[RiDurbin]

Hey guys. We were doing some practice runs getting ready for the race May 8 th at Big Bear and my 14 year old son had a bad wreak on a steep drop in. He came in way to hot on the runup, tried to scrub speed but didn't have enough time to slow before the drop in. He knows better but instead on getting off the brakes when he went over the edge, he grabbed a handfull and went over the bars hard on rocky terrain.
Broke his left forearm midway between the wrist and elbow. Nice clean break, didn't need surgery. But the one bone broke clean thru and the other about 98% thru. Bones reset nicely.
What we are wondering is what is a reasonable down time once the cast is off? How long before the bone is basically sound and won't break easily if he has another wreck? He is normally a fast healer but this is his worst break (collar bone last year). Mom of course doesn't ever want him on a bike again, but we'll deal with that when the time comes.
Mostly worried because human nature being what it is, especially with kids they tend to gravitate towards the injured limb in panic situations. Not to mention they are more likely to bail on something they could ride out.
We are basically hoping he could start doing some riding by August and he really wants to race at Northstar in Sept.
Appreciate any input if you've had simaliar injuries. Thanks

 

[Brian HCM#1]

The best thing to do is listen to his Dr.

 

[Big E]

dr know nothing. they just payed alot for a peace of paper that says they are smart. if he heals fast you can ride with a cast on your arm. its just a little awkward. i broke and dislocated my wrist once and still rode with a cast on. i just took it easy. just drink lots of milk and go to the physical therapy at least. it helps out alot.

 

[spincrazy]

geniuses everywhere

 

[Transcend]

Originally posted by Big E
dr know nothing. they just payed alot for a peace of paper that says they are smart. if he heals fast you can ride with a cast on your arm. its just a little awkward. i broke and dislocated my wrist once and still rode with a cast on. i just took it easy. just drink lots of milk and go to the physical therapy at least. it helps out alot.

is that what the double wide salesman told you?

You apparently know nothing about medical school or higher education in general.

 

[Big E]

why do yall have to get all smart on hear when someone speaks from experience. and hey thats just my opinon and everyones is diffrent even each doc's opinon is diffrent. so who should you belive.

 

[DßR]

ummm.....one dude's experience, vs. a doctor's experience who may have treated thousands of broken bones?

Hmmm. "so who should you believe" indeed.....

 

[Transcend]

Originally posted by Big E
why do yall have to get all smart on hear when someone speaks from experience. and hey thats just my opinon and everyones is diffrent even each doc's opinon is diffrent. so who should you belive.

The doctors who have much more knowledge then you about how the body operates and heals. The doctors who have seen hundreds of cases exactly like this one. The doctors and physiotherapists who put me back together on many MANY occasions.

 

[Big E]

true. but i myself just find it hard to trust any doctor really if none of them can be consistent with one another. but hey thats just me.

 

[RiDurbin]

10/4 on that. Actually I talked to 3 differant doctors last night and of course got 3 differant opinions.
I once had a Duodenal ulcer in my early 20's. It went undiagnosed for months. Got to the point where everytime I ate even the smallest thing I would be in agony for hours. My secratary had been telling me from the start it was an Duodenal ulcer with minutes after me telling her the symptoms. After my second time at the doctor I mentioned what my secratary had said, he scoffed and brushed it aside. Another week later a differant doctor concurred with my secratary. Gave Zantac. Instant relief.
My point being? My secratary knew because she had actually had one, not read about it in a medical book. She had first hand knowledge cause she lived it.
I can tell 2 more stories simaliar to this but I won't bore you. I of course won't ignore doctors advice, but it nice to get opinions from others who have been there.
It's hard to find a doctor who has both had broken bones and understands the stresses of downhill racing. I do appreciate you opinion and your point is well taken.

 

[Transcend]

Originally posted by Big E
true. but i myself just find it hard to trust any doctor really if none of them can be consistent with one another. but hey thats just me.

They cannot be consistent as every case itself is different. What is consistent is the baselines the body operates under which you, myself and most other people have no idea of.

Taking certain medications can cause you to heal slower, certain prior conditions can cause you to heal slower. Certain blood conditions can lead to the death of a bone and it will never heal...none of these your or I would be aware of. A doctor however, would be.

 

[Transcend]

Originally posted by RiDurbin

It's hard to find a doctor who has both had broken bones and understands the stresses of downhill racing. I do appreciate you opinion and your point is well taken.

Find your son a good sports doctor if you are concerned. I have broken many bones, and had many other injuries between football, track and downhill racing.

A doctor who is in tune with what you do, will be 100x more efficient with your rehab schedule and time frames. A normal doctor may be good at his job, but will have no idea.

Find a sports oriented orthopedic surgeon, he will be able to hook you up with all the proper excercises/time frames. Most good athletic therapy clinics have one they can recommend, or even on staff.

