. Over the next 12 - 18 months it gradually improved to the point where you wouldn't know I'd had an injury....

In reply to jkarran:


Excellent advice - which mirrors my own experience.

In 2009 I had a groundfall accident while leading, resulting in an obliterated calcanium and numerous micro-fractures of the ankle. Lots of plates and screws later and I was, sort of, in one piece again. At the time I was told that I would forever struggle with walking on uneven ground, would never be able to walk far, nor run, hop, jump, dance etc. I was also told that my ankle would need to be permanently fused within 2 years or so. Things looked quite bleak for a time and I decided to give up mountain biking and sold my Honda enduro bike as I couldn't face the thought of the consequences of a hard yet instinctive foot dab.

Throughout my recovery - which has taken years and further surgery BTW - I adopted a bloody minded approach and pushed myself hard - no gain without pain etc. By 2012 I could walk 3-4 miles, but would then be crippled for a few days and had to resort to using a walking stick. As soon as I recovered, out I'd go and do it all over again. Last year I managed to get to the top of a modest summit, my first since the accident. I've managed two since then, both in the Rhinogau, so not exactly easy walking territory either. I'm no longer so crippled after such walking, just limping badly and in some pain for 24h or so. Voltarol has become my 'friend'. Surprisingly, throughout this time, my actual climbing was unaffected although I waited nearly a year before restarting. Initially - and for a long time - I just went cragging and severely limited the distances walked.

By trial and error I've learnt how to manage my condition and I always strap up my ankle before doing any hill walking or long approaches. This minimises any further immobility over the subsequent 24h and in recent years has allowed me to walk and ice climb over successive days. I've also had all the metalwork removed - on consultant's advice - to minimise any risk of complications if I was ever to break it again. My ankle still remains unfused, contrary to all medical opinion and advice.

Am I back to 'normal'? No, and I never will be as the injury was simply far too severe for that. But I'm far more mobile than I ever expected to be. I can even run short distances (and dance very badly - so no change there!) The one thing I daren't do is jump. My ankle still feels too 'fragile' or weak to risk even a hop, let alone a jump onto the ground or onto a bouldering mat. So I never boulder seriously these days - as the risk of fecking it all up again is just too great for me.

We're all different and your recovery will be different to mine. Listen to all medical advice, but always keep an open mind, be extremely determined and persistent, set yourself achievable, dynamic goals - and above all, be patient and never give up as you could be in for a longer haul recovery than you'd like or ever wish for. However, there is always light at the end of any tunnel, no matter how long.

Good luck.

In reply to Beardyman:

I broke my ankle very badly around 25 years ago. In my case the bone mended in a different shape and lost mobility in angle flexion, which is crucial for absorbing energy on landing. I can boulder indoors fine where the mats are thick and soft enough to absorb impact - but no way on out door mats. For the same reason I can't run. However I can climb, cycle, ski (with heel lifts) better than ever

The short answer is: it depends.

I think a good guide may be that if you can run for a few miles without any pain in the next few years you may be able to boulder, also start off on thick mats at a wall (not from too high) and see how it feels in the days following a short session.

In reply to Beardyman:

I massively screwed up the ligaments in my ankle a few years ago - not quite the same, but I was told by the physio it would only recover to 60% of its original strength and flexibility at best. It took two years of regularly doing exercises, and whilst at one point I thought the physio might be right, it came back to around 98%.

Do all the exercises you get given from your physio, and as often as you can - there aren't any guarantees, but with time it may well be fine. I was determined to prove mine wrong, which probably paid a part in the way I approached recovery.

In reply to Beardyman:

hi , can only comment on my own accident . I took quite a bad lead fall last april about 10m didn't deck out but bounced on my head a few times spun round and shattered my tib and fib in 14 small pieces about 2inch above my ankle, was in a external fixator till December . had it removed and struggled to walk at all for the first month but this was mainly due to muscle loss. now 5 months in and I still walk with a limp and it still swells excessively after a lot of walking or standing, I haven't climbed yet as even a bounce off the wall or crag would cause severe pain and possible put me back a little. I am out on my road bike as much as possible and also out on the mtb but taking it real easy on my local trails (go early of the morning to avoid having to hold others up) as even a foot dab can prove to be excruciating.it can be a long sometimes lonesome period of time when you think its not possible to get back to how you were.i just look at they were going to amputate my leg due to the severity of the break but it started to heal, they said I wouldn't walk distances for a yr after the frame came off but I do. just be sensible with your rehab push yourself and don't listen to any of the "you wont be able to--", because nobody knows what youll be able for ,all the best
stuart

In reply to Beardyman:

Thanks for all your positive messages folks. Yesterday I took my first unaided step, today I took about ten, feeling pretty chuffed with myself!

In reply to Beardyman:

Dave MacLeod had a bad ankle break when he was 20, and he's not too shabby at this bouldering lark ...

On the other hand, he also says (this is in "Make or Break") that he trusted the physio too much when they just gave him a few minutes of ultrasound and stood him on the wobble board for a bit, and was lazy with the rehab exercises at home, and as a result the ankle ended up permanently weak and inflexible.

Actually, I'd really recommend getting a copy of "Make or Break" -- it's got fantastic advice about learning how to read your body's signals, how to approach rehab, get the best advice, and how to handle the psychological effects of injury.

In reply to Beardyman:

P.S.

This might or might not work for you, but when I had a bad foot injury a couple of years ago and couldn't climb at all for many months, I got very into fingerboarding.

It was psychologically helpful for me to feel like I was doing something that might at least would stop me from losing too much strength, and in fact I ended up coming back with stronger fingers than before.

(Obviously, you have to be very careful to ensure that you won't land on the injured foot if you come off the fingerboard unexpectedly ...)

Fingerboarding might not be your particular cup of tea.

But using the injury as an opportunity to do some intensive climbing-related training of the un-injured parts of my body helped stop me from going stir-crazy.