Grotug

I sprained my foot badly on the evening of August 8, 2012 after hitting a deer at 35mph coming down a hill. I'm writing this post in the evening of August 30:

I still spend most/all of my time lying on a very comfortable couch (basically bed ridden). There were a few days where I was out and about a little bit when I got an orthopedic boot, but was soon relegated to the couch again when I subsequently fell and added further injury to my slowly healing foot. After the original injury my foot never ballooned with swelling, but was/is still swollen days and weeks following the injury. X-rays the day after showed no sign of a fracture, though I was told a hairline fracture was possible. When I saw the orthopedist a week ago more X-rays were taken and he said I probably did fracture the prominent bone on the right side of my right foot.

The sprain is in the right side of my right foot and in my muscles on the right side of my right calf. After the first week the pain was more or less under control in my foot and my shin muscles only hurt when I voluntarily or involuntarily try to use them. About a week after the accident the bruising on my shin and foot turned yellow. After two weeks (eight days ago) I got an orthopedic boot which seemed to help a great deal and I enjoyed hobbling around on crutches. Six days ago I went to a customer appreciation party at my brother's bike shop Berkshire Bike and Board. I had a couple drinks and was a little buzzed, but not tipsy and certainly not drunk. I was carrying a chair and hopping with it with the aim to sit down near my brother when my left foot caught on a rubber mat and my right foot instinctively went out to take the brunt of the fall since my hands were holding the chair. This hurt, but not a huge amount (the orthopedic boot is meant to be load bearing). However, I think it sent my healing back by about a week. For instance, I just took the boot off and my foot is swollen a little and I no longer feel up for wearing the boot all day the way I did when I first got it a week ago. I'm also bed ridden again literally 90% of the time. When I am lying on the couch with the boot off my foot looks slender/normal. (I'm a very slender guy). A little yellow bruising returned to my foot and shin two or three days ago, but looks better now.

Anyone else suffer a similar foot/shin sprain and can offer some insight into how bad mine seems to be? I feel like it will be two to four months before I will be <i>more or less</i> better and maybe 9 to 13 months before I'm fully healed. I'm supposed to go up to Montreal tomorrow for three days for my brother's bachelor party, but I'm not sure it's a good idea. :-/

TrojanHorse

Dude, I've had more issues with my foot.... I could tell you stores, but I'll cut it short. Lisfranc fracture, surgery to put screws in, cast for 6 months, take screws out and another surgery a year later to put a plate in. Casts, boots, crutches, you name it. It sucks and it'll never be "right" again.

If your boot was load bearing why were you hopping & drinking?

I won't judge your decision making but I will say this - how long do you want to have foot problems? Let that guide your behavior for the remainder of your recovery and listen to your doc.

PS, your bruise behavior sounds quite normal. Good luck with your foot, hope it heals 100%

Grotug

Thanks for the reply. There's a sizable black and blue bruise on the bottom of my foot that's grown since I landed on it a week ago. I realize my injury is relatively minor compared to multiple screws and multiple surgeries. Sorry to hear that, sounds absolutely brutal. May I ask how you wrecked your foot?

To answer your question my foot becomes tired/sore after so much hobbling on it and I had slipped coming down the stairs a couple hours earlier in my frustration at how difficult everything was to do on my own (like take a shower). So my foot was a little sore from that so I wasn't able to put much pressure on it when I was at the bikestore party. I should have asked someone to carry the chair for me. It was really stupid to try it on my own, but it wasn't very far I was hopping. I think it set me back more than a week. I'm sure Montreal will be bad for my foot, but I've hardly spent any time with my brother this year and as the best man I feel it's important to have some bonding time with him. I'm going to have to be extra careful and extra patient.

SCochiller

How is the deer?

vermilionx

damn.

i was always worried about this on my gixxer.

didn't think it could be a problem too for pedal bikes.

heal up soon.

rumrunn6

having had knee surgery and talking to many people who had had the "same" type of surgery I know that no one's injury is ever the same despite similar names & procedures. so many injuries like this are self regulating, meaning it's hard to tell when you will be 100% and if you will ever be 100%. often severe injuries take 6mos or longer to get back to regular activity. 11 yrs after my knee surgery I tookup running, cycling, leg weight training & swimming hard. I could have started sooner but didn't have the motivation to.