 

[Rip]

Listen to the doctor, stay off the bike until it is fully healed(which is a must if it's going to heal fully)

Get him some mtb dvds or cds to keep himself entertained during the time which will be quite a while.

 

[Transcend]

Originally posted by Rip
Listen to the doctor, stay off the bike until it is fully healed(which is a must if it's going to heal fully)

Get him some mtb dvds or cds to keep himself entertained during the time which will be quite a while.

ride rollers or a trainer while watching tv. Gets you over the boredom (sorta) while keeping you in shape.

also, rick is that you?

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Originally posted by RiDurbin
10/4 on that. Actually I talked to 3 differant doctors last night and of course got 3 differant opinions.
I once had a Duodenal ulcer in my early 20's. It went undiagnosed for months. Got to the point where everytime I ate even the smallest thing I would be in agony for hours. My secratary had been telling me from the start it was an Duodenal ulcer with minutes after me telling her the symptoms. After my second time at the doctor I mentioned what my secratary had said, he scoffed and brushed it aside. Another week later a differant doctor concurred with my secratary. Gave Zantac. Instant relief.
My point being? My secratary knew because she had actually had one, not read about it in a medical book. She had first hand knowledge cause she lived it.
I can tell 2 more stories simaliar to this but I won't bore you. I of course won't ignore doctors advice, but it nice to get opinions from others who have been there.
It's hard to find a doctor who has both had broken bones and understands the stresses of downhill racing. I do appreciate you opinion and your point is well taken.

A broken arm is a more common injury than your ulcer, I would listen to the Doc I mean its only your son we are talking about here.

 

[Rip]

I'm not a Rick, if you were referring to me.

 

[RiDurbin]

Hey Fraser, yeah its me. I appreciate your input. I myself have never broken anything serious so I'm clueless. Not trying to get an online diagnose, just trying to get as much info possible. I will take your advice and check into a sports doctor. ER doc's seemed to think it would heal up nicely.
Got to emergency at 5pm spent 5 hours there and then got transferred to another emergency because the others orthopedic surgeon was in surgery until 1:00am. Finally was able to head home at 5:00am the next morning. Actual time to splint and realign bone? 15minutes. County emergency room. Welcome to hell. 3 hours just to get a doctor to look at arm at the second emergency room. The guy in the next room got there ahead of us and got first service for the skin rash he had acquired 10 days earlier. Seems the medication they had given him at the "Emergency room"the week prior wasn't working.
Place was packed. Every bed full. Thats 42 beds. Doc said there was probably only 4 actual emergency's, my son being one of them. All the rest should have been at a general practioner.
By the way, that was his first ride with the new helmet. Seems every part of his body made contact with the ground but his head. It still looks like new. It was also his first ride on his new DHR. He came of a Turner RFX that was setup for downhill and was supposed to be taking it slow to get used to the differant ride qualities. He figured taking it slow for about 100 yards was all that was necessary. Normally I lead to regulate speed whenever we hit a unfamiliar trail, but he had been down this one many times prior. I let him lead even though it was his first time on bike. Bad judgement on my part. Sometimes its tough staying one step ahead of these guys. Thanks for all your advice.

 

[Transcend]

Originally posted by RiDurbin
Hey Fraser, yeah its me. I appreciate your input. I myself have never broken anything serious so I'm clueless. Not trying to get an online diagnose, just trying to get as much info possible. I will take your advice and check into a sports doctor. ER doc's seemed to think it would heal up nicely.
Got to emergency at 5pm spent 5 hours there and then got transferred to another emergency because the others orthopedic surgeon was in surgery until 1:00am. Finally was able to head home at 5:00am the next morning. Actual time to splint and realign bone? 15minutes. County emergency room. Welcome to hell. 3 hours just to get a doctor to look at arm at the second emergency room. The guy in the next room got there ahead of us and got first service for the skin rash he had acquired 10 days earlier. Seems the medication they had given him at the "Emergency room"the week prior wasn't working.
Place was packed. Every bed full. Thats 42 beds. Doc said there was probably only 4 actual emergency's, my son being one of them. All the rest should have been at a general practioner.
By the way, that was his first ride with the new helmet. Seems every part of his body made contact with the ground but his head. It still looks like new. It was also his first ride on his new DHR. He came of a Turner RFX that was setup for downhill and was supposed to be taking it slow to get used to the differant ride qualities. He figured taking it slow for about 100 yards was all that was necessary. Normally I lead to regulate speed whenever we hit a unfamiliar trail, but he had been down this one many times prior. I let him lead even though it was his first time on bike. Bad judgement on my part. Sometimes its tough staying one step ahead of these guys. Thanks for all your advice.

sometime the bird just has to leave the nest man...

As for the helmet, glad it helped to keep his head in tact. Arms heal...

