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Fractured patella, recovery, rehab and splint questions.
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Hi guys, I recently (11 days ago, 18th Jan) broke my patella in two places while skiing.
The tendons were not damaged and the bone is being held together by them so there was no need for surgery to put hardware in. The consultant put me in a splint, told me not to articulate my knee and I have weekly X-rays followed by an appointment with the consultant to monitor the knitting and ensure the bone fragments stay in place. When I explained this injury would impact my competition season the consultant was very helpful and told me with weekly checkups he would get me into rehab ASAP.
This is where the questions start: what kind of timescale and I looking at before I am allowed to start flexing my knee again, I'm really aiming to minimise muscular atrophy as much as possible.
What kind of recovery times have people had with reasonably straightforward, no surgery required, patella fractures?
The splint I am in is rather uncomfortable (a generic Chinese one supplied by the NHS), I have to do it up tight to stop it moving and they causes discomfort and thus I've spent a lot of time lying in bed with the brace off. If I loosen it to sleep, it moves both up and down and around the leg often then resting on my knee cap. Are there any recemondations for better splints to immobilise the knee joint?
Thanks guys, any advice is greatly appreciated!
Will
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I fractured mine November 15th a few years ago and I think I was skiing by early January. Was in a splint for four weeks, then some physio. My fracture only went like 3/4 of the way through though.
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Aids for sure.
But seriously just don't move it for a while it will heal to the point you can start habing
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That's about the most horrible thing I could see right now.
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http://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEtalk/
this website got me through the bulk of my broken patella, go to the forum that says "bone breaks around the knee" and you'll find all the info you'll ever need. also note that a lot of the stories are from older inactive people and aren't young so not all the recovery times on there are going to be relevant to you. It's great to hear yours isn't displaced, that's gonna make life much much easier for you but its still very traumatic obviously but work hard and you'll get through it. If I could give any advice I would say obsess over your injury, not in an unhealthy way but take an interest in it. read everything you can about it, talk your doctor and your physical therapist's ears off with every question you can think of and most importantly work your fucking ass off as hard as you safely can. good luck and try to stay up and positive.
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o and ask ur doctor about static exercises, flexing your quad without
bending ur knee can combat atrophy a ton. I wasn't allowed to bend past
30 degrees for 2 months which is pretty much no bending at all and I
atrophied A TON. unfortunately even though you didnt have surgery your
knee cap is still broken and going to take 6 to 8 weeks to heal just
like every other bone you can break and you dont want to stress it
before you're ready. not sure about alternative splints, I literally sat
on my ass for 2 months waiting for the bone to heal and get crackin on
PT. Maybe it heals quicker if there aren't screws involved but I'm pretty sure you're not going to be able to bend for 6 to 8 weeks. kneeguru should have some info on it sorry for the dub post
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I fractured mine about half way through a few years ago (side to side). The doctor told me it would be about 6-7 months before it was fully healed. It was 3 weeks in a cast > 3 weeks in a brace > 2-3 weeks of on and off brace.. Till I was able to walk for the most part.. From there it took about a month to be able to run/fully move on it. Then on I just said screw it and did whatever (Skateboarding, soccer, hard sprints, etc.). It swelled and hurt quite bad after these activities until the 4-5 month mark (post injury). After that, all it did was crack a lot. Now 3 years later, I am not affected by it at all. haha... The brace sucks, there isn't really anything you can do about it. Other than suck it up, and find a certain position that feels good.. Good luck on the journey ahead. haha
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All done! Cheers, really, I'm just looking for what kind of recovery times people have had with the same injury, I'm in limbo about whether I get to ski again this season at the moment which sucks.
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Five and a half weeks from when I did it I got the okay to start flexing it and see a physio, the week after got to start exercising it.
Started stretching, got 19% or my ROM back and my hamstrings loosened up nicely.
I've been working in the gym for the last three days doing leg presses, working on hip flexors, adductors and abductors and cardio and it's gradually getting better.
I head out to France again on the 22nd of March and my physio says I'll be ready but for only having about 75% muscle strength in my right quad.
Boom, so fucking stoked.
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I know what you're going through, I dislocated and fractured my patella. Surgery is going to be a bitch.
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i shattered mine into 8 pieces, and had surgery... i was skiing again by early February... vibes man fuck patellas
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