A ‘break’ in training….

If you haven’t already heard I have broken my foot. To be precise a comminuted fracture of my 5th metatarsal. The cumberland centre were great as was fracture clinic. It’s a stable fracture that needs no intervention and should heal all by itself and I can move around as pain allows. This is perhaps a really good opportunity to talk about breaks, fractures and the healing process as everyone is asking whether I should be walking on it, should I be working and so on….so here are some answers to some basic questions;

• No the fracture won’t move if I walk on it
• It will take 6-12 weeks to heal
• Yes I need to avoid impact until at least 6 weeks – ie the force of running in my case may be greater than the consolidating bone growth can withstand so no running for a while
• No I don’t need a plaster – the fracture is stable so body weight won’t cause excessive movement in the break. Some movement of the bone ends is vital in promoting the body to repair the fracture site. Immobilising the leg too much will cause stiffness in the joints, wasting of the muscles and loss of balance reactions – don’t create more problems if you don’t have to!
• Crutches kill! They hurt your hands, are knackering and generally a nightmare. I have a new found sympathy for anyone who’s had to use them for more than a day! Mine are waiting by the door to be returned to the Cumberland Centre.
• My calf is already looking smaller than the other. I can feel my quads (front thigh muscles) are already weaker than the other side – my leg is starting to atrophy (weaken) within 2 weeks. Aggghhh!!
• The sexy shoe is to allow more ‘normal’ walking – or gait. It’s not about helping or protecting the break (fracture)

Here’s my X-ray – top marks to those of you that can see it! And here’s my sexy shoe too…

So what is my plan?

1. Wear my shoe until it makes no difference to my walking and pain and get back into normal trainers
2. Start balancing on my left leg – it’s already pretty much pain free if I don’t wobble around
3. Start doing some mini squats and small knee bends on the left leg to keep my thigh muscles going
4. Keep y’all posted and put some videos out of the exercises I’m doing

Why am I doing this? To show people you can and possibly should be doing something  whilst you’re in the healing phase. Instead of starting your recovery when support aids come off there could well be exercises that you can do to ready yourself and speed up the recovery process. Step by step, day by day and week by week….

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