People are retards and cannot distinguish between the ER and the doctors office. I have lerarned this over many years of getting hurt. I waited 3 days to go to the er with a wrist in 8 pieces...youd think dude who has a sore throat or a big bruise could wait to go to the doctors office.

I did however get rushed through with 1- a concussion causing me to barf all over the waiting room and 2- a split open arm from track spikes that involved the fat coming out of my arm and 165 stitches.

Lesson learned...barf or bleed...or as my journalism courses taught me...

If it bleeds it leads!

 

[MMike]

This is one of the more disturbing threads in a while...

Yeah ride with a cast on. Good advice.... There's no need to worry aobut future arthritis and other complications. No. Just wrap in in electrical tape and it's good as new. He'll be out brawling down at the Boar's Nest in no time. Yeeeeehawwww...

(BTW, I was cleared to do whatever I wanted after 12 weeks when I broke my elbow).

And as for self diagnosis...a sort of friend of mine self diagnosed himself with an ulcer. He did some research on his own, matching up his symptoms etc....came up with "ulcer". He managed to somehow get his hands on ulcer medication and took it. He got exponentially more sick. Turns out it wasn't an ulcer and was in fact ulcerative colitis. The ulcer medication aggravated the colitis so badly that they wanted to remove his colon at 24 years old. I believe he refused. I'm honestly not sure what happened. This was 10 years ago now. Sufficed to say self diagnosis is generally a bad idea. Not to say though that you shouldn't be informed.

Toshi should chime in on this one......

 

[bohica]

barring any other complications, it should take the bones approx 8wks to heal. that's the average anyway. after it heals, start small and work his way back up. maybe some exercises to strengthen the muscles in the forearm.

 

[jmvar]

wow this thread is rediculous. ulcer does not = broken bone. There is no misdianosis of a clean broken bone. Fractures are another case, have been sent home 2 times with a "sprainged wrist" diagnosis when it was really a fracture.

With a clean break it is right there in front of you on the x ray. From experience, I am a very fast healer flesh wise. Of all of the broke bones I have had, none took longer than the usual time to heal. Last June I broke my ulna and i did not get back on a bike until Feb. of this year. For some reason the bone took really long to regenerate and fuse with its counter part. This is just something you have to accept and be glad that it is a broken bone and not a torn, ripped ligament, concusion, head injury etc. Bones are easy, wait, be patient, let it heal and you will recover 100%. What other serious injury do you know of where you are guaranteed a 100% recovery IF YOU ARE PATIENT AND LET IT RECOVER!!!!!!!!!

The rider with the injury is young and will want to get back on the bike as soon as possible, you have to make sure that he takes his time and I would get an x-ray 1 month, then like 3 months later to see how it is healing. The x-ray will tell you everything....

 

[jmvar]

He is lucky the bone stayed in the skin, I was very lucky that I didn't get an infection in my bone from this injury, had lots of dirt inside the wound where the bone came out.

 

[jmvar]

as soon as I got the green light from the dock, I got a list of excerses from a sport med. clinic and some putty to strengthen the hand. My forearm is now stronger than it was before the injury, now all i have to do is learn to DH!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mitch]

It sucks that its one of your (my) bodies reactions to grab the brakes when your in trouble. recently after a small drop I landed on a band bounce and got lined up with a ups storage building. I grabbed a handfull of breaks and endo'd right into the building. There is now a huge dent in the ups building heh, walked away though.

 

[Brian Peterson]

Originally posted by RiDurbin
Hey guys. We were doing some practice runs getting ready for the race May 8 th at Big Bear and my 14 year old son had a bad wreak on a steep drop in. He came in way to hot on the runup, tried to scrub speed but didn't have enough time to slow before the drop in. He knows better but instead on getting off the brakes when he went over the edge, he grabbed a handfull and went over the bars hard on rocky terrain.
Broke his left forearm midway between the wrist and elbow. Nice clean break, didn't need surgery. But the one bone broke clean thru and the other about 98% thru. Bones reset nicely.
What we are wondering is what is a reasonable down time once the cast is off? How long before the bone is basically sound and won't break easily if he has another wreck? He is normally a fast healer but this is his worst break (collar bone last year). Mom of course doesn't ever want him on a bike again, but we'll deal with that when the time comes.
Mostly worried because human nature being what it is, especially with kids they tend to gravitate towards the injured limb in panic situations. Not to mention they are more likely to bail on something they could ride out.
We are basically hoping he could start doing some riding by August and he really wants to race at Northstar in Sept.
Appreciate any input if you've had simaliar injuries. Thanks

6-8 weeks in the cast is a pretty safe bet... After the cast comes off, you will have to see how he feels. He will be be sore for a while afterwards... I just came off 4 months in a cast not to long ago... I started right away... It felt better than I thought it would... But your doctor will advise on the side of caution. Like my doc told me... If it hurts, stop. If it hurts bad, come see me.

