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So, I'm not entirely sure on the technical terms for my brand of injury, but I will explain the story of how it happened.I'm an inline-skater, so I always push myself past my breaking point, but one monday morning, roughly 12 days ago I had the greatest scare of my life, I was "bombing" a street that had a great incline to it, this street I always "bomb" on a daily basis, if not more than 12+ times a day, I ended up losing my focus and paying for it, I was managing 10-15mph down the very same hill, and as I stated, lost my focus, wound up crashing into a lightpole, and breaking my right kneecap into three pieces, I was rushed to the ER within 30 minutes after the initial incident, and had gotten x-rays and whatnot. They had me scheduled for surgery 12 hours later, and I was under for 4.5 hours, or so I was told, I was so strung out on morphine I didn't know where I was half of the time. But, on to the question:I'm 20, I skate(d) more than 8+ hours a day for 6 months, and I have never had such a critical injury before, I'm worried that I may never be able to dabble in my passion for more than a year or two, and it's scaring the living hell out of me. The day after my surgery, they had me using a walker to allow me to get some familiarity with it, I sort of failed at first. But, the next day, I started moving around more, and able to do my normal activities within 3 days. Now, that I'm more used to moving around, i'm able to get up the stairs, go in and out of the house, I can get on and off the couch without any issue, and generally do the things I could do before this, but with some limitations. I can't put any weight on my right leg, if I do my foot feels like it has pins and needles in it. I'm curious on how long it may take for me to get back on my feet and skate once again. I'm going to the doctor Monday afternoon to have my stitches removed and to get my P.T. scheduled.Could anyone who has more knowledge shine some light on this for me? I really want to get back on my feet even if it's absolutely grueling and painful, but I just can't be like this, this killing me mentally and physically, not being able to enjoy my greatest passion, and I'm just really scared that this injury will permenantly ground me. I don't know if I'm making good progress, or if I'm not even half way there, apparently they have to "break-in" my knee to get the ligaments and joints to loosen up so I can move it. If I absolutely focused on my P.T. and more than willing to make it my life for the time being, could I manage to get back on my skates within 4 months if not earlier? Thank you for any information that you could share with me.N.
First think to put in your mind: this is a serous injury and it takes time to heal and even longer to recover, sad to tell that Webster was right, usually a year is the time line to reach to "start feeling better".Sorry for telling you, but skating in 4 months seems kind of impossible First you need to recover all your ROM, which may take from few weeks to few months, depending on your injury, your will and your pain tolerance levels. After that, your quad will be completely wasted, so you'll need to recover the strength on it. Again, few months for sure. Finally the mental stuff: you won't be trusting your knee, so any movement requiring weight bearing different than walking (such as stairs down, running or skating) will be scary. The latter really depends on you, not anything physical.My injuries were pretty much severe than yours (both shattered patellas, femur broken and DVT, check for my post in the "Bone breaks" section), but I am 7 months after surgery and I still need a crutch to walk around (mostly for down hills and down stairs). My ROM is now complete, but it wasn't until a week ago or so. My quads are still weak, although I feel much better than couple of months ago. Luckily, my hardware (pins and wires) is going out next Tuesday and many people here said that is the take off point for PT So, do not give up dude! This is a tedious, complex, painful and LONG process, but it DOES get better! Do not desperate and keep pushing on your PT, even if it hurts like hell, it's the only way to get back to skating