Hunt-man

This.

dtrain

It won't do much for your foot, but Google Louis CK's bit about deer (unless you are easily offended).

TrojanHorse

+1 to rumrunn's comments about individuality.

Personally, I was just at the point of feeling 100% after knee surgery (oh, the irony! I hope you can appreciate me telling you to take it easy as you recover... ha ha) and was doing cannonballs off the 3m board with my kids. The board was set for skinny little waifs, not me, and I think I slipped and the board rebounded and smacked my foot. I don't think I've ever felt pain that bad, except for when I was recovering from the ensuing surgery to put screws in but there was plenty of demerol for that.

My personal lessons learned:
1) get injuries looked at by a competent doctor immediately (I went to urgent care immediately but they obviously had no idea what they were looking at, the foot doc knew immediately)
2) If you're supposed to stay off your injured limb, stay off your injured limb.

If your foot starts hurting, that's a sign you're over using it - listen to your body and rest as needed. Crutches suck, I know, so do what you can to get off them as soon as possible.

Grotug

Thanks for the replies. Everyone must ask how the deer was. I do not know. The last time I saw him was when I realized that I was going to hit him. He was probably okay.

@dtrain: yes, I had already seen it. Louis CK is hilarious. And yes, that is the way it is where I live. Once were cute; now are everywhere.

J45oN

I actually had my right ankle broken at age 12 when I was kicked by a horse while horseback riding; another horse tried to kick mine and connected with my ankle instead. HURT. After that I put 7 years of rolling it skating, snowboarding, a few bad atv accidents on it, and now when I stand up it pops and hurts like crazy. Take care of it man, be gentle with it. And above all, well. nevermind. im no doctor. Lets go ride bikes ;P

apollored

I tore a tendon in my leg just above the ankle bone in a fall on a muddy slope (walking not cycling).

I thought it was just a sprain ( one of too many) and hobbled round on it for two weeks before going to Minor Injuries as it wasnt improving.

Had an X Ray and the nurse said there was a fracture and put it in a temporary cast till I saw the Ortho Surgeon the following Monday as well as crutches.

Struggled with the crutches all weekend, am hopeless on them then went to the OS on the Monday.

He arrogantly told me there was no fracture but a bad sprain and gave me two elastic supports and told me to use the crutches for 10 weeks and he would send me an appointment to see him again.

So there was me off the bike (apart from tootling locally) with a foot that didnt want to heal in a hurry.

10 weeks came and went and I called the Hospital to be told I should have booked an appt. OK gets worse but she made me one to see an OS again.

I was still doubting the docs diagnosis of no fracture and said so when I went back and saw another more approachable OS.

He said that I hadnt fractured it this time but had in the past which had gone unnoticed and therefore had never been set in a cast resulting in arthritis in the ankle bone. Oh good thinks I.

On top of that I have inflammation and swelling in the ball of my foot and a trapped nerve in my forefoot.

Funnily enough cycling is easier than walking and I have gladly given up the damned crutches lol.

So make sure when you have an injury you think is more serious than just a sprain get it checked out with X Ray it will save you pain in the future.

Grotug

Well, I'm in Montreal. Foot is swollen, but doesn't hurt much.

If you're interested, here are details leading up to my accident from my blog.

8/9/2012
New Olympic Sport: Somersaulting Over Deer on Bicycle.

I got a late start to my bike ride. Made the too often mistake of eating too much before the ride: this time a smoothie made with banana, a little milk, some yogurt and half an avocado. The route was a hilly one. At the top of breezy hill I had to take a short break due to trying to digest the smoothie (mostly the yogurt). Had a leisurely approach to Bash Bish and a leisurely ascent until the steep part, where there is no option for taking it easy anymore. I was feeling good enough to power through to the top of the first part and keep going, but then I decided to take another break, not really wanting to get sick on the ride. The point is, I was going slower than I was planning and needing to go, so by the time I got to the top of the hill, the wildlife was out (mostly birds and squirrels), it was getting dark, and I recognized that dusk is the most dangerous time to ride.