Brian

 

[Lex]

Originally posted by RiDurbin
Hey Fraser, yeah its me. I appreciate your input. I myself have never broken anything serious so I'm clueless. Not trying to get an online diagnose, just trying to get as much info possible. I will take your advice and check into a sports doctor. ER doc's seemed to think it would heal up nicely.
Got to emergency at 5pm spent 5 hours there and then got transferred to another emergency because the others orthopedic surgeon was in surgery until 1:00am. Finally was able to head home at 5:00am the next morning. Actual time to splint and realign bone? 15minutes. County emergency room. Welcome to hell. 3 hours just to get a doctor to look at arm at the second emergency room. The guy in the next room got there ahead of us and got first service for the skin rash he had acquired 10 days earlier. Seems the medication they had given him at the "Emergency room"the week prior wasn't working.
Place was packed. Every bed full. Thats 42 beds. Doc said there was probably only 4 actual emergency's, my son being one of them. All the rest should have been at a general practioner.
By the way, that was his first ride with the new helmet. Seems every part of his body made contact with the ground but his head. It still looks like new. It was also his first ride on his new DHR. He came of a Turner RFX that was setup for downhill and was supposed to be taking it slow to get used to the differant ride qualities. He figured taking it slow for about 100 yards was all that was necessary. Normally I lead to regulate speed whenever we hit a unfamiliar trail, but he had been down this one many times prior. I let him lead even though it was his first time on bike. Bad judgement on my part. Sometimes its tough staying one step ahead of these guys. Thanks for all your advice.

When I was 14 I broke my left arm on a half pipe. Snapped both bones right in half and smashed my wrist as well. After a failed setting, I had surgery with 2 plates and a whole lot of screws installed and then went through 2 weeks in a soft cast, 4 weeks in a full arm cast, and 4 weeks in a short cast. Then I had several weeks of getting it back into reasonable shape (it looked like the Crypt Keeper's arm for a while because the muscles had atrophied).

Your son didn't need surgery and went straight to the cast (I assume), so, assuming healthy 14 year olds heal at similar rates, he's probably looking at about 10+ weeks until it's healed and back into moderate shape.

This is of course not an official medical opinion, but one from a similar, direct experience. I hope it helps.

 

[Full Trucker]

The nice thing about broken bones is this: you can watch how they're doing! When I broke my arm, my ortho had me come in every two-three weeks for an x-ray, and you can tell when the bone is fused and you are good to go.

Some people heal in as little as 4-5 weeks, others take up to 8-12 weeks, others may even take longer. It also depends on the type of fracture (oblique, compound, spiral, etc.), the bone that was broken, age of the person, physical fitness, etc.

My advice is to monitor it, then you'll know for sure when your son can get back in the saddle.

Good luck!

 

[Nick]

I broke my wrist, radius to be specific, in two places not-landing a jump that I'd hit like 6 times JUST before the camera came out.

I was in a cast for 5 1/2 weeks. Then probably 2-3 weeks of PT and just putzin' around on the bike to regain my "riding strength" back.

All totalled, probably 9 weeks before I could really ride. The downside to my injury was that it left me with some serious demons to overcome. It wasn't that I was afraid of being hurt, but rather afraid of another 6 weeks +/- in a cast and/or off the bike.

The upside is I got a new perspective on training and conditioning. My brother said it best, "you wear all those pads, what you need to do is put some muscle on". I've been in the best shape/health of my life since breaking my arm. I'm not saying that building strength will prevent your bones from breaking, but it has far more positive effects than negative.

Listen to the doctor's advice. If the Dr. thinks it is ok to ride around in the cast after a week or two (?!?!?) then by all means go for it. If the Dr. says that in order for the bones to heal properly, then maybe you should take some time off.

 

[Transcend]

when i broke my wrist (scaphoid navicular) into about 6- 8 pieces i was 16 weeks in a cast.

I still have reduced mobility and strength, it also hurts from time to time. Do not do what i did, and start using it too early.

 

[Brian Peterson]

That's what kept me casted for 4 months... And mine was only a hairline...

Brian

 

[Transcend]

Originally posted by Brian Peterson
That's what kept me casted for 4 months... And mine was only a hairline...

Brian

Its a nasty break no matter what, as the bone sees reduced to no bloodflow beyond 14 years of age. They can use magnetic therapy on it (as they did mine) to help stimulate bloodflow but it doesnt always work.

 

[Inclag]

I'm no doctor, but I would just say let it heal up like it's supposed too. At the age your son is at, if he were to re-damage his arm again, he could have complications later in his life since his bones are still developing which would really suck.

I'll also agree with those who are also suggesting to speak with a sports doctor.