Nevertheless when a car came up from behind me as I was approaching the field and last summit before it is all down hill I thought I'd "race" the car. The car never passed me and I was going at a good pace down the hill when I see a deer chilling on the side of the road. It didn't look very big so I wasn't too concerned about it. I pointed it out to the driver behind me. I kept my eye on the deer the whole time and then it darted out into the road. Not really sure what went through my mind at that point; there wasn't really a lot of time to react. It certainly wasn't panic or even fear or anything like that. More like, do I really have to slow down for this stupid deer? Fugg it, (also, not sure slowing down is a good idea when you have car behind you?) I kept at my pace of about 35mph. Well, the next few seconds sort of played out like a movie. Hope I miss the deer, oh.. looks like the deer might actually be on target to hit me, ... nah cyclists don't hit deer for crying out loud, right? ... then again, this situation doesn't seem to be improving ... all the while it doesn't really feel like there is much I can do as it is all happening so fast.

It wasn't until the last split second when I was right on the deer that the reality of what was about to happen became ineluctable: "wow, I'm really gonna hit this frickin' deer". A millisecond in time became a moment of lucid time-stop: "well, this might hurt". I don't remember too much of the flying through the air part. As I landed I was thinking "well, here's hoping I don't break my back, neck or head". Feeling my shoulders and leg scrape on the asphalt, I was expecting the landing to feel like slamming into a brick wall .. or crashing into pavement .., but it was more of a .. "are you kidding me? That's it? Where's the moment where everything is still fine to the sudden transition to a world of hurt?" No such transition took place. As my palms instinctively went out in front of me to stop me from sliding down the blacktop my mind was looking for cues to just how bad this was going to be. I lay there for a second, feeling mostly fine. Got up, checked for any signs of major injury, didn't feel any, although my right foot felt a little weak and tender. Expecting to find large regions of red, pulpy road rash on my body, I was again surprised to find only minor (relatively speaking), small scrapes. I hobbled to my bike a short distance down from me and quickly assessed the damage (mangled front wheel seemed to be the extent of it). I picked up my bike and lightly limped to the SUV that was now stopped just a short way from me. I hope I'll still be able to ride tomorrow.

A lady got out and seemed pretty nonplussed, casually asking "are you okay?" and me replying, "yeah, I'm fine, thanks." She graciously offered me a ride home which wasn't far and put my bike in the back of the SUV for me.

This morning, reflecting on the minimal injury (pretty much utter lack of any aches and pains), except for my foot which is probably sprained, but not broken, I've decided I must have landed while my right foot was still attached to the pedal, and thus the bike underneath me took the brunt of the impact. Not really sure, though. I should have asked the nice lady who had front row tickets to the show how I landed. The left foot came free without any twisting or injury.

Overnight my foot began to hurt a fair amount, leading me to believe I probably won't be riding inside of a week, a month 3 months. Ah, well, coulda been worse.

I think going fast may have spared me of more injury. It's very strange to me I didn't suffer any neck, back or head injury. After going over the handlebars I think I landed on my shoulders and back of my head, but I think the combination of the rotation of my body and the speed at which I hit the pavement both worked in my favor, transferring most of the energy down the hill instead of into it. I suppose the slope itself, being downward, would have worked in my favor as well. My helmet was cracked through at the back, but not shattered. I then must have landed on my butt as my shorts were scraped through (no injury whatever to my bum tho) and came to a stop on my stomach using my palms.

apollored

Aww sorry you got hurt, glad it wasnt worse and hope you're back on your bike soon.

Did anyone check on the deer?

Grotug

Nope. The last i saw the deer was right before I collided with it. He was probably fine. But it certainly seems possible the deer could have suffered a cracked rib, but my feeling is he was okay since he fled the scene of the accident so quickly.

In other news: went up to Montreal. Didn't bang my foot once, but all the hobbling around and staying out late caused my foot to be quite swollen by the wee hours of Sunday morning.